Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 8 - Carmen

31 | Lyric Opera of Chicago festivals. Sachs recently premiered in Ashwini Ramaswamy’s Invisible Cities as well as Cold Air Rises by Ben Frost as part of The Great Northern Festival in Minnesota and will be joining PARA. MAR for their Spring Series in Chicago. TAYLOR YOCUM | DANCER Lyric debut Yocum began her dance career studying ballet at Spokane Ballet Studio under the direction of Sara Donnelly. She attended SUNY Purchase and danced at the Beijing Dance Academy during a year abroad. In 2020 she moved to Chicago to attend COMMON Conservatory. She has performed in original works choreographed by Micaela Taylor, Rena Butler, Roderick George, Robyn Mineko- Williams, and Franco Nieto, among others. She is currently performing with South Chicago Dance Theatre as a guest artist and with PARA.MAR Dance Theatre as a supporting ensemble member. Yocum was chosen as a choreographer for Thodos Dance Chicago and Danceworks Chicago’s New Dances in 2022 and is currently setting a new work for COMMON Conservatory. HENRIK NÁNÁSI | CONDUCTOR Previously at Lyric: Madama Butter y (2019/20) and The Marriage of Figaro (2015/16). As General Music Director of the Komische Oper Berlin from 2012 to 2017, Nánási conducted new productions of Mazeppa , Eugene Onegin , Gianni Schicchi , La Belle Hélène , Die Zauber öte , Così fan tutte , Don Giovanni , Duke Bluebeard’s Castle , The Fiery Angel , La clemenza di Tito , Cendrillon , and The Fair at Sorochyntsi , as well as revivals of Der Rosenkavalier , Rusalka , and Rigoletto , among others. Highlights of the current season include Falstaff at the Komische Oper Berlin, Tosca at Gran Teatre del Liceu, a house debut at Teatro Petruzzelli with Verdi’s Attila , and a return to the Bayerische Staatsoper with Dvorˇák’s Rusalka . The conductor has regularly appeared at the Metropolitan Opera ( Iolanta , Duke Bluebeard’s Castle ), Royal Opera House Covent Garden ( Turandot , Il barbiere di Siviglia , Salome , Simon Boccanegra , Jen ˚ufa —Olivier Award 2022 as Best New Opera Production), Teatro alla Scala ( Elektra ), San Francisco Opera ( Elektra , Le nozze di Figaro , Così fan tutte ), Bayerische Staatsoper ( La traviata ), Opéra National de Paris ( Die Zauber öte ), Gran Teatre del Liceu ( Die Zauber öte , Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci ), Opernhaus Zürich ( Le nozze di Figaro ), Teatro dell’Opera di Roma ( La bohème , Die Zauber öte ), Arena di Verona ( Carmen ), Palau de les Arts Reina So a in Valencia ( Duke Bluebeard’s Castle , Macbeth , Werther , Iolanta ), Hamburgische Staatsoper ( Otello , Lucia di Lammermoor , La traviata ), Oper Frankfurt ( La bohème , I Masnadieri , L’Étoile, La Gazza Ladra , Otello ), Semperoper Dresden ( L’Italiana in Algeri , La bohème , Madama Butter y , La traviata , La Cenerentola ), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino ( Roméo et Juliette ), ABAO Bilbao Opera ( Madama Butter y ), and Opéra de Monte- Carlo ( Werther ). MARIE LAMBERT-LE BIHAN | DIRECTOR Previously at Lyric: Die meistersinger von Nürnberg (2013/14) and La clemenza di Tito ( 2012/13). The director and lighting designer recently directed Eden for Joyce DiDonato with Il Pomo d’Oro. This season she will direct Dialogues des Carmélites at Opéra Royal de Wallonie. Other recent credits include direction and lighting for Le Villi (Halle aux grains-Toulouse), La Fille du Régiment (Opéra Royal de Wallonie), and lighting for La Casa di Bernarda Alba (Tenerife). She staged acclaimed productions of Leoncavallo’s Zazà (Opera Holland Park) and La voix humaine (Buxton Festival), and was the associate director for Madama Butter y (La Monnaie) and La Cenerentola (Opéra National de Paris). Lambert-Le Bihan revived La traviata (Liceu, Madrid, Scottish Opera), La clemenza di Tito (Toulouse, Marseille, Chicago, Liceu), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Chicago, San Francisco), Carmen (Glyndebourne, Gothenburg), and Andrea Chénier (Liceu, Covent Garden). Her work has been seen also at La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Strasbourg, Lille, Tokyo, Maggio Musicale, Ravenna Festival, Bologna, Parma, Turin, Genoa, Montpellier, Bari, Palermo, Rouen, and Welsh National Opera. Future engagements include a Schönberg project at the Paris Philharmonie, collaborations with Opéra Comique, and a world premiere in Toulouse. ROBIN DON | SET DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Carmen (2010/11, 2005/06, 1999/2000). For Scottish Opera, Don designed the world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots and at the Royal Opera House, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Bellini’s Norma , and Simon Callow’s Inside Wagner’s Head . He designed countless productions around the European operatic circuit including Tamerlano at Opéra de Lyon and The Magic Flute at Goteborg and Iceland Opera, as well as several productions for Opera Australia at Sydney Opera House, including Carmen , Force of Destiny, and Peter Grimes . He designed the American premiere of Sir Michael Tippet’s The Midsummer Marriage for San Francisco Opera and Don Quixote for New York City Opera, and in 2016 he co-designed the world premiere of Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets A Divorce for Welsh National Opera with libretto by Sir David Pountney. He was production designer on the movie The Winter Guest starring Emma Thompson directed by Alan Rickman. He designed The Rocky Horror Show which ran at London’s Piccadilly Theatre for 10 years. Don has received numerous awards, among them the Golden Troika Trophy at the Prague Quadrennial.