Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 6 Tosca 2

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 14 Hansel and Gretel Photo: Marty Sohl / Metropolitan Opera “In my second full season as music director, I am honored to be conducting three classic works: Ernani , a key title in our Early Verdi Series , and Don Carlos and Le Comte Ory , two sensational operas that I have the pleasure of introducing to Lyric audiences,” Mazzola says. In another highlight of the 2022/23 Season, the company will celebrate the return of Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric’s former music director, as he takes the podium for Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel , in Lyric’s iconic production originally directed by Richard Jones. This celebrated opera returns by popular demand, having wowed audiences of all ages both in its debut 20 years ago and in its return in 2012. A rivetingly modern, astonishingly inventive view of the Brothers Grimm fairytale, this visually stunning and darkly whimsical production does full justice to Humperdinck’s glorious score. Lyric has enjoyed tremendous success in recent years with presenting thought-provoking chamber operas, works such as The Property by Wlad Marhulets and Stephanie Fleischmann, Charlie Parker’s Yardbird by Daniel Schnyder and Bridgette A. Wimberly, Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce, and An American Dream by Jack Perla and Jessica Murphy Moo. The first of Lyric’s two world premieres in the 2022/23 Season is a chamber work that will be performed at The Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The Factotum is a “soul opera,” composed by the star baritone Will Liverman and DJ/producer King Rico, who bring their unique blend of musical styles to this new comedy set in a Black barbershop on Chicago’s South Side. Kedrick Armstrong and Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj make their Lyric debuts conducting and directing this world premiere. The new chamber work piece, commissioned by Lyric and inspired by Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , is a joyful comedy, moving from gospel and funk to rap, hip-hop, classic barbershop quartet, and R&B—all connected brilliantly with classical singing. The second world premiere in the 2022/23 Season is Proximity , a trio of new American operas commissioned by Lyric and performed on Lyric’s mainstage. This ground-breaking project features three new works with intertwining themes—intended to be experienced as a single, riveting whole— and features the Lyric debuts of some of the most important artists of our time: composer Daniel Bernard Roumain working with acclaimed playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith as librettist, for Git Here ; Caroline Shaw, composer, working as co-librettist with Jocelyn Clarke for Four Portraits ; and John Luther Adams, setting a text by the late poet John Haines for Night . HANSEL Samantha Hankey WITCH Michaela Martens GRETEL Heidi Stober The Factotum Proximity