Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 5 - BLAC

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 12 Symphony Orchestra, Porgy and Bess with Greenville Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Nkeiru Okoye’s A Time for Jubilee with Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and later Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra. Mitchell recently returned to the role of Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with New Orleans Opera and Portland Opera and reprised her lauded performance of Sanctuary Road with Virginia Opera, Princeton Pro Musica, and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park. She also appeared in concert with Saint Thomas Church for Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, Chattanooga Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Cleveland Orchestra for their community chamber concert series, the Waterbury Symphony for their performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, and Bard Summerscape to sing Verveine in Viardot’s chamber opera Le dernier sorcier. LUCIA BRADFORD MEZZO-SOPRANO Highlights this season for the mezzo-soprano include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra in New York, and Adolphus Hailstork’s Crispus Attuck with Cantori New York Chorus. She has performed a number of operatic roles including Zita/ Gianni Schicchi, La Principessa/ Suor Angelica, The Mother/ L’Enfant des Sortileges, Mercedes/ Carmen, Mrs. Quickly/ Falstaff, The Sorceress/ Dido and Aeneas, Gertrude/Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, Hippolyta/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Todd/ The Old Maid and the Thief, Carmen in the Peter Brook adaptation of La Tragedie de Carmen, the Duchess of Plaza Toro/ The Gondoliers, Azelia Dessalines in the historic return of William Grant Still’s Troubled Island with New York City Opera, Mamie Till/ Emmett Till, Maria/ Porgy and Bess with Des Moines Opera Company, Opera Carolina North Carolina Opera, the Mother of Paul Dunbar in the premiere of The Mask in the Mirror, and MLK’s grandmother in the premiere of I Dream. She sang Berta/ Il Barbiere di Siviglia , Marcellina/ Le Nozze di Figaro, and The Stepmother/ Cendrillon with North Carolina Opera. A frequent concert and recital performer, Bradford has sung at the Kimmel Center with Christoph Eschenbach, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Atlanta Symphony, the DeFalla ballet suite with the Greenwich Symphony orchestra, Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater with Resonance Works, on New York City Opera›s VOX concert series, with the Harlem Chamber Players in their annual Bach series and the St. Luke›s orchestra in a concert version of Dido and Aeneas, and in the New York Festival of Song at Merkin Hall and the Kennedy Center performing Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest. ISSACHAH SAVAGE TENOR The tenor has sung the title roles in Tannhäuser, Otello, Peter Grimes, and Rienzi; Siegmund in Die Walküre; Radamès in Aida; Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos; Der Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten; Manrico in Il trovatore; and Narraboth in Salome, performing with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Dutch National Opera, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, and the Salzburg Festival, among others. Savage has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and the Melbourne Symphony. His wide-ranging symphonic repertoire includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Smyth’s Mass in D, Giddens and Abel’s Omar’s Journey, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem Mass, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, and Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder. This season, he makes debuts with the Milwaukee Symphony in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and with the North Carolina Symphony in Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. He also returns to the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo for Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. CHAZ’MEN WILLIAMS-ALI TENOR Recent successes for the tenor include his return to Washington National Opera as First Prisoner/ Fidelio, where he also sang the role of Florestan. He made his debut in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Wisconsin Youth Symphony, and sang Cavaradossi/ Tosca at Cedar Rapids Opera, a role to which he returns later this season at Florentine Opera. Past highlights include Nate/ Highway One USA at Los Angeles Opera, his return to Rodolfo/ La Bohème at Florentine Opera, and Zorn/ Die Meistersinger in his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, where he also covered Spinner/ Fire Shut Up in My Bones, a role he inaugurated in 2019 in the original production at Opera Theatre of St Louis. He sang Narraboth/ Salome at Madison Opera and Rodolfo at Kentucky Opera following his work as principal tenor at Theater Heidelberg in Germany, where he appeared as Pinkerton/ Madama Butterfly, Florestan, Canio/ Pagliacci, Tebaldo/ I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Der Prinz/ Rusalka. Williams-Ali made his international debut with English National Opera for the roles of Robbins and The Crab Man/ Porgy & Bess , roles he also sang in Amsterdam. Originally from St. Louis, Williams-Ali spent two years in the Artist-in- Training program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and then studied voice at the University of Iowa School of Music.