Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 4 - Figaro

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 66 Increasing Opportunities 1984 Director of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists (LOCAA), Lee Schaenen (appointed in 1977), is instrumental in launching an innovative Composer-in-Residence program; it bears fruit in the 1985/86 Season with the world premiere of William Neil’s The Guilt of Lilian Sloan , conducted by Schaenen. 1986 Artists from the LOCAA appear in a tripartite musical television ad for McDonald’s, alongside segments with Roger Miller (“King of the Road”) and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Filming takes place on the house’s main stage, with Ensemble members holding Big Macs and singing the sandwich’s theme song. 1989 The tradition of Rising Stars concerts begins. 1991 Schaenen retires, and acclaimed bass-baritone Andrew Foldi — a hit as Schigolch in Alban Berg’s Lulu at Lyric in the 1987/88 Season — becomes LOCAA’s Director. 1993 A quartet of “Les jeunes chanteurs du Lyric” performs at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. 1994 Concluding a decade of expanding performance opportunities in venues as varied as Grant Park, Highland Park High School, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Woodstock Opera House, LOCAA singers perform an all-Mozart program to accompany an exhibition by set designer Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) at the Art Institute of Chicago. Decade 2: Gaining Strength Clockwise, from left: The 1986/87 Ensemble; Ensemble bass-baritone Mark S.Doss as Jago in Ernani (1984); a workshop for The Guilt of Lillian Sloan ; Paul Jacobson and Patrick Denniston in a student matinee of Così fan tutte (1991); Night of the Rising Stars , 1990; a quartet of Ensemble members took several programs on tour to Paris in 1993; filming a McDonald’s commercial on the main stage,1986. From 1983 to 1994, the Ryan Opera Center welcomed Composers-in-Residence and added important performing opportunities. Here, the next installment of our ongoing celebration of the program’s 50th anniversary. lian Sloan , conducted by Schaenen. LOCAA artists appear in tripartite musical television ad for McDonald’s, alongside segments with Roger Mill r (“King of the Road”) and Gladys Knight nd the Pips. Filming takes place on Lyric’s main stag , with Ensemble members holding Big Macs an singin the andwich’s them o g. e LOCAA me bers took sev ral programs on tour to Paris n 1993;