Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 1 - Medea

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 8 From the General Director and the Chair JOHN MANGUM General Director, President & CEO, The Women’s Board Endowed Chair Welcome to Lyric Opera of Chicago! Kyle Flubacker The opening of the opera season is always a celebratory time — but it’s fair to say that we are even more excited than usual this year, as we present Sir David McVicar’s riveting production of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea , the first time this late-18th century masterpiece has been seen on our stage. A Lyric coproduction with the Canadian Opera Company, Greek National Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera, McVicar’s bold take makes its long-awaited debut here after thrilling audiences in those other houses. A company like Lyric only revives a work like Medea when we have the right protagonist leading the cast. Cherubini could have composed the work for international superstar and Chicago native Sondra Radvanovsky — it’s that great a fit. Long a favorite with Lyric audiences, she returns to our stage after her triumph in The Puccini Heroines last season; a recording of that performance is slated for release on Pentatone early next year. Her Medea adds to the list of legendary assumptions here at Lyric, among them Aïda (2011/12), Anna Bolena (2014/15), Norma (2016/17), and Lady Macbeth (2021/22). Her Giasone is the great tenor Matthew Polenzani, an esteemed alumnus of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, with a much-lauded international career. He has sung 15 roles at Lyric since 1995/96, most recently the title role in Idomeneo (2018/19) and Nadir in The Pearl Fishers (2017/18); he was heard here last as soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Sir Andrew Davis. Our Music Director, Maestro Enrique Mazzola, will lead our superb Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Lyric Opera Chorus, directed by Michael Black. Mazzola, now entering his sixth season as the company’s music director (just the third in our history), returns to the Lyric stage after a summer that included important debuts at the Grand Teton and Aspen Music Festivals, as well as performances of Massenet’s Werther at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. This gathering of forces is made possible by you, our beloved Lyric family. Opera is thriving here in Chicago, as we bring beloved classics to the stage this season alongside experiences featuring voices new to opera. We also can present a work such as Medea , on McVicar’s grand scale and with a cast that would be the envy of any opera house in the world, thanks to you being here and supporting us. We trust you’ll enjoy the performance, and we hope it is just the first of many transporting times we will spend together this season. SYLVIA NEIL Chair of the Board Chair nd the General Director Lady Macbeth ( 021/22). fth season as the co pany’s music director SYLVIA NEIL Chair of the Board