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CBS News
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Lyric Opera's 2025-2026 season includes "Madama Butterfly," Smashing Pumpkins tribute
The Lyric Opera of Chicago unveiled the lineup for its 2025-2026 season Tuesday, featuring a blend of tradition and modern musical concerts. The new season includes both "Madama Butterfly" and a tribute to the album that featured the song "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." Fall 2025 The season begins with Luigi Cherubini's "Medea," Oct. 11 to Oct. 26. The millennia-old tragedy tells the story of the sorceress Medea, who has been spurned by her lover and abandoned in a foreign land, and who kills her own children in a twisted act of revenge. The Lyric Opera says director David McVicar brings the story to "life — and gruesome death." Lyric Opera Music Director Enrique Mazzola serves as conductor, while soprano Sondra Radvanovsky appears as Medea and tenor Matthew Polenzani as Glasone. From Nov. 1 through Nov. 25, the Lyric will stage Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci." In line with the theme of "Medea," these one-act operas explore the stories of spurned lovers and the lengths they'll go to avenge betrayal. In "Pagliacci," the spurned husband at the center of the plot, Canio, is the lead clown in a comedy troupe. Mazzola conducts again, while Russell Thomas plays Canio in "Pagliacci" and Gabriella Reyes plays his wife, Nedda. In "Cavalleria rusticana," SeokJong Baek plays villager Turiddu, while Yulia Matochkina plays his lover Santuzza. For three performances on Nov. 14, 16, and 18, Mazzola leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana." The 1936 opus is based on a collection of medieval poetry. Its opening movement "O Fortuna," is best known, but operagoers on those November dates will get to hear the whole thing. From Nov. 21 through Nov. 30, something completely different is in store — involving not spurned sorceresses or jilted clowns, but Junebug skippin' like a stone back during the Carter administration, and the world being a vampire sent to drain. For "A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness," Billy Corgan has composed a new commission of Smashing Pumpkins' classic double album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness," which came out in the fall of 1995. "You'll hear Billy Corgan and special guest artists along with the epic sound of the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a completely new sonic and visual experience," the Lyric Opera wrote. "Whether you love the Pumpkins and are excited to hear their music in a sumptuous new dimension, or you simply crave the opportunity to hear a new work inspired by the unexpected, this promises to be one of the can't-miss cultural collaborations of the season." Winter 2026 A new-to-Chicago production of Richard Strauss' "Salome" takes the stage from Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, 2026. "Salome" is based on a one-act play by Oscar Wilde, which is itself an adaptation of the Biblical story of John the Baptist's martyrdom. This latest rendition of "Salone" is set in 1940s fascist Italy, and is described by the performance arts organization as a "gory thrill ride" that "drips with decadence." Tomáš Netopil conducts and McVicar directs, while Elena Stikhina plays Salome, Brandon Jovanovich plays King Herod, and Nicholas Brownlee plays Jochanaan. Meanwhile, Mozart's "Così fan tutte" comes just in time for Valentine's Day, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 15, 2026. In the opera, two soldiers named Ferrando and Guglielmo hatch a plan to switch places and try to court each other's fiancées — but the women know exactly what's happening from the get-go. This new-to-Chicago production takes the action to a 1930s-era seaside country club. Mazolla conducts, Anthony León plays Ferrando, and Ian Rucker Guglielmo. Cecilia Molinari plays Ferrando's fiancée, Dorabella, and Jacquelyn Stucker plays Guglielmo's fiancée, Fiordiligi. For one night only, at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, the revered Renée Fleming returns to the Lyric Opera with a program based on her 2023 Grammy Award-winning Best Classic Vocal Solo Album, "Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene." She with pianist Ian Bartman to a video curated by the National Geographic Society. Spring 2026 As winter turns to spring, Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly' comes to the Lyric Opera stage from March 14 to April 12, 2026. Cio-Cio-San, or Madama Butterfly, is a geisha in love with Navy Lt. B.F. Pinkerton — whom everyone else knows will break her heart and destroy her life. Domingo Hindoyan conducts, Karah Son plays Cio-Cio-San, and Evan LeRoy Johnson plays Pinkerton. Concurrently, from March 21 through April 4, 2026, a much newer opera about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and her husband, artist Diego Rivera. "El último sueño de Frida y Diego" is set on Day of the Dead, and involves Kahlo crossing back from the underworld to spent 24 hours with the still-alive and grieving Rivera. The opera had its world premiere in 2022. Roberto Kalb conducts, and Daniela Mack plays Frida — except on April 1, 2026, when Stephanie Sanchez takes over the role. Alfredo Daza plays Diego. For two nights only on April 17 and 18, 2026, the Lyric will present a world premiere of a musical work by Chicago's first ever poet laureate, avery d. young. "safronia" is an Afro-surrealist story told from the perspective of the Booker family, who return from the Northern U.S. to their hometown in the South after five years of banishment to bury their family patriarch. Opera in the Neighborhoods also returns for school and public performances in 2025-2026 with "Katie: The Strongest of the Strong," which tells the true story of circus strongwoman Katie Sandwina. She was known as the strongest woman in the world, but was also a wife and mother who helped lead the women's suffrage movement of the early 20th century. The production features an all-female cast.
Chicago Tribune
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Lyric Opera's 2025-26 season includes ‘Madama Butterfly' and Billy Corgan revisiting ‘Mellon Collie'
The Lyric Opera of Chicago laid out its 2026-26 season at a presentation at the Civic Opera House on Tuesday, the first season to be announced under the direction of John Mangum, Lyric's newly installed general director, president and CEO. Many of the projects first were put in motion by Mangum's predecessor, Anthony Freud. The increased pace of performances reflects what Mangum called a continuation of Lyric's recovery from the pandemic. 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.
