Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 9 - Proximity

29 | Lyric Opera of Chicago writers such as Katori Hall, Taylor Mac, Lydia Diamond, Abhishek Majumdar, Eduardo Machado, Lisa Kron, Seamus Heaney, Craig Lucas, Tazewell Thompson, Carl Hancock Rux, Kenneth Lin, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Tanya Saracho, and Karen Zacarias. He has written several plays for Anne Bogart and the SITI Company—including Bob , Room , Score , Chess Match No. 5 , and Trojan Women . He is a founding member of the Collective Theatre in Dublin and is an Associate Artist with Theater Mitu and The Civilians in New York. His new adaptation of Elizabeth Swados’s musical Beautiful Lady will be directed by Anne Bogart at La Mama Theatre in New York in May. Clarke has worked on several Irish lms, including Young Offenders , and he is executive story editor of the BBC/RTE TV series of the same name. He is a writer/producer on the third season of P-Valley , Katori Hall’s acclaimed TV series for Starz. JOHN LUTHER ADAMS | COMPOSER | NIGHT Lyric debut In the 1970’s and into the ‘80s, Adams worked full time as an environmental activist. But the time came when he felt compelled to dedicate himself entirely to music. He made this choice with the belief that, ultimately, music can do more than politics to change the world. Since that time, he has become one of the most widely admired composers in the world. His orchestral work Become Ocean was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and in 2015 the piece was awarded a Grammy for the Best Contemporary Classical Composition. He was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work, which endeavors to brings the sense of wonder that we feel outdoors into the concert hall, has garnered numerous other honors, including the Nemmers Prize from Northwestern University, the Heinz Award, and awards and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Rasmuson Foundation, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. A deep concern for the state of the earth and the future of humanity drives Adams to continue composing. JOHN HAINES | LIBRETTIST | NIGHT Lyric debut (posthumous) The late American writer spent more than 20 years homesteading in Alaska, a major factor in his unique poetic voice. He was named a Fellow by the Academy of American Poets, and published numerous poetry collections including Winter News (1966); The Stone Harp (1971); Cicada (1977); News from the Glacier: Selected Poems 1960-1980 (1982); New Poems 1980-1988 (1990), which received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Award and the Western States Book Award; The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer: Collected Poems (1993); and For the Century’s End: Poems 1990-1999 (2001), among others. Notable among his many essay collections are Living Off the Country (1981), The Stars, the Snow, the Fire (1989), Fables and Distances: New and Selected Essays (1996), and Descent (2010). Haines taught at Ohio University, George Washington University, and the University of Cincinnati. Other honors included the Alaska Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, an Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Congress. RENÉE FLEMING | CURATOR World-renowned, five-time Grammy-winning American soprano Renée Fleming became Lyric Opera’s first-ever creative consultant in December 2010. At that time she was elected to the Board of Directors as a vice president, and three years later she was named Adviser to the Ryan Opera Center. Among Fleming’s most significant projects at Lyric have been: serving as curator of Jimmy López’s Bel Canto , Lyric’s tenth new-opera commission, premiered in 2015; leading the creation of the virtual For the Love of Lyric concert in September 2020, a central event in Lyric’s response to the coronavirus pandemic; spearheading Chicago Voices , a groundbreaking Lyric Unlimited initiative during 2016 and 2017 that engaged audiences through participatory arts experiences and dynamic cross-genre programming, including a concert which was broadcast on PBS Great Performances and earned three Chicago/Midwest Emmy Awards; and initiating the relationship between Lyric and The Second City, a collaboration that resulted in two cabaret productions, The Second City Guide to the Opera and Longer! Louder! Wagner! Throughout her tenure, Fleming has been instrumental in expanding Lyric’s education and community-engagement activities. These include a joint program with several key community music organizations. The Vocal Partnership Program, devoted to finding and nurturing young, talented singers in the Chicago area, has involved children and young adults at the Merit School of Music, ChiARTS, Gallery 37 Advanced Arts Education Program, and Chicago Academy for the Arts. Fleming championed the expansion of arts education in the Chicago Public School system as National Cultural Ambassador for the Chicago Public Schools Arts Education Plan. Her most recent appearance on the Lyric stage was for The Brightness of Light (2022/23). JOHN HOLIDAY | A | FOUR PORTRAITS Lyric debut The renowned countertenor began his 2022/23 season as a featured artist with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera as the Man Under Arch and Hotel Clerk roles in Kevin Puts’s The Hours , and will join Pittsburgh Opera as John Blue in We Shall Not Be Moved , directed and choreographed by Bill T. Jones. Last season, Holiday made his debut at the Hollywood Bowl under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel in an all-Gershwin program with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at the Metropolitan Opera in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice as Orpheus’s Double, a role he PRINCIPALS