Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 4 Dead Man Walking

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 14 between the two performances of Bellini’s Norma , starring Maria Callas in her American debut. Lyric’s commitment to contemporary operas has taken many forms over the company’s 65-year history. There have been an impressive 50+ mainstage productions of 20th- and 21st-century operas written or performed in English (including eight mainstage world premieres); six fully staged operas created under Lyric’s composer-in-residence program (1984 through 2002) and presented outside the opera house; and three fully staged chamber operas and five operas for young people presented at outside venues. Additionally, two bilingual mariachi operas (one a world premiere) thrilled new audiences at Lyric and in community venues. Recalls Burke-Peterson, “There was so much excitement and pride, with so many families coming into a place they never thought they’d be in, listening to a style of music they grew up with. It felt like exactly what Lyric was meant to do.” In earlier seasons Lyric presented several 20th-century European operas in English, including Berg’s Wozzeck , Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel , The Love for Three Oranges , and The Gambler ; Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle , and Janácek’s Katya Kabanova . Lyric’s “Toward the 21st Century” artistic initiative had far-reaching impact on American opera here and abroad. Throughout the 1990s Lyric produced one 20th-century European and one 20th-century American opera each year as part of the regular season. Within that decade Lyric commissioned and premiered three new works: William Bolcom’s McTeague (1992/93); Anthony Davis’s Amistad (1997/98); and Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge (1999/00). The latter world premiere, based on Arthur Miller’s play about the personal struggles of an immigrant family living in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, was explored in a nine-part series in The New York Times on “The Making of an Opera,” which helped make Lyric the place to be to experience the riveting new work. The accompanying timeline is a source of great pride, demonstrating Lyric’s enduring commitment to presenting a wide range of operatic works well beyond the core repertoire. As part of Lyric’s overall vision for the future, general director Anthony Freud shares, “We want to be the great opera company of the 21st century, and producing new work is essential to achieving that goal. Now more than ever, audiences are ready to be excited by the new and to make connections between what they see onstage and their own lives.” The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess was so successful in its Lyric premiere in 2008/09 that it returned in 2014/15 (pictured here). Lyric presented the Chicago premiere of Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers at the Athenaeum Theatre during the 2017/18 season. Todd Rosenberg Todd Rosenberg The world-premiere production of William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge (1999/00 season) was covered in an unprecedented nine-installment series of articles in The New York Times . Lyric’s first world premiere, Vittorio Giannini’s The Harvest , premiered in 1961. Dan Rest Nancy Sorensen