OCTOBER
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14 SATURDAY The Organ Historical Society’s Autumn Organ Crawl of the Northern Suburbs offers organ lovers a chance to hear four great organs in four historic churches. It starts at 10 today at Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Skokie (Niles Center and Galitz), where the instrument is a 1974 Phelps. The next stop, at 11:15, is at Saint John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wilmette (Wilmette and Park), to listen to a 1990 Evanston-made Bradford. They’ll pause at noon while everyone gets lunch on their own (a fine excuse for a Dutch baby at Walker Brothers’ Original Pancake House, 153 Green Bay in Wilmette). At 1:15 they’ll reconvene at Evanston’s First Congregational Church (Hinman near Grove), while the 1927 Skinner thunders, and at 2:15 they’ll hear the one-of-a-kind four-keyboard Wiener in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit at Divine Word International (Waukegan and Techny) in Techny. The tour is free–you can do the whole thing or any part of it, but you must have your own transportation. Call 708-579-5433 for directions and more information.
15 SUNDAY Real-life knights in shining armor were out of the picture by the 19th century, but that didn’t mean chivalry had gone out of style. In fact, says art historian Debra Mancoff, this “emblem for masculinity” was depicted by Victorian gentlemen as akin to themselves in order to “defend and define their own masculinity.” Today at 2 Mancoff, a Newberry Library scholar in residence, will discuss chivalry, male identity, and more at a slide lecture called Rescue Me! Victorian Medieval Masculinity at the Glessner House Museum, 1800 S. Prairie, Chicago. It’s $10; call 312-326-1480.
18 WEDNESDAY Monteverdi’s Orfeo is one of the oldest operas on the books, and this year Chicago Opera Theater has collaborated with the Newberry Consort to create an orchestra of period instruments for the show, which will be conducted by early music specialist Jane Glover. The production should be “very sexy and different,” says a spokesperson. It’s directed by Diane Paulus, the brains behind the recent off-Broadway hit The Donkey Show. Orfeo opens tonight at 7:30 (and runs through October 28) at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport, Chicago. Tickets are $27 to $56; call 312-704-8414.
