Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 4 - Cavalleria

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 10 floor of the Lyric Opera House is now known as the Steiner Parquet. At the Board of Directors meeting last spring, Penelope received the Carol Fox Award, the company’s highest honor, named for Lyric’s indefatigable co-founder and first general director. “No one deserves this award more than Penelope Steiner,” said John Mangum, General Director, President & CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago. “Her transformational gift is a remarkable affirmation of her belief in our mission, our commitment, and the future of this art form we all love so much.” And yet somehow, as pleasing as these honors must be, Penelope always seems to be looking past them — seeking not to be in the spotlight, but gazing toward where it shines. “Believe it or not, I’m most interested in finding opera lovers who will take my lead,” she says. “Lyric means so much to me, and I know that’s true for others. I want them to follow their heart, as I have.” A longtime Chicago resident, Penelope was born in Riverside, a suburb, and for high school attended what was then Nazareth Academy, a private school in La Grange. She credits her father for what she describes as a lifelong fearlessness; by age 10 or 11, she says, she had already determined that she would spend some of her educational years in Europe — a far less common practice than it is today. After her freshman year at Mundelein College — a school she chose primarily for its affordability — she applied to study programs abroad. She did not tell her parents her plans. The Sorbonne sent an acceptance, but required its students to live with a family; that wouldn’t do. When she discovered that Loyola had a program in Rome, with dormitory living, the decision was made. Her parents simply said yes. Independence combined with fearlessness equals high energy. “The unknown beckoned,” she says — and soon that unknown became part of her daily life. In and between classes, Penelope dove deep — on cuisine, art (Michelangelo, da Vinci, Titian), literature (Primo Levi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Umberto Eco), customs, and, of course, music. Rome and its environs, needless to say, are well suited for these pursuits. Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, for example — the glittering neo-Renaissance stunner where she saw Bohème — opened in 1880 with Semiramide by Gioachino Rossini, and hosted the world premieres for both Cavalleria rusticana (1890) and Tosca (1900). Today Penelope’s tastes in opera range widely by any measure. Puccini became a favorite, of course — but he’s rivaled by Verdi (an enjoyment enhanced by her friendship with Maestro Mazzola and his well-known affinity), Wagner, and Mozart. She made a special gift to the NewWork Fund, and served as lead production sponsor last season for Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s contemporary work, The Listeners . She recently finished and admired director Yuval Sharon’s newest book, A New Philosophy of Oper a, described by one critic as “proposing radical … and contentious views.” That’s rather her cup of tea. “He’s got a great deal of intellectual acumen when it comes to music. And he’s been booed many times,” Penelope says. “I love the fact that he finds that to be OK.” Robert Steiner, Penelope says, “was a brilliant man. We just had a major intellectual connection.” They met in Chicago at a dinner with mutual friends, and were married less than a year later. Their two grown children, Nicole Louise and Robert M. Steiner, Jr., also live in Chicago. Bob was a successful investor and financial advisor (“Nobody left his fund,” Penelope says. “That tells you everything.”), a son of immigrants and a self-made man. At age five, he started his first business, loaning out his comic books for pennies. His modest roots meant that his own philanthropic interests were somewhat late- blooming — but no less significant for it. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where he also received an MBA, he became a longtime benefactor to the business school. He was especially dedicated to the innovative Posse Foundation, a national organization that provides full-tuition scholarships to promising high school students — which, Bob might have noted, represents a long-term investment with a high possible upside. All the while, Penelope’s own activities blossomed, too. She is an expert on film, and for two decades has published witty reviews and commentary across genres at her own website, Peneflix. She has been a major supporter of the Chicago International Film Festival and served as Board Chair. Having studied art history, she was drawn to both the Art Institute and the Museum of Contemporary Art, serving both institutions as a longtime docent. Did she and Bob do all of these things together? Not exactly, Penelope says — though of course they were Robert and Penelope Steiner,celebrating his 50th birthday.