Yankovskaya gives "promising and gratifying" debut with Chicago Opera Theater's "
"Under the baton of Lidiya Yankovskaya, the new COT’s Music Director (the only woman to hold that position in a Top-50 opera company in the United States), Tchaikovsky’s score became transcendent. With the thorough preparation of the score and empathy with the composer (both having Russian roots and then Western influences), she lovingly guided the singers and orchestra through every ebb and flow of the music, shifting from tenderness to passion, while keeping the pace of the opera moving ahead." -Opera Wire
"Since this performance was also the Chicago debut of Lidiya Yankovskaya, COT’s new Stanley Music Director, it was an auspicious occasion for the company embarking on their 45th season. . . A 2018 recipient of the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, Maestra Yankovskaya’s debut in the pit was promising and gratifying. She brought out all the pathos and grandness in the lush score, without ever overpowering the singers, quite an accomplishment in an intimate theater with such an exposed orchestra pit. This is most encouraging." -BuzzNews.net
Read full review. "Music Director Yankovskaya, born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, steps to the podium for the first time with this opera, giving a generous accounting of an opera she has conducted many times. It’s imperative for Chicago’s arts-loving community to turn out to see this charming piece of theatre, delivered by a newly invigorated Chicago Opera Theater.” –Chicago Theatre Review
“Yankovskaya…led a flexible and richly idiomatic account of this score. She showed clear sympathy with her compatriot’s music—keeping the music flowing through the unbroken 90 minutes, balancing deftly to bring out Tchaikovsky’s woodwind accents, and building lyric climaxes to resplendent payoffs.” -Chicago Classical Review
Read full review. “This Slavic gem…is impeccably restored for Chicago Opera Theater by stage director Paul Curran and noted conductor and COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya. Gracing Chicago’s Art Moderne-style Studebaker Theater, Iolanta is a gift to anyone who hears it.” –Lawrence Bommer, Stage and Cinema
“COT is going in the right direction. This show marks a new beginning for COT, especially with Lidiya Yankovskaya. The music-making was at such a high level, and the singing was so committed and engaged. I felt like I was hearing this opera for the first time – that this is fresh, this is new, and this is something I need to pay attention to.” –Oliver Camacho, Opera Box Score
“Lidiya Yankovskaya’s rapid rise among U.S.-based conductors of her generation seems to be driven as much by her exceptional talent as her eagerness to take on ambitious, out-of-the-way artistic projects. On Saturday, the 32-year-old Russian-American maestro made her official debut…conducting a fringe-repertory piece that’s close to her heart and place of origin: Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. Yankovskaya’s supple command of musical shape and dramatic continuity was never in doubt. One can only hope COT’s new music director – a staunch champion of Russian opera in the 22 years since she arrived on these shores – will favor Chicago with more Russian rarities in the not-too-distant future.” –John von Rhein, Musical America Read full review.