CHICAGO (10/9/2026) — Lyric Opera of Chicago comes full circle to open its 2026/27 Season: Mozart’s
Don Giovanni — the very opera that launched the company back in 1954 — returns to the stage October 10 – November 1, 2026.
What happens when a lifetime of seduction and excess finally comes due? Don Giovanni follows opera’s most notorious anti-hero through one reckless night of betrayal, revenge, and unrepentant sin — until the dead themselves arrive to collect.
Lyric Music Director
Enrique Mazzola leads the
Lyric Opera Orchestra, concluding the company’s multi-season exploration of Mozart’s three operas with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte.
Robert Falls, celebrated as “Chicago’s most essential director,” returns to a work he first staged at Lyric in the 2014/15 Season.
Magnetic bass-baritone
Christian Van Horn, a Ryan Opera Center alumnus and winner of the 2018 Richard Tucker Award, stars in the title role, joined by soprano
Mané Galoyan as Donna Anna, soprano
Nina Solodovnikova in her Lyric debut as Donna Elvira, tenor
Lawrence Brownlee as Don Ottavio, baritone
Tommaso Barea in his Lyric debut as Leporello, soprano
Anna El-Khashem in her Lyric debut as Zerlina, bass-baritone
Christopher Humbert, Jr. — also a Ryan Opera Center alumnus — as Masetto, and bass
David Leigh in his Lyric debut as the Commendatore.
We hope audiences can join us for this thrilling season opener — where seduction gives way to reckoning, where opera’s original bad boy meets his fate, and where Lyric’s founding work returns with the same fearless ambition that launched the company more than 70 years ago. From the Champagne Aria’s giddy excess to the Commendatore’s spine-tingling final judgment,
Don Giovanni proves that some stories never lose their power to electrify.
Note: The Sunday, October 18 matinee of Don Giovanni
will be a historic milestone for accessibility in opera — not just a first for Lyric, but the first time a major American opera company presents live American Sign Language interpretation of a foreign-language opera, offered alongside audio description, a touch tour, SoundShirts, and other accessibility assets.
A high-resolution video trailer will be available soon on Lyric's
YouTube channel and in Lyric's online
press room.
Read the
digital program book of
Don Giovanni before the performance.
Performance dates for
Don Giovanni are October 10 at 7:30 p.m.; October 13 and 15 at 7:00 p.m.; October 18 and 21 at 2:00 p.m.; October 24 at 7:30 p.m.; October 30 at 7:00 p.m.; and November 1 at 2:00 p.m. All performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago.
Don Giovanni is performed in Italian, with easy-to-follow projected English titles above the stage.
A total running time of 3 hours and 25 minutes, including one intermission.
American Sign Language interpretation, audio description, a guided touch tour of the set, and SoundShirts will be available at the October 18 performance. Braille and large-print programs, high-powered opera glasses, assistive listening devices, and booster seats are available from the theater’s Steiner Parquet coat checks at all performances; new Auracast assistive listening technology is also available at all performances. For more information on these and other accessibility services, visit
lyricopera.org/accessibility.
For information and tickets, call 312.827.5600 or go to
lyricopera.org/dongiovanni.
