With the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera driving the Giuseppe Verdi bicentennial bandwagon, there nevertheless is room for other local organizations to climb on board.

Chicago Opera Theater is doing so, big time, this weekend, when it dusts off an early work by the Italian master the city has never heard before. Indeed, "Giovanna d'Arco" ("Joan of Arc"), the 7th of Verdi's 28 operas, is a work almost guaranteed to produce a blank stare from even veteran operagoers just about everywhere.

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Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com