Lyric Opera's 2025-26 season includes ‘Madama Butterfly' and Billy Corgan revisiting ‘Mellon Collie'
The fall slate of the leading Midwestern opera company opens with the Lyric premiere of a new co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Greek National Opera and Canadian Opera Company of Luigi Cherubini's 'Medea' (Oct 11-26). It will star Sondra Radvanovsky, who was born in Berwyn and rose to a reputation as one of the opera world's leading sopranos.
Also coming this fall, a double bill of two one-act operas, Pietro Mascagni's 'Cavalleria rusticana' and Ruggero Leoncavallo's 'Pagliacci' (Nov. 1-23). Director Elijah Moshinsky's production will be staged by revival director Peter McClintock and feature a cast that includes Russell Thomas, Quinn Kelsey, and Gabriella Reyes. Enrique Mazzola conducts.
November will see three performances of Carl Orff's cantata 'Carmina Burana' (Nov. 14-18) and the world premiere of a new 'alt rock opera' penned by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame, titled 'A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness' (Nov. 21-30).
Corgan was in the house Tuesday. His new opera is based on the Smashing Pumpkins conceptual double album of roughly the same title, the band's third studio album. Recorded in Chicago and released in 1995 with 28 tracks, 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness' represents the emotional and philosophical ambitions of 1990s alternative rock at its most expansive. 'Billy could have celebrated the 30th anniversary of this album anywhere,' Mangum said. 'He wanted to do it at the Lyric.'
Corgan said that he was a longtime Lyric audience member and wanted to pay tribute to the operatic world. 'This is to celebrate the compositional aspect of the work,' Corgan said. 'We're not trying to do opera-goes-rock.' Corgan also said he will 'get a sing a few songs' but also wanted to 'get out of the way' of the orchestrations and the operatic singers involved in the project.
'My dream here is for us to create a beautiful immersive environment,' Corgan said. He hopes the project 'will be able to travel beyond Chicago.'
How much actual staging will take place remains to be seen, given that this is a world premiere planned for seven performances, mostly on consecutive nights. But the songs have been reorchestrated and reordered and there will be costumes and other design elements. Its presence on the mainstage season (requiring an add-on ticket for subscribers) is a departure from custom for the Lyric, although one likely to prove popular with Smashing Pumpkins fans.
In January, Lyric will stage Richard Strauss' 'Salome' (Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, 2026), the 1905 opera based on the Oscar Wilde play, as staged by David McVicar and starring Elena Stikhina in the title role in her Lyric debut. 'Salome,' among other attributes, is famous for its Dance of the Seven Veils. McVicar's production originated at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008.
A San Francisco Opera production of Mozart's 'Così fan tutte' (Feb. 1-15) follows, directed by Michael Cavanagh and set in a seaside resort in the 1930s — featuring Ana María Martínez and Rod Gilfry in leading roles. At Lyric, Mazzola will conduct. On Tuesday, Mangum said that the opening production of Lyric's 2026-27 season will be 'Don Giovanni,' completing the trilogy of the Mozart/Lorenzo Da Ponte operas at Lyric.
Next, Lyric will stage Puccini's 'Madama Butterfly' (March 14 to April 12, 2026), directed by Matthew Ozawa, with Karah Son making her Lyric debut in the title role. That piece will be paired with 'El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego)' (March 21 to April 4, 2026) by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist (and famed playwright) Nilo Cruz. Sung in Spanish and embracing of Mexican folk music traditions, the piece will star Daniela Mack and Alfredo Daza.
Finally, the season concludes with the world premiere of 'safronia' (April 17-18, 2026), an Afro-surrealist opera both penned by and starring Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young. This new piece follows a family who took part in the Great Migration but has returned home to reckon with the past. Timothy Douglas directs an opera that will include gospel, blues, funk and soul. Young said Tuesday that the story is based on that of his grandparents.
Additional special events aside from the opening night gala (on Oct.10) include Renée Fleming, who has ended her association with Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, in concert in Chicago on Feb. 5, 2026, and an expanded version of 'Movie Nights at Lyric' (Disney's 'Coco' on Oct. 16-18 and 'Mary Poppins' on April 10-11, 2026) where the Lyric's orchestra provides a live accompaniment to one of two classic Hollywood movies.
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Chicago Tribune
4 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
A place to listen: Chicago listening bars offer audio enthusiasts a different way to enjoy music
There's no shortage of ways to experience music in Chicago. For that, residents are eternally grateful. But for those looking to sit and really listen to an obscure single or underappreciated album — communally, maybe discuss it in real time — there's been a gap. Historically a tradition of record store culture, hosting a dedicated time and place for just celebrating quality audio, or 'listening party' sans live performance is pretty hard to come by these days. Now, audiophilic purists and the avidly curious alike can sit and soak in the sounds at a number of bars built for listening, including the new Charis Listening Bar in Bridgeport, A Listening Space in Washington Park, and CHIRP Radio and Audiotree's co-presented Both Sides Now monthly listening bar activation at Schubas Tavern in Lakeview. Both Charis Listening Bar and A Listening Space draw inspiration from experiences in travel and observation, but remain rooted in traditions of jazz 'kissas,' or cafes that rose to prominence in Japan after World War II as a way for folks to share and listen to imported jazz albums that would otherwise be expensive and hard to come by; infusing global appreciation and the universal language of music with Midwestern charm. While a listening bar isn't a new concept, it's been fairly under-represented in the city. As of late, there've been a number of restaurants adapting the vibe and quality audio expectations of a Japanese jazz 'kissa' — Parachute HiFi in Avondale and Wax Vinyl Bar and Ramen Shop in West Town — but the food still takes center stage. Other popular spaces such as Dorian's in Wicker Park and Mojo's Vinyl Bar and Listening House in suburban Highwood rely on live music and variety events to entertain. For Alex Jandernoa, who opened Charis in February, the ethos behind the bar was instilled in him at a young age by his parents, both massive music fans (a mom who'd sneak into Detroit's Fox Theatre at 16 and a dad who followed The Who's 'Tommy' tour). Jandernoa wanted his space to evoke the memories of traveling with his parents for formative concerts and culinary exchanges, and marry the comforts of home with an impressive audio setup. 'If you look at the first kissa cafes, they weren't these super elaborate, giant, built-out sound systems. They were quality products people could buy for their homes if they were really rich, but they were put in a space more people could access,' Jandernoa says. 'We took that approach and we tried to pay homage to their origins in Japan without appropriating things. When you look at some of the spaces that have existed previous to us, not necessarily in Chicago but around the world, there's a distinction between a club that has a really good sound system and a listening lounge or room where the bar aspect — the rowdiness, the camaraderie and conversation — was taken away to sit in silence.' 'I think we wanted to really be in the middle,' he continues. The one real 'rule'? No standing room to encourage listening. In reverence, Jandernoa and team worked with a local record store, tapping Drew Mitchell of 606 Records in Pilsen to curate the music programming, from stocking the bar with vinyl each month, including a 'satellite store' that's refreshed weekly with new and used albums for purchase, to booking DJ's for Friday nights. Charis' sound system also echoes history, working with Saturday Audio on the North Side to build a system with both vintage warmth and modern quality and efficiency, using Midwestern Klipsch speakers. Sundholm Studio fashioned interiors where sound was the main priority, with custom ceilings, tons of drywall, bass blockers and air-gapped speakers. '[Charis] is an ode to my parents and everything they'd want in a bar,' he adds. 'Something that's cozy [the bar seats 35] and homey and reminds them of a Midwestern bar you can spend the whole night in, but where the cocktails surprise you and you hear a record you don't know but it reminds you of a time period that you love. When you find your music nerds and your foodie, beverage nerds, sometimes you find your people.' For 606 Records owner Mitchell, the cross-pollination of communities feels like an exciting evolution for music fans and is not only a newer way to experience music in the city, but the neighborhoods and micro-communities themselves. 'I'd been to Tokyo and some of the listening bars there and I thought it was a great idea. When [Alex] approached me, it sounded like he wanted to do it right and for the right reasons,' Mitchell remembers. 'You have bars and record stores where you can learn about new music and discuss and debate as independent experiences and now there's a hybrid of the two. And to get back to the bar as a community space — whether you drink or don't drink. Charis has so many N/A options, their mocktails are to die for — and this hybrid bar/record store concept is great. In Bridgeport, you have Lumpen Radio a block away. There are great female DJs. Producer/DJ Vick Lavender is nearby at Bridgeport Records. It's important to know and respect the community.' He continues, 'I went [to Charis] the other night and this record was playing — it wasn't anything other than the music. The sound was so warm. There was something so different where I was looking at everyone at the bar like, 'Are you feeling this?'' Similarly, Theaster Gates, renowned installation artist from Chicago's West Side and founder and executive director of the Rebuild Foundation — a nonprofit that works to repurpose spaces on the South Side to celebrate art, began conceptualizing A Listening Space after spending time in Gugulethu just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Hearing stories of and visiting 'shebeens' — once-illegal spaces predominantly operated by women (known as Shebeen Queens) where homebrewed alcohol was served without proper licenses; now contemporary, cultural gathering spaces serving a similar purpose to famed juke joints — and listening to records that reflected the diaspora and more. 'By the time I got to visiting Japan and the kissas, you noticed there were similar loops. Black GI's were going to Japan and sharing their music and the Japanese became enamored with Black American jazz and you'd see the rise of these listening spaces,' Gates recalls. 'That tradition of gathering to sit and listen is sort of lost. Everybody talks about the fact that their parents and aunties and uncles in the '70s and '80s had bars in their basements and you may have gone out to a tavern or something like this, but by and large, people kicked it at home,' he continues. 'You couldn't really afford to go out, you'd play spades and host at home. There's nothing like hearing Marvin Gaye up close and intimate in a place where it doesn't feel like the primary goal is for you to spend money, the goal is for you to be together with music and people.' Replacing the beloved Currency Exchange Cafe for this year, A Listening Space is seen as an opportunity for the love of music to shape the 'resonance and presence' of a space that's uncoupled from commerce, according to Gates. Opened in January, it specifically showcases the catalogue of Dinh Nguyen, French Vietnamese renaissance man turned DJ Natty Hô turned chef, while offering complimentary Horii Shichimeien tea, courtesy of the on-staff 'TeaJ' (or DJ serving tea). With over 14,000 records, CDs, cassettes and other audio ephemera, much is focused on music of the Caribbean, particularly from the islands of Réunion (where Dinh had spent much time) and Mauritius, as he collected for more than 20 years, as well as jazz, classical, funk and experimental genres. Spending time in Arles, France, in 2023 for an exhibition of his own vinyl collection at the Luma Foundation, a visit with friend and executive chef Armand Arnal of La Chassagnette led Gates to Dinh's family, who were looking to rehouse his meticulously stored albums after his death in 2022. Upon purchase, he promised Nguyen's widow Danielle and daughter Millie that he'd steward it into the public sphere. The end of the cafe provided the chance. After minimal refurbishing, what was originally a business became a living, potent archive. Gates, and frequent community collaborator Nigel Ridgeway of Miyagi Records, say it has become part of the neighborhood's cultural livelihood. 'As a business owner, it's important to have that ethos of surviving and thriving together,' says Ridgeway, who opened Miyagi with business partner Marco Jacobo under the Rebuild Foundation's Creative Entrepreneurship Program. 'As a fan, it's important to have a third space. Every album in that collection was new to me. Caribbean, Afro-Latin diaspora — he gets very deep. It was big for me personally. It's a constant learning experience. A lot of culture has been stripped from the South Side over time, so to have places to embrace and enjoy it is incredibly important. Everyone who comes into the shop has a different level of experience with records, with collecting, with listening, with whatever their set-up is back home. The main reason we send everyone over there is to show look, this is the high bar of what listening to a record can be and why we listen to it on vinyl, why it's something to enjoy. Going over there, it's always new.' A place to simply listen can also be a lower barrier to connection for folks easily overstimulated or anxiety-riddled by going to live events alone. Coming out of the COVID-19 lockdown years, Jenna Chapman, booking and promotions coordinator for CHIRP Radio, said she felt less confident interacting with strangers at large group events like concerts or buzzing third spaces like bars. This was the impetus for the monthly listening bar activation Both Sides Now in Schubas' upstairs lounge. 'I figured there might be an appeal to an event with a clear shared interest involved, where it was socially acceptable to come alone and not be forced to talk to people. I know I missed the feeling of being at a bar or cafe, but in the early days, especially, I didn't always feel up to trying to remember 'how to people' or going out just to go out. Both Sides Now creates that environment while taking some of the social pressure off.' Folks can expect a 'menu' of four LPs selected by CHIRP DJs. There's even a WhatsApp group where those who want to can join an open forum for music discussion at the event to avoid talking over the music onsite. Turnout has steadily increased since the series soft-launched in November 2023, particularly after a Chicago-based Reddit thread for vinyl enthusiasts took off in 2024. Chapman and Dan Apodaca, Schubas and Audiotree's talent buyer, argue that the appeal for music folks is in the album format as an art itself. In the age of streaming, it feels increasingly rare for albums to be put together with intention (sequenced, consumed as a complete body of work) as opposed to an assortment of tracks that can just as easily stand alone or together. 'The structure of Both Sides Now helps remind folks that there can be additional meaning to be found in music when it's approached that way,' she says. Still, for many, the choice to go out is the choice to see and be seen. Can listening truly be just as thrilling as being swallowed by the crowds? 'We, in modern life, exist in a perpetual state of sensory overload. That can be exhausting,' Apodaca reminds. 'It's really nice to be able to go someplace comfortable, specifically not look at any of your notifications, and just chill. Give your brain some quiet, art-processing time playing whole albums. Especially those albums by artists who, for various reasons, you can't go see live. I think that can be very therapeutic and very helpful. But a world like this where listening bars and traditional live events definitely happily coexists. One doesn't replace the other.'
UPI
2 days ago
- UPI
Krysten Ritter calls her 'Dexter' killer psychotic, deranged, playful
1 of 5 | Left to right, Eric Stonestreet, Uma Thurman, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael C. Hall, Krysten Ritter, David Dastmalchian and Peter Dinklage star in "Dexter: Resurrection," airing Fridays. Photo by Zach Dilgard/Paramount+ with SHOWTIME NEW YORK, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Jessica Jones icon Krysten Ritter says Lady Vengeance, the serial killer she plays on Dexter: Resurrection, thinks she is a personal and professional match for the titular anti-hero. "My character takes an interest in Dexter (Michael C. Hall) right away. There is a natural chemistry and attraction there and she wants to know more. She's a loner. She is a femme fatale," Ritter told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "She is very confident, but she's also psychotic and deranged and playful and she is a part of this serial killer group because she likes the money and it's intriguing to her." A central story-line for the New York-set, Dexter sequel series is how billionaire philanthropist Leon Prater (Peter Dinklage) is secretly an avid true-crime artifact collector who pays notorious killers -- including Lady Vengeance, Al/Rapunzel (Eric Stonestreet), Garreth/the Gemini Killer (David Dastmalchian), Lowell/the Tattoo Collector (Neil Patrick Harris) and the Dark Passenger, whom Dexter is impersonating -- to come to his posh apartment for dinner. Uma Thurman plays Prater's right-hand woman, Charley. Modern Family alum Stonestreet calls Al, "a fun-loving, Midwestern guy, a father of three with one more on the way." "In my mind, he's a salesman travels around and sells something sort of mundane and I think he gets a trip to New York City every year and gets to get some souvenirs for the family, gets a little extra money for the old lady... and camaraderie," he said. "He gets to be around what I think HE probably thinks is these weirdos." Murderbot and Reprisal actor Dastmalchian said his Dexter character is notable because he kills people in pairs. "I like to pose them together," he explained. "It's very fun to create these tableaus. I imagine Gareth is a bit of Holden Caufield (from The Catcher in the Rye) meets Patrick Bateman (from American Psycho)." While the dinners serve as a grisly type of voyeurism for Prater, they also invite the rival killers to share war stories and tricks of the trade. Dastmalchian likened the gathering to a support group. "There's a thing that you don't want to talk about at work, you don't want to talk about, even maybe, around your family, but there is that sacred space where you can go," he said. "It's almost like a 12-step group, where these people can get together and actually let down their guards, be themselves and getting to watch these actors, who I love so much, and are my friends, do that, was an honor." Dastmalchian said it was also exciting to see Miami native Dexter operate in a new setting. "Imagine watching one of your favorite hunters, all of a sudden entering a new terrain where they're on a totally different stomping ground and then we all get together," he added. "I love the movie Clue and playing the game Clue when I was a kid, so there was something about this that felt like we were in a much darker, higher-stakes Clue." Stonestreet said he is a long-time fan of Hall and his Dexter franchise, which dates back to 2006 and even includes a prequel starring Patrick Gibson as a younger version of the murderer, who has vowed to only kill bad people. "It's awesome," Stonestreet said. "There's just no other way to say it. We're actors, but we're also fans of things, as well, and, all of a sudden, you're across the way from Uma Thurman and you can't believe it." In keeping with the dark comedy of the series, the stars also had plenty of room to ad-lib lines of dialogue. "There's a lot of improv, especially with this one. Eric Stonestreet is the king of improv, which is really exciting," Ritter said. "There were a couple of times where we had to be off over there doing something and I was like: 'Oh, thank God I'm sitting next to Eric because he's going to bring it,' and even when he's off-camera, he brings so much to the on-set experience. I think it really helped bring levity and and camaraderie to all of those scenes where we're all together." Stonestreet said he was only able to do this because his scene partners were receptive to it. "If I didn't feel comfortable adding jokes, then, it wouldn't be fun to me," he added. "I don't want to be on a set like that, really, for the truth of it, but Michael did tell me -- when I went back after shooting a couple of scenes or weeks or days on the show -- 'i think every one of your improvisations is in the cut that I just saw.'" "They were so good," Dastmalchian agreed. "It's not about the goodness. It's about the space that they needed to fill," Stonestreet said. "Writers can't write for every moment that's not known yet, so, all of a sudden, we're like: 'Hey, you're walking towards the charcutarie board. Fill that space with something.' And I'm like, 'OK, here we go!'" Dastmalchian pointed out that not everything Stonestreet came up with was intended to be funny, however. "One of the great things in comedy, I think, is you can set people up, get the audience off kilter a little bit and then you can smack them down," Dastmalchian said. "But I got to see him do something pretty scary creepy that was alive in the moment, an improvisation, which was pretty terrifying." The show is now airing on Showtime and streaming on Paramount+ 'Dexter: Resurrection': Michael C. Hall, Uma Thurman attend premiere Star Michael C. Hall arrives on the red carpet at the world premiere of "Dexter: Resurrection" in New York City on July 9, 2025. Photo by Derek French/UPI | License Photo
New York Times
4 days ago
- New York Times
‘Well, I'll Let You Go' Review: A Fog of Grief
Twenty-five years they lived in this old farmhouse together, Maggie and Marv — one of those good, solid couples the people in their Midwestern suburb have long since come to depend on: for help when times are difficult, and for the everyday hope that decent people inspire just by being there. But Marv died the other day — heroically, the neighbors say. Now Maggie is abruptly on her own in middle age, peering out from the fog of grief, trying to make sense of the life she built for herself and the husband she thought she knew. Played with deftness and delicacy by the extraordinary Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Maggie is the center who may or may not hold in 'Well, I'll Let You Go,' the quietly absorbing new drama by Bubba Weiler at the Space at Irondale in Brooklyn. Marv's death — his murder, actually, in murky circumstances — has body-slammed Maggie. Weariness is etched in her face; it weighs down her walk. Yet she has to keep moving, accepting the too-many flowers and too-many casseroles that materialize at her door, and deciding what to do about a funeral, which she isn't even sure she wants. Looking on at all this is a narrator played by Michael Chernus (recently of the Apple TV+ series 'Severance'), like a heartland variation on the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder's 'Our Town,' to which Weiler's play nods. (The stripped-down set, part of that homage, is by Frank J. Oliva.) As friends, family and strangers appear at Maggie's house, the narrator tells us the secrets of each one: Wally (Will Dagger), Marv's odd, alarming mess of a cousin, who has leaned hard on Marv and Maggie and knows he is a burden; Joanie (Constance Shulman), whose myopic eccentricity makes her horrendous at her funeral home job, but who chose that career for a devastating reason; Julie (Amelia Workman), Maggie's friend since childhood, who visits only belatedly because 'Maggie has held her up through a lifetime of rough patches, and she's afraid what it might cost to pay her back.' Also stopping by: Jeff (Danny McCarthy), Marv's brother and Julie's husband, who is not above manipulating Maggie at her most vulnerable; Angela (Emily Davis), who figures in Maggie's past in a heartbreaking way that Maggie only vaguely remembers; and Ashley (Cricket Brown), the community college student whose life Marv saved from the gunman who killed him, and whose connection to Marv is, for Maggie, a torturous mystery. This is an eye-poppingly talented cast, delivering meticulous, vivid performances. Then again, Weiler — an Illinois native notable for his stellar turn in Rebecca Gilman's likewise subdued prairie play, 'Swing State' — has done what performer-playwrights tend to do: written a showcase for actors. Other than the omnipresent Chernus, each shares a single scene with Bernstine. The play is directed by Jack Serio, who made his reputation for assembling prestige casts when he staged 'Uncle Vanya' in a loft two summers ago, with David Cromer in the title role. (Stacey Derosier, who lit that show, is similarly expert here.) In its palpable Midwestern-ness, this production feels reminiscent of Cromer's 'Our Town.' (The spot-on costumes are by Avery Reed.) Niggling detail, though: The geographic illusion breaks — at least for people like me, who are from there — when characters pronounce 'Wisconsin' with an East Coast crispness (Wis-CON-sin) instead of running it together, Midwest-style: Wi-SCON-sin. 'Well, I'll Let You Go' is a deeply American play about loss, regret and what makes a meaningful life. It's about how weird people are around death, and how confused they can be by complexity, especially when morality is involved. It's about the elusiveness of love, let alone happiness. And it's about the clarity that comes when that fog of grief dissipates, even for a moment, and you can see what was real, and what you get to hang on to. Well, I'll Let You GoThrough Aug. 29 at the Space at Irondale, Brooklyn; Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.
