Decadence, desire, and deadly obsession: Salome opens at Lyric on Sunday, January 25

 
CHICAGO (1/23/2026) — Lyric Opera of Chicago's 2025/26 Season continues with Richard Strauss’s electrifying Salome, on stage January 25 – February 14, 2026.

One of opera's most provocative works returns to Lyric for the first time in 20 years in Sir David McVicar’s decadent production, which is influenced by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious 1975 film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. A trio of acclaimed singers make their Lyric debuts: soprano Jennifer Holloway in the title role of the young princess consumed by forbidden desire, tenor Alex Boyer as her volatile father Herod, and rising star Nicholas Brownlee — winner of the 2025 Richard Tucker Award and International Opera Awards Male Singer of the Year — as Jochanaan, the imprisoned prophet who dares to refuse Salome's advances. Conductor Tomáš Netopil makes his Lyric debut leading an expanded Lyric Opera Orchestra through Strauss’s revolutionary score.

We hope audiences can join us for this unsparing opera — where obsession leads to violence, seduction turns lethal, and one dance changes everything. From the infamous “Dance of the Seven Veils” to opera’s most famous silver platter, Salome shows that when a teenage princess doesn’t get her way, heads will roll.
 
 
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 Salome before the performance.
 
Performance dates for Salome are January 25 at 2:00 p.m.; January 29, February 3, and 6 at 7:00 p.m.; February 11 at 2:00 p.m., and February 14 at 7:30 p.m. All performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago.
 
Salome is performed in German, with easy-to-follow projected English titles above the stage.
 
A total running time of 1 hour and 40 minutes, with no intermission.
 
Audio description, a guided touch tour of the set, and SoundShirts are available at the Sunday, January 25 matinee 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. For more information on these and other accessibility assets, visit lyricopera.org/accessibility.
 
For information and tickets, call 312.827.5600 or go to lyricopera.org/salome.
 

Lyric Opera's Season is presented by

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

United Airlines
Illinois Arts Council

About Lyric

About Lyric

Lyric Opera of Chicago is where the world sings — and where Chicago comes alive.

Under the leadership of General Director, President & CEO John Mangum and Music Director Enrique Mazzola, Lyric stands at the intersection of artistic excellence and civic purpose, harnessing the full power of opera — voice, orchestra, stagecraft, and story — to illuminate the questions, emotions, and experiences that define us as human beings. Nearly 75 seasons of world-class performances have made Lyric one of the greatest opera companies in the world. What drives us now is what has always driven us: the belief that this art form, at its best, can move people in ways nothing else can.

Lyric is also Chicago’s partner — in its neighborhoods, its schools, and its communities — through education, engagement, and a relentless commitment to making opera accessible, relevant, and irresistible to everyone. At the heart of that commitment is The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, which trains the artists who will carry this art form into its future. Every night when the curtain rises, Lyric reminds this city — and the world — why live performance still matters.

Lyric Opera of Chicago doesn’t just present opera, it redefines what opera can be. It’s where Chicago comes to be moved, inspired, and connected.

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