Carl Orff’s cantata tries its fortunes at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci at Lyric Opera of Chicago are hysterical in all the wrong ways.
Seeing Sondra Radvanovsky as Medea at Lyric Opera of Chicago sprawled across the floor, soaked in her children’s blood, is proof that we’re witnessing an utterly haunting singer-actor.
Missy Mazzoli has established herself as one of contemporary opera’s most skilled and subtle architects of emotional response, and her latest, The Listeners—now at the Lyric Opera of Chicago—is no exception.
Before this weekend, I never thought I would want to leave an opera by Act I. The recent production of Puccini’s La bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago taught me that there’s a first time for everything.
Lyric Opera of Chicago has announced its 2025-26 season, its first complete one under its new General Director, President & CEO John Mangum.
Christina Colanduoni on Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Le Nozze di Figaro
Lyric Opera of Chicago has opened its new season with a revival of its tried and true 2006 production of Verdi’s sixteenth opera, Rigoletto, one of his most tuneful and dramatic works (I attended the Sunday matinée performance).
Anyone arriving at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola) expecting the Disney-fied version of the story will be in for a surprise.
I’ve never had a better time in an opera house.
Lyric Opera of Chicago has brought back its wildly successful 2019 production of West Side Story, directed by Francesca Zambello. I thought it was terrific back then and, even with numerous cast changes, it was just as terrific on Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately, LOC’s Proximity works only fitfully.
Following the great success of its new piece The Factotum, Lyric Opera of Chicago returned to the tried and true with the audience-pleaser Carmen in an equally tried and true 20-year old Lyric production that has stood the test of time.
Baritone Will Liverman is becoming a real Renaissance man.
Director Richard Jones’ well-traveled and visually arresting production of Humperdinck’s 1893 opera Hansel and Gretel has returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago after a 10-year absence.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Don Carlos was a real feast of good singing and orchestral grandeur.
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Le Comte Ory was a lovely cake with waaaay too much frosting.
LOC’s Ernani is a satisfying evening of Verdi sung by four stars at the height of their powers.
A co-production of Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, and Los Angeles Opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones blazed into Chicago as a stunning, highly emotional and moving performance.
I must confess to feeling a bit of “Tosca fatigue” as I entered the Lyric Opera of Chicago house for Wednesday’s matinee of the Puccini standard.
The opera utilizes the idea of “magical realism,” telling a realistic story combined with elements of magic and fantasy.
Hie thee hither to the Lyric Opera House!
This is an exuberant, uplifting, and joyous Elisir, and, for once, it was actually laugh-out-loud funny.
Our Own Henson Keys will make his opera debut in the role of Wotan in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Twilight: Gods, directed by Yuval Sharon and starring Christine Goerke.
Tell us: What was the best of 2025?
Parterre Box concludes the thrilling first year of Talk of the Town by inviting your lightning rod opinions on several more categories of operatic argumentation.
