Emanuele Andrizzi said he’s honored and excited to conduct the Chicago premiere of Giuseppe Verdi’s rarely performed opera Il Corsaro, scheduled for July 22 and 24 at Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium, 600 Emerson St. Andrizzi, co-founder and Music Director of the Opera Festival of Chicago (OFC), which is staging the production, said the 1848 opera has never been staged in the midwest.

“It’s a thrilling work filled with Verdi’s characteristic melodies, rhythms, virtuosic vocal lines and exhilarating choruses,” he said. So why isn’t it better known? Andrizzi pointed out it was overshadowed by three of Verdi’s most-beloved works – Rigoletto, Il Trovatore and La Traviata – which were written just a few years later.