Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 3 - Daughter of the Regiment

29 | Lyric Opera of Chicago General Hambrick, Nijawwon Matthews and Jennifer Muller. The dancer’s regional credits include Dreamgirls , Aida , A Raisin in the Sun , Ruined , James and the Giant Peach , Mahalia the Musical , After Midnight , The Wiz, and Saturday Night Fever . Along with numerous theater credits, Nixon’s film and television credits include Get On Up and Complexions . NICK SCHRIER DANCER Lyric debut Schrier’s previous opera credits include Moby Dick (Chicago Opera Theater) and Dante’s Inferno (Notre Dame Opera). Theater credits include Goodman Theatre, Broadway in Chicago, Moonlight Stage Amphitheater, PVPA Los Angeles, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Music Theater Works, Metropolis PAC, and Seacoast Repertory Theater. He is a proud Oberlin graduate hailing from Muskegon, Michigan. MATHEW SKORUPSKI DANCER Lyric debut A resident of Des Plaines, Illinois, Skorupski graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Northern Illinois University. He has danced at Madison Contemporary Dance Company, and is currently a dance instructor at Rockford University as well as a dance teacher at the Des Plaines Academy of Dance. He is a principal dancer with the Ardent Dance Company. MALACHI SQUIRES DANCER Previously at Lyric: La Clemenza di Tito (2013/14). Squires recently appeared in Day of the Gypsy by Gordon Pierce Schmidt at the Harris Theater, Brigadoon with the Goodman Theatre, and RPM Productions’ La Journees de Tsiganee s, and An American Portrait . He has danced extensively with Les Ballets Grandiva and has appeared in numerous works with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet including Four Last Songs and West Side Stories . He has also danced with Paul Sanasardo, EZ Credit Dance Theater, and Lawrence Pech Dance Company. Guest engagements have included the Madison Ballet, Ballet Quad Cities, Chicago Civic Ballet, Hilton Head Dance Theater, Rochester Dance Company, and Marin Dance Theater. He has choreographed for Mesopotamia Night Chicago, Dance in the Parks Chicago, Bitteroot Dance Academy, Dance Drama Collaborative, 12 Min. Max Dance Festival, and the Houston Artist of the Year Awards. SPERANZA SCAPPUCCI CONDUCTOR Lyric debut In 2022 Scappucci became the first Italian woman to conduct at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Other recent house debuts include Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the State Opera in Berlin, and the Opéra national de Paris, where she opened the 2023/24 Season with Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, and the 2022/23 Season with Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Later this season, Scappucci returns to the Berlin State Opera to conduct La traviata, and she will make her house debut at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo with Cavalleria rusticana and Gianni Schicchi. She will also return to the Metropolitan Opera with a production of Puccini´s La Rondine and to Washington National Opera with Puccini´s Turandot. Other recent highlights include Verdi´s Attila at the Royal Opera House, Rigoletto at the Met, I Capuleti e i Montecchi at La Scala Milan and Opéra national de Paris, Macbeth at the Canadian Opera in Toronto, Dialogues des Carmélites, Eugene Onegin, and Simon Boccanegra at Royal Opéra de Wallonie in Liège, Le Villi in Toulouse, L’elisir d’amore at Berlin State Opera, La traviata at Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Lucia di Lammermoor at New National Theatre in Tokyo and Opernhaus in Zürich, as well as Verdi’s Requiem at Arena di Verona. From 2017 to 2022, Speranza del Scappucci held the position of Music Director at Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. In the 2025/26 season, she will take the position of Principal Guest Conductor at the Royal Opera House in London. Conductor Speranza Scappucci is sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation . LAURENT PELLY ORIGINAL DIRECTOR AND COSTUME DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Director/Costume Designer/ Cendrillon (2018/19). French opera and theater director Laurent Pelly is sought after by the world’s most prestigious houses. He designs the costumes for all his productions, as well as occasionally the sets. He was Co- Director of Théâtre national de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées from 2008 to 2018. New productions this season include Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at Teatro Real and Le Chauve Souris (in the original French) for Opéra de Lille. Recent new productions include Il turco in Italia at Teatro Real, Eugene Onegin at La Monnaie de Munt and Royal Danish Opera, La périchole at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Lakmé at Opéra Comique and Opéra national du Rhin, Poulenc’s La voix humaine/Les mamelles de Tirésias for the Glyndebourne Festival, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Lille, as well as La Cenerentola (Amsterdam, Geneva, Valencia, Los Angeles), Falstaff (Teatro Real, La Monnaie de Munt, Nikikai Opera Foundation Tokyo), and Le nozze di Figaro (Santa Fe, Matsumoto Festival Japan). A renowned Offenbach specialist, Pelly has directed many titles, including Barbe-bleue, Le roi Carotte, La vie parisienne, La belle Hélène, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, Orphée aux Enfers, Les contes d’Hoffmann, La périchole, and Le voyage dans la lune. Laurent Pelly is supported by the Richard P.and Susan Kiphart Costume Designer Endowed Chair .