Preview Lyric's 18/19 Season at Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park

CHICAGO (8/6/2018) – Lyric Opera of Chicago launches its 64th season with the 18th annual Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Friday, September 7 at 7:30 p.m. The free outdoor performance, presented in cooperation with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, annually attracts capacity crowds to the pavilion, great lawn, and surrounding areas of the park.

Conductor of Lyric's opening night production of Puccini's La bohème, Domingo Hindoyan will lead the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus and an array of outstanding international opera artists, including the stars of La bohème: Maria Agresta, Danielle de Niese, Michael Fabiano, Zachary Nelson, Adrian Sâmpetrean, and Jake Gardner. Ryan Opera Center alumna Elizabeth DeShong (who triumphed at Lyric in the 2017/18 production of Norma) will also perform, as well as current Ryan Opera Center ensemble members Whitney Morrison, Ricardo José Rivera, Mario Rojas, and Ann Toomey.

The starry evening features excerpts from Lyric’s upcoming season, including the entire Act II from La bohème, as well as selections from Mozart’s Idomeneo and Verdi’s Il trovatore and La traviata. The concert will also include further selections by Verdi and Puccini as well as Saint-Saëns. The Chicago Children’s Choir (Josephine Lee, director) will join the cast on stage for Act II of La bohème. (Program subject to change.)

The Lyric Opera Chorus will be prepared by chorus master Michael Black.

Lyric will post live updates via social media throughout the evening. Join the conversation with #LongLivePassion and follow @LyricOpera on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube for updates and behind-the-scenes content. There will be chances to win tickets to the 2018/19 Season during the evening, and the first 5,000 guests to arrive will receive a free Lyric giveaway item.

Invite your friends to attend this free event and let others know you are attending with the Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park Facebook event here.

Lyric Opera of Chicago opens its 64th season on Saturday, October 6. The opera season continues through March 22, 2019, with nine operas: Puccini’s La bohème (Oct. 6 – 20; Jan. 10 – 25), Mozart’s Idomeneo (Oct. 13 – Nov. 2), Wagner's Siegfried (Nov. 3 – 16), Verdi's Il trovatore (Nov. 17 – Dec. 9), Massenet's Cendrillon (Dec. 1 – Jan. 20), R. Strauss's Elektra (Feb. 2 – 22), Verdi’s La traviata (Feb. 16 – Mar. 22), Handel's Ariodante (Mar. 2 – 17), and Perla’s An American Dream (performed at the Harris Theater Mar. 15 & 17).

Lyric’s 2018/19 Season will also include the company premiere of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical West Side Story in an all-new coproduction (May 3 – June 2), and two one-time-only events: Anna Netrebko in Recital (Dec. 2) and the Renée Fleming 25th Anniversary Concert and Gala (Mar. 23).

All of Lyric’s regular-season performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive in Chicago, and there are projected English texts for every opera. Subscriptions are still available, as are single tickets for individual performances. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For information on specific performance dates and ticket availability, please call (312) 827-5600 or visit lyricopera.org.

Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park is a Lyric Unlimited event. For more information, visit lyricopera.org/lyricunlimited.

About Lyric
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s mission is to express and promote the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great opera. Lyric exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to Chicago and the nation, and to advance the development of the art form.

Founded in 1954, Lyric is dedicated to producing and performing consistently thrilling, entertaining, and thought-provoking opera with a balanced repertoire of core classics, lesser-known masterpieces, and new works; to creating an innovative and wide-ranging program of community engagement and educational activities; and to developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.

Under the leadership of general director Anthony Freud, music director Sir Andrew Davis, and creative consultant Renée Fleming, Lyric strives to become The Great North American Opera Company for the 21st century: a globally significant arts organization embodying the core values of excellence, relevance, and fiscal responsibility.

To learn more about Lyric’s current season, go to lyricopera.org. You can also join the conversation with @LyricOpera on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #Lyric1819 #LongLivePassion

About Lyric Unlimited
Lyric Unlimited is a long-term, evolving initiative that encompasses company activities that are not part of Lyric’s mainstage opera season. Its mission is to provide a relevant cultural service to communities throughout the Chicago area and to advance the development of opera by exploring how opera as an art form can resonate more powerfully with people of multiple backgrounds, ethnicities, and interests. It also leads the development of innovative partnerships with a wide range of cultural, community, and educational organizations to create a breadth of programming through which Chicagoans of all ages can connect with Lyric. In the 2017/18 season, more than 95,000 individuals participated in Lyric Unlimited programs.

For more information about Lyric Unlimited program offerings, visit lyricopera.org/lyricunlimited.

About the Ryan Opera Center
The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center is the professional artist development program for Lyric Opera of Chicago. Since its inception in 1974, the Ryan Opera Center has been recognized as one of the premier programs of its kind in the world. That standing is maintained by providing the finest up-and-coming singers and pianists with unparalleled training and experience. The program is administered by Dan Novak, director; Craig Terry, music director; Julia Faulkner, director of vocal studies; and Renée Fleming, advisor.
Each year, the Ryan Opera Center selects 12-14 gifted emerging artists to join its program from more than 400 applicants. Beginning in the spring, they arrive to join the full-year residency program, under the guidance of Novak, Terry, Faulkner, and Fleming, as well as Anthony Freud, Sir Andrew Davis, and numerous other opera professionals. Ensemble members are immediately immersed into the world of opera and vocal performance. Coaching sessions and master classes are augmented by performance and understudy experience in Lyric Opera’s regular season productions as well as Ryan Opera Center concerts and recitals.

The 2018/19 Season ensemble members are sopranos Whitney Morrison, Emily Porgorelc, and Ann Toomey; mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker; contralto Lauren Decker; tenors Eric Ferring, Josh Lovell, and Mario Rojas; baritones Christopher Kenney and Ricardo José Rivera; bass-baritones Alan Higgs and David Weigel; and pianist Madeline Slettedahl.

For more information, visit lyricopera.org/ryanoperacenter.

Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park is supported by Lead Sponsor closerlook, inc. and cosponsors An Anonymous Donor, Rhoda and Henry Frank Family Foundation, Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, Crain-Maling Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, the Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation/Patricia Hyde, Allan and Elaine Muchin, Sipi Metals Corp., and the Music Performance Trust Fund and Film Funds. Presented in cooperation with The City of Chicago and Millennium Park.

Lyric Unlimited was launched with major catalyst funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and receives major support from the Caerus Foundation, Inc.