8 / 24
6
It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the annual
Stars of Lyric
Opera at Millennium Park
concert. We thank Mayor Rahm
Emanuel and Cultural Commissioner Mark Kelly for once again
making the Pritzker Pavilion available for us to offer this special
gift to the City of Chicago.
All of us at Lyric are grateful for the participation of Lyric’s
magnificent orchestra and chorus, along with the host of brilliant
stars you’ll be hearing this evening. I’m also delighted that the
concert marks the first Chicago appearance of our conductor,
Domingo Hindoyan, who will be on the podium for Lyric’s
opening production of the season, Puccini’s glorious
La bohème
.
It’s been our custom to feature a number of operas from the
upcoming season in our Millennium Park programs. Those highlighted tonight, in addition to
La bohème
, are Mozart’s deeply moving
Idomeneo
and two popular Verdi works: the powerfully
dramatic
Il trovatore
and the exquisitely romantic
La traviata
.
The 2018/19 season at Lyric includes other wonderful works: the third installment of
Wagner’s
Ring
cycle with the exhilarating
Siegfried
; Strauss’s mesmerizing
Elektra
; and two
long-awaited Lyric premieres – Massenet’s enchanting retelling of the Cinderella story,
Cendrillo
n, and Handel’s musically and vocally breathtaking
Ariodante
. We’re also thrilled to
bring you Leonard Bernstein’s incomparable
West Side Story
; a riveting new American work,
Jack Perla’s
An American Dream
; a recital by world-renowned Russian soprano Anna Netrebko;
and a concert and gala celebrating one of today’s most beloved and celebrated artists, soprano
Renée Fleming, commemorating the 25th anniversary of her Lyric debut.
I want to offer Lyric’s deepest thanks to our lead sponsor, closerlook inc., and our
cosponsors: an Anonynous Donor, Rhoda and Henry Frank Family Foundation, Baker Tilly
Virchow Krause, LLP, Crain-Maling Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Komarek-Hyde-McQueen
Foundation/Patricia Hyde, Allan and Elaine Muchin, Sipi Metals Corp., the Music Performance
Trust Fund, and the Film Funds Trust Funds.
Have a wonderful evening at Millennium Park. I hope to see you again throughout the
season!
Anthony Freud
FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR
STEVELEONARD