Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 9 - Così fan tutte

23 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Hollywood Bowl with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Other recent notable performances include creating the role of The Consumer in the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s opera The Shell Trial at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. IAN RUCKER GUGLIELMO Previously at Lyric: Five roles since 2022/23, most recently Schaunard/ La Bohème (2024/25) and Foreman/ Jen˚ufa (2023/24). This season’s highlights for the American baritone include Dandini/ La Cenerentola at Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Count Almaviva/ The Marriage of Figaro at Scottish Opera. Also this season, Rucker was the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana at Lyric. He recently performed the title role in the world premiere of The Story of Billy Budd , Sailor at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, was a prize winner in the 2024 Neue Stimmen vocal competition, and sang the role of Diener IV in Strauss's Capriccio at the 2024 Salzburg Festival. While an Ensemble member with the Ryan Opera Center, Rucker sang Man in Bar/ Champion (2023/24), Moralès/ Carmen and Raimbaud/ Le Comte Ory (both 2022/23). He spent a summer at the Aspen Summer Music Festival as a Renée Fleming Artist, and was also an Apprentice Artist with Palm Beach Opera. Competition successes include semi-finalist in the 2025 Operalia competition, 1st Prize in Tier II of the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, and encouragement awards in both the Wisconsin and Georgia districts of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Rucker received a bachelor's degree in Vocal Performance from The University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire and a masters in Vocal Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. ROD GILFRY DON ALFONSO Previously at Lyric: Three roles since 1994/95, most recently Marcello/ La Bohème (2001/02) and Figaro/ Il barbiere di Siviglia (1994/95). The American baritone is a two-time Grammy Award nominee, most recently for his performance in the title role of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise in Amsterdam. This season, Gilfry returns to the Metropolitan Opera as the Father-in-Law in Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence and reprises the role of Owen Hart in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking with San Francisco Opera. At Lyric in 2022/23, he performed Alfred Stieglitz in Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light with Renée Fleming, a concert production which has appeared at Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Colorado Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Tanglewood Festival, Naples (FL) Philharmonic, and Aspen Music Festival and School, among other venues. Recent highlights include Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with James Conlon at LA Opera; Alberto Roc in the American premiere of Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel , Claudius in Brett Dean’s Hamlet (also at Opera Australia), Owen Hart in Dead Man Walking , and Danilo in a new production of The Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera; Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence at the San Francisco Opera; and Howard K. Stern in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole with the New York City Opera and the Royal Ballet and Opera. Gilfry originated the role of Robert McNamara in Washington National Opera’s world premiere Written in Stone by Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang. ENRIQUE MAZZOLA CONDUCTOR Lyric’s Music Director — the third in the company’s history — is internationally renowned as an interpreter and champion of bel canto opera and as a specialist in French repertoire and the works of Verdi. Mazzola’s recently completed tenure as Principal Guest Conductor at Deutsche Oper Berlin included recordings of Dinorah and Hérodiade and performances of Le prophète, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Werther, Falstaff, Vepres Siciliennes , and Les contes d’Hoffmann . He served as Conductor in Residence for the Bregenz Festival from 2021 to 2024, where he conducted a new production of Rigoletto and recorded DVDs of Rigoletto , Madama Butterfly, Die Freischütz, Ernani , and Mosè in Egitto . He served as Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France from 2012 to 2019, and in 2018 was named a Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Mazzola made his debut at Lyric with Lucia di Lammermoor in 2016/17, and conducted Bellini’s I puritani in 2017/18. During 2019/20, he led Verdi’s Luisa Miller to launch the company’s Early Verdi Series and, in his first performances as Music Director, opened Lyric’s 2021/22 season with Sir David McVicar’s new production of Macbeth . An accomplished interpreter of contemporary music, Mazzola recently conducted Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s The Listeners (2024/25) and Terence Blanchard’s Champion (2022/23) at Lyric. He has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the major houses of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Moscow, and Tokyo, as well as a historic Meyerbeer cycle with Deutsche Oper Berlin. Past major European festivals have included Glyndebourne (including DVD releases of Don Pasquale, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Poliuto ), Salzburg ( Orphée aux Enfers ), Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival), Venice, Aix-en-Provence, and Bregenz. Symphonic highlights include the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre National de France,