Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 4 - Cavalleria

9 | Lyric Opera of Chicago All roads lead to Rome, they say — so it’s no surprise that some stories begin there, too. The Eternal City was where Penelope Steiner, then a preternaturally bright college student, had her first encounter with grand opera — La Bohème , as this particular tale goes. She was, of course, not the first to be thunderstruck by that work (most operagoers would agree that it makes for a fine start), but few introductions have had such a wide-ranging and longterm impact. Up there in the faraway seats, Steiner grasped the richness of the genre — its grandeur and its humanity — and it was a life-changing experience. “It was my Pretty Woman moment, long before Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) even existed,” she says. “I was as floored by opera as she was in that film. It was instant love with the art form.” Over decades, Steiner has put that feeling into action, in extraordinary ways. She has been a decades-long subscriber to Lyric and over time her commitments have progressively deepened. It’s not surprising, given her own first contact, to learn that her earliest philanthropic efforts with Lyric were focused on young audiences. She became involved with the company’s Youth Opera Council, a select group of Chicagoland high school students, from a broad range of backgrounds, who are supported in their passion for opera and the performing arts. She became an avid supporter of Lyric Unlimited’s Opera in the Neighborhoods program, which continues to bring original productions to audiences across the city; she was so impressed with Gregory Spears’s Jason and the Argonauts , a Lyric- commissioned touring work from 2016 that was revived for the 2023/24 Season, that she flew to Santa Fe Opera to see his world premiere, The Righteous , last summer. Penelope is also a fierce champion of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; a small-world connection through her husband’s doctor led her to become a sponsor of bass-baritone Benjamin R. Sokol, a current member of the Ensemble. She is a founding member and current chair of the Enrique Circle, a group dedicated to supporting Maestro Mazzola (now entering his fifth season), and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors. She is, in short, Lyric family. And then, toward the end of last season, she took things to another level: In March 2025, the company announced her unrestricted gift of $25 million, the largest one-time donation in the company’s seven-decade history. As a result, and with gratitude, the seating on the main Penelope Steiner and Lyric General Director,President & CEO John Mangum at the Carol Fox Award ceremony. Jaclyn Simpson