Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 9 The Queen of Spades

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 23 TOM LEE | PUPPETEER Lyric debut The director/designer/puppet artist began his career at New York’s La MaMa Experimental Theater and the St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His original puppet theater work includes Shank’s Mare (La MaMa, international tours), Hoplite Diary (St. Ann’s, La MaMa), Tomte (Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival), Odysseus and Ajax (La MaMa) and Ko’olau (La MaMa/Hawai’i tour). He has performed as a puppeteer on Broadway ( War Horse ), off-Broadway, and at the Metropolitan Opera ( Madama Butterfly ). He was a puppeteer for the New York Philharmonic’s Petrushka and Le grand macabre . Lee is co-director of the Chicago Puppet Studio with Blair Thomas which designed puppetry for Pinocchio with Chicago’s House Theater and The Steadfast Tin Soldier at Lookingglass. CHRIS PIRIE | PUPPETRY DIRECTOR AND PUPPETEER Lyric debut Chris Pirie is a puppetry director, designer, and performer whose three decades of work with Green Ginger, a leading European theater company, has taken him all over the world. He is artistic director of the company, and has also directed for Tobacco Factory Theatres, Scamp, and Travelling Light. He has both directed and designed for Bristol Old Vic, Kneehigh, Teatr Iolo, Royal & Derngate, Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Welsh National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Norwegian National Opera. Film and television credits include puppetry for Aardman Animations, the BBC, and Channel 5. A Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Pirie also lectures at leading academic institutions. He is cofounder of the biennial Bristol Festival of Puppetry and creator of Toast In The Machine, a mentorship program for emerging U.K. and U.S. puppeteers. AMY ROSE | PUPPETEER Lyric debut Born in Switzerland and raised in New England, Amy Rose is a performer and director specializing in devised physical and visual theater/performance, socially engaged arts, and public realm works. She has worked with Bread and Puppet Theater, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Welsh National Opera, Bologna’s Teatro Comunale, Norwegian National Opera, Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, Tobacco Factory Theatres, Kneehigh Theatre, Green Ginger, and others. She is an associate lecturer in contextual studies for performing arts, currently at the leading U.K. circus school, Circomedia. In 2009 she co-founded Playing Out, a locally grown, national project to reclaim residential streets for play. An alumna of Hampshire College and the University of Exeter, she trained at Scuola Teatro Dmitri, Circus Space, and École Philippe Gaulier. CHICAGO CHILDREN’S CHOIR Previously at Lyric: 12 productions since 2000|01, most recently Dead Man Walking (2019|20); La bohème (2018|19). Chicago Children’s Choir (Josephine Lee, president and artistic director) is the nation’s preeminent youth choral organization, serving 5,200 students across the city of Chicago. Founded in Hyde Park in direct response to the Civil Rights Movement in 1956, CCC has grown from one choir into a vast network of in-school and after-school programs driven by one mission: to inspire and change lives through music. CCC has impacted the lives of more than 50,000 diverse youth throughout its 62-year history. Since its founding, CCC has focused on building programs that reflect the racial and economic diversity of Chicago. Eighty percent of youth served are from low-moderate income homes, with over 4,000 students annually participating completely free of charge. All singers in CCC programs receive some level of subsidy. High- school seniors enrolled in CCC have a 100% graduation and college acceptance rate, becoming global ambassadors who carry on CCC’s core values in a wide array of professional fields. SIR ANDREW DAVIS | CONDUCTOR Previously at Lyric: 60 operas since 1987, most recently The Barber of Seville (2019|20); Cendrillon (2018|19). Lyric’s internationally renowned music director and principal conductor returns to the Lyric podium later this season for Götterdämmerung and three complete Ring cycles. Highlighting his 2019|20 season are concerts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (including Massenet’s Thaïs ), Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah in Sir Andrew’s own orchestration), and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Tippett, Beethoven). Prominent in the 2018/19 season were performances of Duruflé’s Requiem (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), Götterdämmerung (Edinburgh), and Elgar’s The Music Makers (BBC Proms). Davis has also earned acclaim for recent appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Detroit and Frankfurt Radio symphony orchestras. Former music director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Davis is also conductor laureate of the TSO, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has led performances at the Bayreuth Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, and the major companies of London, Munich, San Francisco, and Santa Fe, and has appeared with virtually every internationally prominent orchestra. Davis has documented his artistry in a vast discography. Sir Andrew Davis is the John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Endowed Chair .