Verdi Classic to Open Lyric Season
Chicago Lyric Opera's 2007/08 season includes 2 company premieres
The Lyric Opera of Chicago announces its 2007/08 season to include works by Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Strauss, Handel, Adams, and Tchaikovsky.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 53rd season opens on September 29th with conductor emeritus Bruno Bartoletti conducting Verdi’s La Traviata. This production, first presented in 1993, will feature a split run and two separate, but equally exciting casts. The fall performances will feature Elizabeth Futral as Violetta, tenor Joseph Calleja (in his company debut) as Alfredo, and Mark Delevan as Germont. The roles of the January performances will include Renée Fleming, Matthew Polenzani, and Thomas Hampson, conducted by Lyric Opera music director Sir Andrew Davis.
The season continues with Puccini’s beloved La Bohème with Angela Gheorghiu as Mimi.. The legendary soprano Renata Scotto will make her Lyric directing debut. The season also includes two Lyric Opera premiers. Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar) premiers with 8 performances in November and John Adams' Doctor Atomic (with libretto by Peter Sellars) with 8 performances in December and January. Of note, countertenor David Daniels will perform in the title role in the Handel.
The Lyric’s season is rounded out by four new productions of four very different and distinct works: Richard Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman Without a Shadow), Verdi’s Falstaff, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Lyric Opera General Director, William Mason on the casting of Deborah Voigt and Christine Brewer in the Strauss says “We have two of the world’s best Straussian soprano, both natives of Illinois, coincidentally: Deborah Voigt, whose overwhelming performance as Salome this season electrified audiences, and soprano Christine Brewer, who will make a long-awaited Lyric debut.”
Baritone Nathan Gunn will be seen as the beloved Figaro and internationally renowned Rossini tenor, Juan Diego Flórez returns to the Lyric as the aristocratic Count Almaviva. Mezzo soprano Joyce DiDonato, making her company debut, will be the object of the Count’s desire as the lovely Rosina. Dmitri Hvorostovsky is in the title role in the Tchaikovsky. Further information about the 2007/2008 season can be found at www.lyricopera.org
