Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 5 - BLAC

13 | Lyric Opera of Chicago LESTER LYNCH BARITONE Lynch has appeared on major stages around the world, including Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Seattle Opera, Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Volksoper, English National Opera, Norway’s Bergen National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and San Francisco Opera, among others. Notable contemporary highlights include roles in Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero , Busoni’s Doktor Faust , and Nico Muhly’s The Glitch . He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala singing the role of Crown in Porgy and Bess and at the Royal Opera House as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice . Other recent highlights include Zemlinsky’s Symphonische Gesänge under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle in Munich and Frankfurt, and at Carnegie Hall with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He appeared as Escamillo in Carmen with Edmonton Opera and Bluebeard in a new production of Bluebeard’s Castle with both the Edinburgh Festival and New Zealand Opera. He made his film debut in 2021 as Merrivale in Gordon Getty’s new opera, Goodbye, Mr. Chips . Lynch’s recordings on Pentatone include Iago in Verdi’s Otello , Michele in Puccini’s Il Tabarro , Germont in La traviata , and his 2017 debut solo album, “On My Journey Now.” His 2024 recording, Full Circle , features Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge . Lynch recently joined San Francisco Conservatory of Music as Professor of Voice. KENNETH OVERTON BARITONE The baritone is a 2020 Grammy Award winner for Best Choral Performance in the title role of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by JoAnn Falletta. Operatic highlights include appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Royal Danish Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, Palacio Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Capetown Opera, Opera Carolina, North Carolina Opera, Opera Montana, Connecticut Opera, Skylark Opera, Opera Memphis, Nashville Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Sacramento Opera, Fresno Grand Opera, Pensacola Opera, Mobile Opera, Opera Tampa, Opera Idaho, Houston Ebony Opera, Opera Delaware, New Orleans Opera, Opera Ebony, New York City Opera, Bregenzer Festspiele (Austria), Fort Worth Opera, and the Welsh National Opera, among others. Overton has been a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Washington Chorus, Oregon Bach Festival, Chamber Music North West, NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Lithuanian Philharmonic, Sopot Festival Poland, Klagenfurt Philharmonic, New Jersey Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, the National Chorale, Bard Music Festival, Austin Symphony, Duluth Superior Symphony, New York Chorale Society, Oregon Symphony, Annapolis Symphony, Harlem Chamber Players, Bard Music Festival, American Symphony Orchestra, and Spartanburg Philharmonic. This season, he makes his main stage directorial debut with The Anonymous Lover at Opera Columbus. REGINALD SMITH, JR. BARITONE This season Smith makes his Carnegie Hall debut in Carlisle Floyd’s The Pilgrimage, a role and house debut at Seattle Opera as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance , a house debut at Minnesota Opera as Tonio in Pagliacci , and at the Oakland Symphony in his first performance of Verdi’s Requiem . He appears at Houston Grand Opera to make his role debut as Peter in Hansel und Gretel , and he performs the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. He also returns to The Phoenix Symphony and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for holiday performances. Previously at Lyric, he sang Amonasro/ Aida and Emile Griffith /Champion (both 2023/24). Last season, the baritone made several notable debuts, including his role and house debut at Washington National Opera in the title role in Porgy and Bess , his Sacramento Philharmonic debut as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana , and his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut as Amonasro in a staged version of Aida . In addition, he sang the role of Scarpia in Tosca with the New Orleans Opera and the New Mexico Philharmonic, and performed as a soloist in concerts with the New Jersey Symphony led by Xian Zhang, The Phoenix Symphony and Chorus, the Memphis Symphony, and St. Croix Valley Opera. He also made his Santa Fe Opera debut in Tosca and returned to the Houston Grand Opera to take on the title role in Falstaff . KEVIN SHORT BASS BARITONE The bass-baritone’s current and future engagements include The Old Duke/ Guntram (Carnegie Hall American Symphony Orchestra) and Il Re/ Aida (Washington Opera), as well as Angelotti/ Tosca , Lepidus/John Adams’ Anthony and Cleopatra , and Frazier/ Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. Other recent highlights include Porgy/ Porgy and Bess (NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester Hamburg), Headmaster/Preacher/ Mr. Dingleas in Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio (Cincinnati Opera), Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Philadelphia Orchestra), Mahler’s 8th Symphony (Grant Park Music Festival), Rivers/ Ralston/ Goodbye, Mr. Chips (recording and film), and the title role in Don Giovanni (Joburg Theatre). Short has performed more than 20 roles at the Met, including Sam/ Un Ballo in Maschera , Uncle Paul in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones , Doctor Grenvil/ La traviata , and Pfleger/ Elektra . Other role highlights include the title role in Der fliegende Holländer , Sarastro/ Die Zauberflöte , Rocco and Don Fernando/ Fidelio , Nick Shadow/ The Rake’s Progress , Mephistopheles/ Faust , Phillippe II/ Don Carlos , Zaccaria/ Nabucco , Sparafucile/ Rigoletto , and Jack Rance/ La Fanciulla del West .