Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 6 Il Travatore

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O 18 | December 1, 2018 - January 20, 2019 Lyric Unlimited’s broad programming and initiatives also include: • Youth Opera Council , which allows high school students with a passion for the arts to become familiar with Lyric’s inner workings and learn to advocate for opera with their peers. • Caminos a la Ópera , which develops and expands Lyric's commitment to Chicago’s Latinx communities through partnership, engagement, and collaboration. e initiative presents new and culturally relevant works, hosts events with partner organizations in community venues, and fosters enduring relationships with Latinx audiences. • Opera Insider Series presents sessions in a classroom setting for people looking to learn more about the operas presented during Lyric’s season. Participants discuss a work’s creation, its composer, its musical and dramatic highlights, and hear from a special guest from Lyric’s creative team who share insights into set and costume design, interpretation, stagecraft, and more. • Backstage Tours are an hour in length and priced at $15 per person. Visitors get to see the inside of the art-deco Ardis Krainik eatre up close and personal. Stops include the orchestra pit, wardrobe areas, and wig/makeup rooms. • Family Day at Lyric is an annual event that will take place this season on Saturday, April 6, 2019, at Lyric from 11am – 3pm. Geared toward young people and their families, the exploratory day includes a tour of the orchestra pit, opportunities to sing and dance and design, hands-on demonstrations of operatic stagecraft, and costume try-ons. In the coming years, Lyric Unlimited will continue to focus on youth development, expanding access to opera for anyone who experiences bar- riers to participation, utilizing collaborative relationships that develop and sustain community engagement. e commitment to commissioning and presenting new works remains at the forefront, with the goal of bring- ing stories with strong social messages and relevant content to audiences across the Chicago area. Lyric Unlimited will also continue championing the importance of members of the community sharing their unique narra- tives and experiences through music, with Harris believing “there is great power in telling your own story.” For Ebony Ambrose, even though the curtain has gone down on Blu Rhythm’s compelling performance, she still carries the memory of her son Kevin with her at all times. “Five years later and I still feel like he should be here. I think about him multiple times a day,” Ambrose shares. “Kevin was a funny, fun-loving, artistic, and caring person. He was a wonderful young man whose story deserves to be told over and over again. Especially if telling his story makes room for the stories of others to be told.” Lyric Unlimited plans to keep doing just that. TODD ROSENBERG TODD ROSENBERG Chamber operas produced by Lyric Unlimited include Charlie Parker’s Yardbird (left) at the Harris eater, with Lawrence Brownlee and Angela Brown, and Fellow Travelers (right) at the Athenaeum, with Jonas Hacker and Joseph Lattanzi. and empathy toward others,” said Todd Snead, Lyric Unlimited's director of learning programs. “When students experience stories through the different characters on stage, they are better able to recognize and appreci- ate what other people think and feel.” Beyond opportunities for youth to experience operas that are a part of Lyric’s mainstage season, Lyric Unlimited commissions, co-commis- sions, and presents operas that are geared specifically towards children and their families on a yearly basis. ese recent works included Second Nature, Jason and the Argonauts, e Scorpion's Sting , and this season’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt . “A major goal of Lyric Unlimited is to present opera in fresh and exciting ways to communities throughout the Chicago area,” said Harris. When programming operas for children, Harris considers “what stories and messages are relevant for kids today.” In addition to the public performances, these children-friendly operas typically hit the road each fall to be presented for student groups in and around Chicago as part of the Opera in the Neighborhoods program. In existence since 1996, the program presents the operas to nearly 20,000 elementary-school students each season. Lyric Unlimited also has programming for adult audiences. With a dedication to new artistic initiatives, recent seasons have seen the emergence of compelling smaller-scale works that deal with timely issues. Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD , starring internationally celebrated tenor Lawrence Brownlee, was presented at the Harris eater in 2017 and followed the highs and lows of 20 th century jazz great Charlie Parker. Fellow Travelers , based on the 2007 landmark novel of the same name and presented at the Athenaeum eatre this past spring, told the story of two men who fall in love during the height of the McCarthy era in 1950s Washington D.C. Drawing from real events, the opera was inspired by the Lavender Scare, which saw hundreds of LGBTQ citizens harassed and fired en masse due to their real or perceived sexual orientation. An American Dream , which will have its Chicago premiere in two performances this March at the Harris eater, chronicles the horrors two women face during World War II. “When programming for adults, I'm considering how the message of the opera will speak to a specific cultural community or the broader Chicago community on issues that matter now,” said Harris. Her goal is for the audi- ence to be “wowed by the artistry and to leave the theater thinking deeply about what they've just experienced.”