Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 1 - Rigoletto

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 70 Opera … delivered! “We are delighted to offer students an opportunity to experience opera through Lyric’s Opera in the Neighborhoods program,” says Jill LeCesne Potter, Senior Director of Learning Programs for Lyric Unlimited, the company’s learning and civic engagement division. Under the banner of Lyric Unlimited, Opera in the Neighborhoods brings the magic of opera to audiences outside the opera house, presenting live performances of youth-focused operas at venues across the Chicago area. After a bit of scaling back during the pandemic, the innovative and popular program returned to full strength last fall with a full-fledged tour of Jason and the Argonauts , an original work composed by Gregory Spears with a libretto by Kathryn Walat. The tour of Jason introduced around 3,000 students to the magic of opera between five school performances and two public performances at Chicago’s Vittum Theatre. This fall, Opera in the Neighborhoods will present Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the Worl d, a youth opera composed by Joe Illick with a libretto by Mark Campbell, and based on the acclaimed picture book by Laurence Anholt, with Spanish translation by Arlene Martínez- Opera in the Neighborhoods brings youth-focused operas to students across the Chicago area and suburbs. The set for Jason and the Argonauts references the classical and the current. By Janie Ragsdale Kyle Flubacker’