Rehearsal rooms in Chicago’s Civic Opera House, home of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, are generally filled with operatic divas warming up their voices or instrumentalists working on a tricky score.
But recently, decidedly non-operatic music has wafted from one of the narrow rooms: the a cappella harmony of an old-fashioned, barbershop quartet.
Four members of the illustrious Lyric Opera Orchestra practice their peculiar hobby during rehearsal breaks.
On Nov. 8, the Quartertones will sing as The Sweeney Todd Squadd in Chessie’s Restaurant in Barrington. The performance is a promotional event for the opera group’s Barrington chapter.
The quartet started about five years ago when Mark Fisher, 41, the group’s youngest member and a trombone player, came up with the idea of singing a barbershop song for the retirement party of an orchestra member.
Fisher grew up in Mason City, Iowa, a place he calls a hotbed of the barbershop tradition. Fisher had always been interested in barbershop singing, and the group’s tongue-in-cheek performance began a routine of singing for retirement parties and other in-house orchestra events.
For men who normally perform in an orchestra pit, the quartet is “an opportunity to perform onstage … where we are the focus,” said William Cernota, another quartet member and 21-year veteran of the orchestra who plays cello.
The barbershop quartet is just one example of the ensemble’s creative camaraderie, Cernota said.
Orchestra members also play music with instruments outside their specialties, under the name Lower Wacker Symphonia (the opera house is on North Wacker Drive). Quartet members even admit to once dressing like pop singer Madonna as part of a comical ballet.
Having this kind of fun together “infuses [our] playing with a high-spirited energy that can’t be matched,” Cernota said.
During time off, “We want to get together and make more music,” said Frank Babbitt, a viola player.
Babbitt is also the group’s lyricist, rewriting well-known songs to suit the occasion.
In 2000, they provided a comic turn at the annual Fantasy of the Opera Gala by wandering onstage with their instruments, seemingly surprised to be there, and unexpectedly breaking into song.
While they love to ham it up in musicians’ lounge, The Quartertones insist they fall well below the standard of great barbershop quartets. Still, they have received some informal coaching from their colleagues, including Bruno Bartoletti, the opera’s artistic director emeritus, who judged them “good enough,” Cernota said.
And really, “it’s just for fun,” said Lewis Kirk, 47, the fourth Quartertone and a bassoonist. “Some would call it corny, but there’s nothing wrong with that.”
In addition to a selection of classic barbershop songs, the men will play “Last Tango in Bayreuth,” a comic take on the music of Richard Wagner by Peter Schickele, otherwise known as P.D.Q. Bach.
The evening will begin at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8, on the lower level of Chessie’s Restaurant in the Barrington Ice House Mall, 200 Applebee St. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Tickets cost $15 for Barrington chapter members and $20 for others. Call 847-382-2613.
