Tag Archives: Lyric Opera of Chicago

Delightful. No single word better describes the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s current rendition of “The Daughter of the Regiment.” There’s a giddy magic about the production that conjures laughter and applause at every turn and has the audience floating on air. Donizetti’s beloved French-language comedy tells the tale of Marie, the orphaned “daughter” of a military unit, who defies both the regiment and her long-lost relatives to be with Tonio, the young man she has fallen in love with. As Marie, Lisette Oropesa appears for all the world to be an impetuous tomboy, dancing gracefully in the upper reaches of …

The pandemic may have put a crimp in her plans, but Maria Novella Malfatti is making the most of her chances to learn and grow at the Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center is one of the most prestigious training programs in the world for emerging opera singers, offering world-class opportunities for professional development to its participants and introducing Windy City audiences to tomorrow’s stars. For Italian soprano Maria Novella Malfatti, the Ryan Center is a dream come true in her lifelong love affair with music. Malfatti remembers becoming obsessed with opera at a …

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will showcase lesser-known gems by beloved Italian composers in a virtual concert curated and hosted by Lyric’s Music Director Designate Enrique Mazzola and presented by the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. With Maestro Mazzola at the piano, members of the Ryan Opera Center 2020-21 ensemble will perform songs by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni, all lovingly selected by Mazzola. The ensemble includes sopranos Maria Novella Malfatti and Denis Vélez; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Katherine DeYoung and Kathleen Felty; tenors Martin Luther Clark and Lunga Eric Hallam; baritones Leroy Davis and Ricardo …

The Lyric’s incoming maestro brings with him impressive credentials and a towering passion for his repertoire, his fellow artists, his new audience and his new home. When Anthony Freud stepped onto the Civic Opera House stage before the second act of “Luisa Miller” on Oct. 20, the audience gave a cry of dismay. They knew what announcement was to come from the general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago: Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja was ill, and could not continue singing. After American soprano Toni Marie Palmertree stepped in to replace ailing star Krassimira Stoyanova as Luisa at the top …

Eminent Italian conductor Enrique Mazzola has been named as Lyric Opera’s music director designate and will become Lyric’s music director beginning with the 2021-’22 season. The transition will be overseen by the Lyric’s acclaimed and beloved music director Sir Andrew Davis, who plans on concluding his two-decade-long tenure at the end of the 2020-’21 season. “I am thrilled that Enrique Mazzola has accepted Lyric’s invitation to become our next music director,” Lyric CEO Anthony Freud says. “He has accrued a wealth of international experience in his career to date, and he is tremendously well liked and respected by the Lyric …

Giorgio Berrugi was making a name for himself as a concert clarinetist until an impromptu serenade sent him on a completely different career trajectory. Giorgio Berrugi’s unlikely career as one of opera’s most electrifying upstarts is proof that second acts aren’t just for the stage. The 41-year-old tenor, whose voice has been celebrated by opera critics and fans for its bright and full-bodied Italian sound, has ascended into rarefied air in little more than a decade. Berrugi has performed for some of opera’s most esteemed houses — including the Royal Opera House in London, Lincoln Center in New York City …

At this writing, Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away. I am thankful for many things, and one that I am most grateful for is that I can experience opera performed in Chicago just about as well as it can be done. The Met in New York for over a century was by far the greatest opera company in the USA, if not the world, but with the departure of Joseph Volpe and Franco Zefirelli, the quality of its productions are uneven at best. But you can count on the Lyric Opera of Chicago, however, to consistently stage outstanding productions. …