Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 1 - Rigoletto

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 66 Birth of a Training Program 1974 The Opera School of Chicago is first incorporated, comprising 10 Ensemble members. The Chicago Tribune describes the new program as “...the most exciting development to take place in local opera history since the establishment of Lyric Opera itself 20 seasons ago!” Ensemble members perform 21 roles for Lyric’s mainstage season. General Manager Carol Fox and Music Director Bruno Bartoletti choose the multi-talented American lyric tenor and conductor Herbert Handt, formerly of the Berlin Staatsoper, to direct the program. 1975 The entire Ensemble joins the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra for its first-ever concert in the park. Repertoire includes excerpts from Fidelio and numerous Verdi arias. 1977 The School mounts The Turn of the Screw as its first-ever presentation in the 750-seat Civic Theatre. Renowned American conductor Lee Schaenen—formerly assistant to Herbert von Karajan at La Scala and in Berlin— is appointed as director. 1981 The program is renamed as the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. Decade 1: Raise the Curtain! Clockwise, from top left: The Inaugural Ensemble of Apprentice Artists; the program’s first Director, Herbert Handt,makes a point; Ensemble member Patricia Guthrie (1973-74) with Giulio Favario,then Lyric’s chorus director; a movement class during the first decade; Ensemble soprano Trudy Hines and guest tenor Frank Little in The Rake’s Progress ; backstage at the Civic Theatre, for a 1977 performance for students of The Barber of Seville . In 1973, the leadership of Lyric Opera of Chicago launched one of the earliest professional programs of its kind. Here, the first installment of our ongoing celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center.