4
Tonight Lyric Opera has the pleasure of presenting what has
become one of the company’s most eagerly anticipated
events of the season – the
Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium
Park
concert. Each year we welcome the opportunity to offer
a free performance for opera-loving Chicagoans at
the beautiful Jay Pritzker Pavilion. I want to thank
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Cultural Commissioner
Michelle Boone for welcoming us once again to this
magnificent venue.
Tonight’s program is performed by thrilling stars of Lyric
Opera and broadcast live on 98.7WFMT. For the first time in
our
Stars of Lyric Opera
concerts, we are including full acts
of particular operas. Stephen Lord is on the podium leading two of the world’s most for-
midable ensembles, the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus. This concert inaugurates the
tenure of Martin Wright, Lyric’s new chorus master.
Our 2012-13 season opens on October 6 with a new production of one of the most vis-
cerally exciting works in the entire repertoire, Strauss’s
Elektra
.
If you haven’t purchased
your tickets yet, don’t delay! Join us for
Elektra
and the other eight productions. You’ll hear
three of the world’s most popular operas, Puccini’s heartbreaking
La bohème
,
Verdi’s pow-
erful
Rigoletto
,
and Donizetti’s rollicking
Don Pasquale
;
another Verdi masterpiece, the
profoundly moving
Simon Boccanegra
;
Massenet’s tragic romance,
Werther
;
Humperdinck’s dark fairytale
Hansel and Gretel
;
Wagner’s uplifting
Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg
;
and, in a Lyric premiere, André Previn’s brilliant operatic setting of one of
America’s greatest plays, Tennessee Willliams’s
A Streetcar Named Desire.
Of course, tonight’s performance would not happen without outstandingly generous
underwriting. On behalf of Lyric Opera, I would like to express my sincere thanks to our
lead sponsor, closerlook, inc, and to our cosponsors: an Anonymous Donor, AT&T, Baker
Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP, James N. and Laurie Bay, Christine and Paul Branstad
Family Foundation, Rhoda L. and Henry S. Frank, Greg and Ann Jones & Family, and
the Music Performance and Film Funds.
I know you will enjoy this evening’s performance, and I look forward to
seeing you again during Lyric Opera’s 2012-13 season.
Anthony Freud
LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO
F
rom the
General Director
