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

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 72 What is your role here at Lyric? I work on anything that’s in the Artistic department, but not Artistic itself. For instance, all the stuff that happens after somebody has been cast: What has to happen in order for them to get here? A majority of my job is dealing with contracts—creating them, moving them, making sure that Company Management has the information they need in order to track overtime and ttings and to arrange for ights. If an artist has never worked in the U.S. before, I take them to the Social Security of ce. What was your path to working here? Technically I started in February 2008, working in the ticketing department while I was at Columbia College. After I graduated, I had several other jobs, but I still kept coming back, doing evening and weekend performances. I did internships with the Development department, and one with the Ryan Opera Center, and then I was a tour manager for Opera in the Neighborhoods for a couple of seasons. And then this position became available, and I was glad I hadn’t moved forward in those other departments. This is the best t for me. Organizing things is not so fun for a lot of people, but I’m a person who would regularly take out all her CDs and decide I want to organize them a different way and do that. What was your rst opera? My rst week here, my supervisor found out that I’d never actually seen an opera, and she said, No—that’s not acceptable. There was a Carmen performance that afternoon, and she said, Go watch. So Carmen in the Lyric Opera House was my very rst opera experience. It kind of set a high bar. Do you have a favorite now? I know it’s a weird one, but I saw Lulu three times when it was here. I know it’s extremely long and the music is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think because I studied music and music theory, I have an appreciation for how it’s structured. I really enjoy listening to it and following where it’s going. So that is de nitely my favorite drama. But Die Fledermaus always has a soft place in my heart because I think it’s so funny. It just makes me laugh so much. What else do you do for fun? The other thing I spend a lot of time doing is I’m also a professional DJ. I don’t DJ full time anymore, but I used to do 70 gigs a year, and that was my main source of income. I’ve slowed down a lot, but I still like to do events because it’s a fun way to balance being here doing operational spreadsheets and database monitoring. Any favorite Lyric moment? When I was working on the tours with Opera in the Neighborhoods , we would sometimes have 15 kids for one show, and 1,500 for the next. Getting them in and out was a little bit crazy, but I always liked seeing these little third graders in their opera attire, all dressed up and so excited, and they would give me high ves. It was amazing to see a younger generation getting introduced to and getting excited about opera. Also: seeing Twilight Gods happen. It was something that nobody had ever done before. I feel that at Lyric, a tier one opera house, you get more experimentation than you would expect. People of Lyric A behind-the-scenes conversation Hometown I have lived in Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. So really the Midwest. Favorite local landmarks I hang out at the Logan Square monument sometimes—bring a blanket and just read for a little while. In nice weather, it’s a cool little community. Outside interests Competitive pinball. I’m in a league called Belles and Chimes. Musical training I was a Music Education major in college. Piano was my rst instrument, but tuba is my principal instrument. It just came more naturally to me. Tabitha Boorsma Artistic Operations Manager Kyle Flubacker