Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 4 - Figaro

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 32 LUCY BAKER PEASANT GIRL Previously at Lyric: Karolka/ Jen ˚ufa (2023/24). A second-year mezzo-soprano with the Ryan Opera Center from Wilmington, North Carolina, Baker recently sang Hansel/ Hansel and Gretel with the Aspen Music Festival. She has performed the title role/ Ariodante , Dorabella/ Così fan tutte , and The Hostess/Blitzstein’s Triple-Sec with Curtis Opera Theatre. Previous roles include Cherubino/ The Marriage of Figaro and Hansel with DePaul Opera Theatre and Justice Ginsburg (cover) in Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg with Chautauqua Opera Company. In concert, Baker has appeared with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Chautauqua Symphony. She received the Edith Newfield Award from the Musicians Club of Women and first prize in her category from the Chicago Chapter of the NATS competition. A 2022 fellow at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Baker holds a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University and a Master of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music. Lucy Baker is sponsored by Blythe McGarvie, Pamela Crutchfield, and Ms. Gay K. Stanek. ERINA YASHIMA CONDUCTOR Lyric debut This season, the German born conductor will make debuts with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Münchner Symphoniker, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kobe City Chamber Orchestra, and she will return to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Orchestra della Toscana. On the opera stage, Yashima will debut with Opera Australia with La Bohème and the Irish National Opera with L’elisir d’amor e. As First Kapellmeister at the Komische Oper Berlin from 2022 to 2024, she conducted Rusalka , Hamlet , and Così fan tutte , among other productions. Recent highlights include performances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Bregenz Festival, Washington National Opera, English National Opera, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Arena di Verona, WDR Funkhausorchester, North Carolina Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Tonkünstler-Orchester. From 2019 to 2022, she was Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and from 2016 to 2019 the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprentice of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Erina Yashima is sponsored by Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation. BARBARA GAINES DIRECTOR Previously at Lyric: The Marriage of Figaro (2015/16), Macbeth (2010/11). Founder and past artistic director of Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Gaines has directed almost all of Shakespeare’s plays. Among Gaines’s honors are the 2008 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre; the prestigious Honorary OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in recognition of her contributions strengthening British American cultural relations; and several Joseph Jefferson awards for Best Director and Best Production. She has also received the Public Humanities Award and Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Birmingham in the UK. She served on the Shakespearean Council of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London and is a Life Trustee of Northwestern University. She is currently working on a new musical, Sinister, a prequel to Macbeth, with Lauren Gunderson and Joriah Kwamé. JAMES NOONE SET DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: The Marriage of Figaro (2015/16), Macbeth (2010/11). The renowned designer’s opera credits include work at the Glimmerglass Festival, NYC Opera, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Washington National Opera, English National Opera, Atlanta Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company. He has worked with some of New York’s most prestigious theater companies including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company, and numerous others. Off-Broadway he designed the original productions of Terrance McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune , Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize- winning play Three Tall Women , and the long-running solo shows Full Gallop and Fully Committed . Broadway credits include Sunset Boulevard (revival), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill , the long-running Jekyll and Hyde , A Class Act , many productions for Tony Randall’s National Actors Theatre, including The Persians , Judgement at Nuremberg , Night Must Fall , The Sunshine Boys, and The Gin Game , as well as the Broadway revivals of A Bronx Tale and Come Back Little Sheba . Noone is an Associate Professor and head of The Scenic Design program at Boston University. SUSAN MICKEY COSTUME DESIGNER Previously at Lyric: The Marriage of Figaro (2015/16). The accomplished costume designer and educator’s work has appeared at most major regional theaters, and she has enjoyed extended relationships with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Huntington Theatre in Boston, and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Her collaboration with the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta included more than 58