Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 1 - Rigoletto

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 32 ROBERT INNES HOPKINS SET DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Four productions since 2005, most recently, Siegfried (2018/19) and Die Walküre (2017/18). The renowned British designer has earned equal acclaim in opera and theater. Recent highlights at the Royal Shakespeare Company include this season’s The Merry Wives of Windsor , All’s Well That Ends Well (2022), and Pericles (2020). Last season, he designed Dalibor , Orfeo ed Eurydice , and Dido and Aeneas at The Grange Festival. At San Francisco Opera, he recently designed La traviata (2022) and Tosca (2021). In the 2018/19 Season, Innes Hopkins designed for a new production of War and Peace (Welsh National Opera), the latter a collaboration with his frequent colleague, director David Pountney. Among Hopkins’s many previous productions with Pountney have been Prince Igor (Zurich Opera House), Carmen (Bolshoi Theatre), and most recently Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis (Welsh National Opera, world premiere). Among the designer’s most important operatic achievements are works of Verdi ( Rigoletto , Welsh National Opera), Wagner ( The Flying Dutchman , WNO; Lohengrin , San Francisco Opera; Tristan und Isolde , Venice), Janáˇcek ( The Cunning Little Vixen , San Francisco Opera), Britten ( Peter Grimes , Billy Budd , both at The Santa Fe Opera), and Bernd Alois Zimmermann ( Die Soldaten for the Ruhr Triennale, which won Germany’s highly prestigious Opernwelt Award). JANE GREENWOOD COSTUME DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: Four productions since 1981, most recently Nabucco (2015/16) and Rigoletto (2012/13). Originally from Liverpool, England, Greenwood has done extensive work at the Metropolitan Opera, including Dialogue of the Carmelites ; Center Theatre Group, the Guthrie Theater, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, the Dallas Opera, including the premiere of Moby Dick; Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Shakespeare in the Park for the Public Theater. She has worked on more than 125 productions for Broadway since The Ballad Of The Sad Café in 1963. Recent Broadway credits include Saint Joan, The Little Foxes, The Parisian Woman, Thérèse Raquin, You Can’t Take It With You, Act One, The Snow Geese, Harvey, The House of Blue Leaves, That Championship Season, Driving Miss Daisy, Million Dollar Quartet , and A View From The Bridge . Film credits include Arthur , Glengarry Glen Ross , Oleanna , and Can’t Stop the Music . Greenwood has received 21 Tony nominations, the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, the 2016 Tony Award for The Little Foxes , and the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award. Costume Designers are supported by the Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Costume Designer Endowed Chair. DUANE SCHULER LIGHTING DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: More than 200 productions since 1977, most recently Cinderella (2023/24) and Ernani (2022/23). Lyric’s former resident lighting designer has recently created lighting for the National Taichung Theatre Taiwan ( Cendrillon ), the Santa Fe Opera ( The Flying Dutchman ), and LA Opera ( Tosca ). Other operatic highlights have included works as diverse as Turandot (La Scala), Pelléas et Mélisande and La Rondine (Metropolitan Opera, where he has designed more than 25 productions), La fanciulla del West (Opéra national de Paris), Elektra , Benvenuto Cellini (Salzburg Festival), Fidelio (Royal Opera House), Béatrice et Bénédict (Glyndebourne Festival Opera), The Bassarids (Dutch National Theatre in Amsterdam), and Lohengrin (Festspielhaus Baden-Baden). Ballet credits include Swan Lake , Of Love and Rage , The Snow Maiden (American Ballet Theatre), The Sleeping Beauty (Stuttgart Ballet), Giselle (Deutsche Ballet), and The Nutcracker (Houston Ballet). Theater credits include House and Garden (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Royal Family (Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles), and The Importance of Being Earnest (Broadway). Schuler is a founding partner of the Schuler Shook design firm. Duane Schuler is supported by the Mary-Louise and James S.Aagard Lighting Director Endowed Chair. MICHAEL BLACK CHORUS DIRECTOR The Australian Chorus Director is in his 12th season at Lyric, having held this position at Opera Australia in Sydney from 2001 to 2013. Black has served in this capacity for such distinguished organizations as the Edinburgh International Festival, Opera Holland Park (London), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and, in Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir, Motet Choir, the Cantillation chamber choir, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Other activities include preparing The Damnation of Faust chorus and Haydn’s Creation at the Grant Park Music Festival, where he has worked for five seasons. He has served as chorus director for close to 140 different operas on four continents, and his work has been recorded and/or aired on ABC, BBC, PBS, for many HD productions in movie theaters, and on television. Michael Black is supported by the Howard A.Stotler Chorus Director Endowed Chair. JOHN METZNER WIG MASTER & MAKEUP DESIGNER The versatile designer first joined the staff of Lyric for the 2022/23 Season. He has previously collaborated with Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre, and The Court Theatre. He served for nine years as Head of Wig and Makeup for Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts, and designed hair and makeup for more than 50 performances at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Other regional credits include work at The Muny, Great River Shakespeare Festival, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he designed for The Pirates of Penzance , among many other productions. His advanced training includes wig styling at the Wig Room Training Academy and London School of Wig Making in London. John Metzner is supported by the Marlys A.Beider Wigmaster and Makeup Designer Endowed Chair.