Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 10 - West Side Story

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 12 ANGELINA Vasilisa Berzhanskaya DON MAGNIFICO Alessandro Corbelli RAMIRO Jack Swanson DANDINI Joshua Hopkins CONDUCTOR Yi-Chen Lin EMILE GRIFFITH Eric Owens EMELDA GRIFFITH Whitney Morrison YOUNG EMILE GRIFFITH Justin Austin Cinderella alongside returning favorites Alessandro Corbelli as Don Magni co and Joshua Hopkins as Dandini. Conductor Yi- Chen Lin makes her Lyric debut, and the classic production of Jean-Pierre Ponnelle is revived by Crystal Manich, also in her Lyric debut. In repertory with Cinderella is Champion , the “opera in jazz” by composer Terence Blanchard (who composed last season’s hit Fire Shut Up in My Bones ) and librettist Michael Cristofer. Champion tells the true story of Emile Grif th, a professional boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands who threw a fatal punch in the boxing ring in 1962 after being taunted for his sexuality by his rival. Eric Owens is the older Emile, Justin Austin is Young Emile, and Whitney Morrison, an alumna of Lyric’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center artist-development program, co-stars as Emelda Grif th, Emile’s mother. Music Director Enrique Mazzola conducts his rst contemporary opera at Lyric, and James Robinson directs this new Lyric coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera, where it recently opened to rave reviews. Champion Scott Suchman/Washington National Opera Cory Weaver/San Francisco Opera and one of the world’s foremost experts in the Czech repertoire, and is directed by Claus Guth, both in their Lyric debuts. Winter brings another diverse pairing of operas to the Lyric stage. The witty and heartwarming comedy of Rossini’s Cinderella features the Lyric debuts of Vasilisa Berzhanskaya as Angelina and Jack Swanson as Ramiro,