Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 6 - Sondra Radvanovsky

9 | Lyric Opera of Chicago SONDRA RADVANOVSKY The world-renowned soprano excels across a remarkable range of repertoire, from the title roles in Rusalka and Lucrezia Borgia , to Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac and the title role in Manon Lescaut . Since making her mainstage debut at Lyric in the title role of Susannah in the 2002/03 Season, Radvanovsky has appeared in more than a dozen productions, including as Lady Macbeth/ Macbeth (2021/22) in the company’s return to live performance, Lisa/ The Queen of Spades (2019/20), Norma/ Norma (2016/17), Anna/ Anna Bolena (2014/15), Aida/ Aida (2011/12), and Amelia/ Un ballo in maschera (2010/11). A recording of her triumphant Lyric recital of Donizetti works, The Three Queens , was issued on Pentatone in 2022. Beyond the opera stage, Radvanovsky recently completed an extensive European concert tour alongside Piotr Beczała and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, with appearances at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro de la Maestranza, and Teatro Real de Madrid. Radvanovsky and Beczała performed in concert with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic and the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, and at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Additionally, she appeared in recital with Piotr Beczała and pianist Sarah Tysman at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia. Last season’s operatic highlights include the title roles in Cherubini’s Medea for Canadian Opera Company, Turandot for Teatro di San Carlo, and Aida for Deutsche Oper Berlin. Further engagements included Lisa/ The Queen of Spades for Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Leonora in La forza del destino and Maddalena in Sir David McVicar’s staging of Andrea Chénier conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano for the Royal Ballet & Opera in London. Since making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996, Radvanovsky has appeared on its stage regularly, with roles including Amelia/ Un ballo in maschera, Leonora/ Il trovatore, Elvira/ Ernani, Elisabetta/ Don Carlo, Roxane/ Cyrano de Bergerac, Elisabetta/ Roberto Devereux, as well as title roles in Tosca, Aida, Luisa Miller, Norma, Anna Bolena, and Maria Stuarda. Many of her performances have been featured in the Met: Live in HD series, such as Norma, Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Roberto Devereux, and Medea. She has also appeared as the host for the “Live in HD” transmissions of La fanciulla del West, Otello, and Francesca da Rimini. Radvanovsky has collaborated with various record labels. Her debut recording, Verdi Arias, was released in April 2010 on the Delos label. The album quickly became a critical hit and made several season-best lists, including those of NPR and The New Yorker. In 2011 Delos released a CD of Verdi opera scenes with Radvanovsky and her frequent artistic partner Dmitri Hvorostovsky, recorded with the Philharmonia of Russia and Constantine Orbelian. Recent highlights of her discography include the release of Warner Classics’ new recording of Turandot with Radvanovsky in the title role and tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Turandot’s suitor, Calaf, accompanied by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano. Several of Radvanovsky’s performances have been released on DVD, including as Roxane alongside Plácido Domingo in Cyrano de Bergerac released by Naxos. Radvanovsky is a co-creator and co-host of the podcast Screaming Divas , where she and her friend soprano Keri Alkema talk about their lives and operatic careers with friends and colleagues. The duo has recently launched the fourth season of this podcast. ENRIQUE MAZZOLA CONDUCTOR Lyric’s music director — only the third in the company’s history — is renowned as an expert interpreter and champion of bel canto opera and Verdi repertoire, and as a specialist in French repertoire. Lyric audiences first experienced the Italian conductor’s artistry in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in 2016/17, and subsequently in Bellini’s I puritani in 2017/18. During 2019/20, he led Verdi’s Luisa Miller to launch the company’s Early Verdi Series. Mazzola’s first opera as Lyric’s music director, Sir David McVicar’s new production of Verdi’s Macbeth , opened the 2021/22 Season, followed by Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love as well as Verdi Voices and Rising Stars in Concert . Mazzola is Principal Guest Conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and, from 2022 to 2024, was the first ever Conductor- in-Residence at the Bregenz Festival. He served as Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France from 2012 to 2019. Symphonic guest work has included the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de France, and Oslo Philharmonic. He has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the major houses of Florence, Berlin, Zurich, Moscow, and Tokyo, in addition to a historic Meyerbeer cycle for Deutsche Oper Berlin. Past major European festivals have included Glyndebourne (including DVD releases of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Poliuto, and Don Pasquale ), new productions in 2019 for Bregenz ( Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly ) and Salzburg ( Orphée aux Enfers ), Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival), Venice, and Aix-en-Provence. Mazzola was born in Barcelona, Spain, into a musical family, and grew up in Milan, where he studied violin and piano, earning diplomas in composition and orchestral conducting at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. Enrique Mazzola is supported by the John D.and Alexandra C. Nichols Endowed Chair. Artist profiles