The Life and Death[s] of Alan Turing

Chicago Opera Theater

Chicago, IL

“Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts an orchestra of over three dozen musicians with panache. She knows when to let the sound simmer and sizzle with quiet tension and when to bring the level of excitement to a rolling boil. The sound from the pit has authority and offers gorgeous support to the singers on stage.”
–Hyde Park Herald

“The opera was solidly cast and produced, and Lidiya Yankovskaya ably led the chamber orchestra.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Yankovskaya’s energetic yet nuanced shaping of the long lines of the orchestra and chorus could hardly have guaranteed the new work a stronger entry into the world. Her committed leadership of the premiere performance was decisive to the success of Chen and Simpatico’s semi-biographical portrait of Turing.”
–Opera Magazine

“COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya has led workshops of Turing since its American Lyric Theater days, and her deep expertise was manifest in her canny, crystalline leadership.”
–Musical America

“The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing is having its first performances [thanks to] meticulous collaboration and numerous workshops [with] librettist David Simpatico, composer Justine F. Chen, and conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya. After Yankovskaya became music director of Chicago Opera Theater, she arranged a 2019 workshop in Chicago with orchestra. From its opening notes, Chen’s music is compelling and captures the ambiguity of the worlds Turing was caught up in. It is almost a dramatic oratorio in a series of variations.”
–NewCity Stage

“Top notch – Yankovskaya once again displayed her affinity for contemporary repertoire.”
–Opera News

“Lush contemporary music blends with metaphysics and science. Composer Justine Chen, librettist David Simpatico [and] Lidiya Yankovskaya have worked for over a decade to bring The Life and Death[s] of Alan Turing to the opera stage. Yankovskaya conducts and is known as an advocate for obscure and cutting-edge music as well as for Slavic masterpieces that are lesser known. Yankovskaya has conducted more than 40 world premieres and brings that unique skill to Chicago Opera Theater.”
–Third Coast Review