- Liz Lauren/Chicago Opera Theater
- Karen Marie Richardson in the strange story of Queenie Pie
Queenie Pie, the Duke Ellington “street opera” completing its Chicago Opera Theater run this week after being delayed by the electrical fire at the Harris Theater last month, has a pretty strange libretto.
She also noted that it’s “very autobiographical.”
According to Teachout, when Ellis caught wind of Ellington’s affair with a newer lover, Fernanda de Castro Monte (also known as “the Countess”), she is said to have hopped on a plane to Tokyo, where she found them in bed together and pulled out a gun.
