Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 1 - The Flying Dutchman

19 | Lyric Opera of Chicago During the Aida run in the spring,audiences will hear two performances of the Mozart Requiem ,a choral masterwork Lyric has never done before,paired with Mozart’s rarely heard incidental music to the play Thamos,King of Egypt. How were these works chosen? Besides being the very rst Mozart I will have conducted at Lyric, I thought it would be a good idea to give our splendid chorus a very beautiful showcase. The Requiem is a fantastic choral piece, and I’m looking forward to having our orchestra and chorus onstage to perform it. Mozart’s un nished setting is his nal testament, a thoughtful re ection on the deepest meaning of the Latin mass for the dead. We will employ a compact-sized orchestra that will allow us to enter a different sound- world from what our audiences are used to hearing in opera. Three conductors are appearing at Lyric Opera for the rst time in 2023/24—Speranza Scappucci leading The Daughter of the Regiment , Jakub Hru˚ša pacing Jenu˚fa , and Yi-Chen Lin conducting Rossini’s Cinderella .Three podium debuts in a single season is rare, if not unprecedented. It is a happy coincidence—I can assure you we did not plan it that way! Every season presents opportunities for us to invite important young conductors who have enjoyed success outside Chicago to lead performances with our opera company. I’m actually super-proud of these three. Jakub Hru˚ša and Speranza Scappucci will assume their positions as music director and principal guest conductor, respectively, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, beginning with the 2025/26 season. Yi-Chen Lin, another prominent young conductor, shared performances of Ernani and Butter y with me in Bregenz. Clearly you conceive your position at Lyric as that of a full-service music director in a very real sense—an active link between the opera company and the community. I consider the role of the music director not only to be the principal conductor, but also as someone who can work with everyone in the opera company. To be an ambassador for the vision of the company and its mission within the civic and cultural life of the city. Last year, Chicago’s Merit School of Music invited me to work with its student musicians on a fantastic project. I saw the future of music in their diversity, and in the talent and enthusiasm that shone in their eyes. The experience lled me with hope. John von Rhein retired as classical music critic of the Chicago Tribune in 2018, after more than 40 years in that position. He continues to write about classical music for various print and online publications. Maestro Mazzola backstage before conducting Verdi’s Luisa Miller in Lyric’s 2019/20 Season. Kyle Flubacker