Reilly Brings Wit Along to Opera Workshop

It was 10:30 on a perfect summer morning, much too early for anysane baritone and bass to plunge willingly into "Suoni la tromba(Sound the trumpet)," the blood-and-thunder duet from Bellini's "IPuritani."

But there were Stephen Morscheck and Gary Martin, members ofLyric Opera of Chicago's Center for American Artists, vehementlyarguing issues of vengeance and compassion across a battered metaltable.

Wearing jeans and running shoes, they didn't look like Bellini'stwo 17th century English Puritans. But when they agreed to stand andfight, the blank walls of the former Baldwin piano store at 20 N.Wacker could barely contain their triumphant cries of "Vittoria!"and …