As Lyric Opera of Chicago enters a brave new era with a brave new regime, the company more than ever wants to be your destination for live musical and theatrical adventures of the sort you can’t find anywhere else. Or so it insists.
Lyric raises the curtain on its 57th season with a gala performance of Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann,” Saturday night at the Civic Opera House. Grand opera doesn’t get much grander than that.
Never mind that Lyric played to 91-percent-of-capacity houses last season, making it the most successful big opera company in the nation. That was then. Anthony Freud, Lyric’s ambitious new general director, wants Lyric to do better than that. He wants Lyric to be more things to more people.
He wants it to be a place where folks brand-new to the art form can thrill to a Puccini weeper or a Verdi swashbuckler alongside veteran opera buffs. A place that actively embraces the city and the diverse communities from which it draws its support.
A place where international-level opera rubs elbows with classics of American music theater like “Show Boat” and “Oklahoma!” A place that reflects the best of Chicago as fervently as it reflects the best of the world.
Fueled by a new populist ad campaign that proclaims, “Long Live Passion,” Lyric this season is going after a younger demographic that has been put off by opera’s snootier-than-thou stereotype.
Billboards and bus shelters across the city bearing the glam likeness of superstar diva Renee Fleming, the company’s creative consultant and community super-ambassador, are making it hard for ordinary folks not to feel, um, passionate about an art form they’ve never much noticed before, perhaps because they’ve felt excluded from it for so long.
So maybe Lyric’s fancy new ad blitz should be subtitled “Long Live Inclusion.”
In any case, we’re here to help those people — and that includes you, dear readers — scope out what one of the world’s great opera companies has to offer this season.
And, who knows, once you get an idea of what you will hear and see once you enter the Ardis Krainik Theatre — be it for the first or the umpteenth time — you may well find that opera does more than sing. Opera changes lives. It could change yours.
The 2011-2012 season at a glance
‘Tales of Hoffmann’ — Can a man and a robot find true love?
The vexing problems of which edition to use and whom to cast in the leading roles have conspired to keep the season opener, “Tales of Hoffmann,” absent from the Lyric repertory since 1982. The admirable tenor Matthew Polenzani, a star graduate of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, will make his Chicago role debut as the lovelorn poet, Hoffmann. His three loves will be Anna Christy as the mechanical doll Olympia, Erin Wall as the singer Antonia and Alyson Cambridge as the courtesan Giulietta. The veteran bass James Morris will portray the four villains. Emmanuel Villaume is the conductor, with Stephane Roche directing a production that originated in 2006 at Madrid’s Teatro Royal. Musically the show will adhere, for the most part, to the traditional Choudens edition, which is sure to raise the hackles of some Offenbach authenticists. Nine performances, opening with a gala performance at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, and running through Oct. 29 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive.
‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ — Lucy has family trouble, people die
Donizetti’s ever-popular bel canto tragedy, “Lucia di Lammermoor,” will mark the company directing debut of soprano Catherine Malfitano, long a Lyric favorite. Soprano Susanna Phillips, a shining alumna of Lyric’s artist development wing, will portray the demented Lucy, with tenor Giuseppe Filianoti returning to Chicago as Lucia’s lover, Edgardo, and baritones Brian Mulligan and Quinn Kelsey alternating as her brother, Enrico. Conductor Massimo Zanetti will make his debut in the pit. The show — billed as a “new production” — actually originated in 2009 at Colorado’s Central City Opera, with designs by Wilson Chin and Terese Wadden. Eight performances, Oct. 10-Nov. 5.
‘Boris Godunov’ — Russians grasp for supreme power
Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” will return to the Lyric repertory after a gap of 17 years. Portraying the tortured czar this time around will be the imposing Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto, whose Boris has been acclaimed in Russia, no less. Other cast members include Stefan Margita, Erik Nelson Werner, Andrea Silvestrelli and Raymond Aceto. Music director Andrew Davis will conduct his first “Boris,” performed here in Mussorgsky’s original 1869 version. Julia Pevzner will direct the San Francisco Opera production. Seven performances, Nov. 7-29.
‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ — Abandoned princess finds love on Aegean isle
The title role in this opera-within-an-opera was to have gone to Deborah Voigt, the Wheeling-born soprano who made headlines in 2004 when London’s Royal Opera dumped her from a production of the Richard Strauss work because she was too big to fit into the “little black dress” required by the director. Following gastric bypass surgery, Voigt returned to the role in triumph. Since then critics (including yours truly) have noted a decline in her vocal powers. In July she announced she was withdrawing from the Lyric production and dropping the role from her repertory.
To the rescue will come soprano Amber Wagner, another Lyric alum on the fast track to stardom, reprising a role she sang for the first time in April in Toronto. Lyric is bringing back John Cox’s production from 1998, when Voigt doubled as Ariadne and the Prima Donna. The 2011 cast includes Anna Christy as Zerbinetta, Alice Coote as the Composer and Brandon Jovanovich as Bacchus. Davis conducts. Six performances, Nov. 19-Dec. 11.
‘The Magic Flute’ — Queen of the Night causes trouble, gets just deserts
Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” (“Die Zauberflote”) is Lyric’s holiday show. The cast will include Nicole Cabell as Pamina and Kathleen Kim as the Queen of the Night, along with newcomers Charles Castronovo and Alek Shrader alternating as Tamino, and another debutant, Stephane Degout, as the birdcatcher Papageno. Andrew Davis will lead this revival of August Everding’s well-worn 1986 production, remounted by Matthew Lata. Ten performances, Dec. 6-Jan. 22.
‘Aida’ — Soldier and slave-girl trapped in pyramid scheme
Director Lata also will be in charge of a revival of Lyric’s 1983 production of Verdi’s universally beloved “Aida,” with Renato Palumbo conducting. There will be two sets of principal singers. Sopranos Sondra Radvanovsky and Hui He (debut) will share the title role. Radames will be sung by tenors Marcello Giordani and Marco Berti (replacing the late Salvatore Licitra). The role of Amneris will be taken by Jill Grove and Anna Smirnova (debut). Amonasro will be shared by Gordon Hawkins and Quinn Kelsey. Twelve performances, Jan. 21-Feb. 8 and March 6-25.
‘Show Boat’ — Romance, race and Americana, on the Big Muddy
Next up is “Show Boat,” the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II classic that director Francesca Zambello regards as “the beginning of our American musical-theater history.” Her designers for this new production will be Peter J. Davison, Paul Tazewell and Mark McCullough. Heading the cast will be Nathan Gunn, Morris Robinson, Angela Renee Simpson and Alyson Cambridge. Lyric is going all out to attract non-Lyric regulars to this show, which kicks off a series of annual forays into benchmark American musicals. Twelve performances, Feb. 12-March 17.
‘Rinaldo’ — Love and war, Baroque-style, nobody dies
The season will conclude with a new production of a Baroque rarity, Handel’s “Rinaldo,” conducted by early music specialist Harry Bicket, directed by Francisco Negrin and designed by Louis Desire and Bruno Poet. Lyric has given the work only once before, a 1984 concert performance starring Marilyn Horne. This time, the admirable countertenor David Daniels will portray the titular knight, joined by debut artists Luca Pisaroni, Elza van den Heever, Sonia Prina, Iestyn Davies and Julia Kleiter. Seven performances, Feb. 29-March 24.
Rounding out the Lyric season will be a joint concert by soprano Renee Fleming and bass Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Jan. 7 (sold out to subscribers) and a recital by Chinese superstar pianist Lang Lang, May 12.
Opening-night operas will be broadcast live over WFMT 98.7 FM and streamed at wfmt.com.
Twitter @johnvonrhein
