The Flying Dutchman opens Saturday, September 23

View The Flying Dutchman images here

CHICAGO (9/22/2023) — Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 69th Season sets sail with Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, September 23 to October 7, 2023. More than 160 musical and dramatic artists bring this riveting odyssey to life on Chicago’s biggest stage.

In his third season as Lyric’s Music Director, Enrique Mazzola leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra through a series of momentous "firsts." This season opener, which features a 72-piece orchestra, will mark Mazzola’s first time conducting Wagner at Lyric. [Other milestones in the season include his first contemporary work at Lyric (Terence Blanchard and Michael Cristofer’s Champion), his first-ever production of Aida, and his first Mozart at Lyric, the Requiem.]

The Flying Dutchman stars returning favorites Tomasz Konieczny as the Dutchman, Tamara Wilson as Senta, and Mika Kares as Daland, as well as Robert Watson as Erik and Melody Wilson as Mary, both in their Lyric debuts. The 85-member Lyric Opera Chorus adds a staggering impact to this haunting story.

The theatrically spellbinding production of director Christopher Alden creates the illusion of a haunted ship battling raging waters and captures all the drama of the high seas suffused into Wagner’s haunting score.

The performance on Sunday, October 1 marks the launch of a new Lyric accessibility initiative — the SoundShirt — a pilot program that allows all audience members, but particularly those who are deaf or hard of hearing, to experience live opera enhanced by real-time vibrations. Lyric is the first opera company in the world to offer this innovation at its live performances.

The Flying Dutchman docks at Lyric for five performances only, through October 7. Audiences are invited to experience this operatic classic on a musical and theatrical scale only Lyric Opera of Chicago can offer.

View The Flying Dutchman images here

A high-resolution video trailer is now available on Lyric's YouTube channel.

Read the The Flying Dutchman digital program book and read the director's note.

Performance dates for The Flying Dutchman are September 23, 27, October 1 (matinee), 4 (matinee), and 7, 2023. All performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago.

The Flying Dutchman is performed in German, with easy-to-follow English translations projected above the stage.

The running time is 2 hours and 20 minutes and the opera is performed without an intermission.

For tickets and information, call 312.827.5600 or go to lyricopera.org/dutchman.

Lyric’s production of The Flying Dutchman is generously made possible by an Anonymous DonorJosef & Margot Lakonishok, and Bulley & Andrews.

Maestro Enrique Mazzola is generously sponsored by Alice & John Butler, H. Gael Neeson, Sylvia Neil & Daniel Fischel, and the Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation as members of the Enrique Circle.

Lyric Opera's Season is presented by

Lyric Opera of Chicago thanks its Official Airline, American Airlines, and acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency

About Lyric

About Lyric

Lyric Opera of Chicago is committed to redefining what it means to experience great opera. The company is driven to deliver consistently excellent artistry through innovative, relevant, celebratory programming that engages and energizes new and traditional audiences.

Under the leadership of Interim General Director Elizabeth Hurley, Lyric's Executive Leadership Team, and Music Director Enrique Mazzola, Lyric is dedicated to reflecting, and drawing strength from, the diversity of Chicago. Lyric offers, through innovation, collaboration, and evolving learning opportunities, ever-more exciting, accessible, and thought-provoking audience and community experiences. We also stand committed to training the artists of the future, through The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; and to becoming increasingly diverse across our audiences, staff, programming, and artists—magnifying the welcoming pull of our art form, our company, and our city.

Through the timeless power of voice, the splendor of a great orchestra and chorus, theater, dance, design, and truly magnificent stagecraft, Lyric is devoted to immersing audiences in worlds both familiar and unexpected, creating shared experiences that resonate long after the curtain comes down.

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For more information on Lyric's upcoming 2024/25 Season, visit lyricopera.org/newseason.