Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 8 - Salome

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 24 Pirates of Penzance . A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Espinal continued his studies at Yale University, where he received a Master of Musical Arts degree. His roles there included Tom Rakewell/ The Rake’s Progress , Rinuccio/ Gianni Schicchi , and Male Chorus/ The Rape of Lucretia . The tenor previously participated in San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program for two summers. Daniel Luis Espinal is sponsored by Lead Sponsor the J.Thomas Hurvis Endowment, in loving memory of Dick Kiphart and cosponsors Fred & Phoebe Boelter, Margo & Michael Oberman & Family, and Jennifer L. Stone. ZHENGYI BAI FOURTH JEW Lyric debut In the 2025/26 season, the Chinese tenor will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the holiday presentation of The Magic Flute as Monostatos, a role he will reprise in Barrie Kosky’s production in German at LA Opera and Opera San Antonio. Bai will also sing the lead role of the Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River with Opéra national de Lorraine in France. Other recent highlights include Prince Nilsky in Peter Sellars’s new production of Prokofiev’s The Gambler with the Salzburg Festival, Monostatos at San Francisco Opera, Fong See in On Golden Mountain at LA Opera, Prince Charmant in Cendrillon with Opera Orlando, Colin in The Anonymous Lover with Boston Lyric Opera, Pang in Turandot with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Goro in Madama Butterfly with Virginia Opera, Florentine Opera, and Kentucky Opera, Der Bucklige in Die Frau ohne Schatten with San Francisco Opera, the First Prisoner in Fidelio with San Francisco Opera, Dancing Master/Lamplighter in Manon Lescaut with San Francisco Opera, Remendado in Carmen with San Francisco Opera, and Alessandro in Il rè pastore with Merola Opera. BENJAMIN R. SOKOL FIFTH JEW Lyric debut Originally from Westbury, New York, Sokol is a first-year Ryan Opera Center bass- baritone. This season at Lyric he will also appear in El último sueño de Frida y Diego . He recently received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and professional studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music. Sokol was a winner of the 2025 Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition, semi-finalist in the 2025 George and Nora London Foundation Competition and 2023 Premiere Opera Foundation Competition, finalist in the 2022 Opera Index Competition, and winner of the 2021 Milnes Opera Idol Competition. He has previously participated in the artist-development programs at San Francisco’s Merola Opera (Commendatore/ Don Giovanni ), Chautauqua Opera Company and Conservatory, and the Taos Opera Institute. He has also been with the Milnes VOICE Programs for several years, participating in the Florida VOICE Project and Milnes VOICE Studio and performing at the Savannah VOICE Festival. Benjamin R. Sokol is sponsored by David & Janet Fox and Penelope R. Steiner. ALEKSEY BOGDANOV FIRST NAZARENE Lyric debut This season the baritone debuts with The Atlanta Opera in Götterdämmerung (Alberich) and San Diego Opera in Carmen (Escamillo), and returns to San Francisco Opera for Rigoletto (Il Conte di Monterone). Future seasons include a debut with The Dallas Opera as well as returns to San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and The Atlanta Opera. In the 2024/25 Season, he made his debut with Pacific Symphony in a staged production of Das Rheingold (Donner), and returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Frau ohne Schatten (Der Einäugige), Palm Beach Opera for Roméo et Juliette (Capulet), and The Glimmerglass Festival for The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow). On the concert stage, he appeared with the Cathedral Choral Society in Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D and with The Clarion Choir in Rachmaninoff’s Spring Cantata . Recent operatic highlights include debuts at Gran Teatre del Liceu in Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Crespel/ Luther), Royal Swedish Opera in La fanciulla del West (Rance), and performances of Tosca (Scarpia) with companies including Kaohsiung Philharmonic Cultural & Arts Foundation, Palm Beach Opera, Austin Opera, and Hawaii Opera Theatre. SIHAO HU SECOND NAZARENE Lyric debut The first-year Ryan Opera Center baritone from Shenzhen, China, studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. This season at Lyric, he will also appear in Madama Butterfly . Hu participated in more than 50 performances across his homeland as well as abroad throughout his undergraduate studies. Highlights of his operatic experience include creating the title role of Tang Xian Zu for its world premiere in 2017 and reprising it at the Sydney Opera House, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and the Janáˇcek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic. Other roles in his repertoire include Ping/ Turandot , Silvio/ Pagliacci , Barmann/ Falscher Verrat , Figaro/ Il barbiere di Siviglia , Chorèbe/ Les Troyens , Germont/ La traviata , the title role/ Don Giovanni , Guglielmo/ Così fan tutte , and Conte Almaviva/ Le nozze di Figaro . Sihao Hu is sponsored by Lead Sponsor Peter Scheuermann and cosponsors Drs. George Dunea & Sally Metzler-Dunea, Richard W. Shepro & Lindsay E. Roberts, and Ms. Gay K. Stanek. SCOTT CONNER FIRST SOLDIER Lyric debut This season Conner will make role debuts singing Zuniga in Carmen and Aldeano Three in El último sueño de Frida y Dieg o at the Metropolitan Opera, and return to Opera Philadelphia to sing Lord Sidney in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims . In the 2024/25 Season he performed One-Armed Brother in Die Frau ohne Schatten and Jose Tripaldi in Ainadamar