Coming attractions

"I would love for Lyric to be a place where all sorts of creative musical artists can see themselves and their work,” said John Mangum, General Director, President and CEO of Lyric Opera of Chicago. He was speaking in advance of the company’s world premiere of A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness — and the innovative production’s sold-out success seems to indicate that the process is well underway. In this season and beyond, the company is intentionally broadening its offerings. For nearly seven decades, Lyric has been synonymous with the pillars of the operatic repertoire, and that won’t change (take note: the company’s own Ring cycle is on the horizon for 2029). Yet new audiences are finding their way to the opera house as well, for more world premieres, genre-bending collaborations, concerts, and films with live orchestra. It’s intentional.

“We have a duty as one of the world’s leading opera companies to further the art form, to develop the art form, to create new work,” Mangum says. “Opera is a much wider net than one might assume. There’s capacity for creative expression in this art form that spans the boundaries — the false boundaries — of different genres.”

The world premiere of safronia, onstage at Lyric April 17 and 18, provides a salient example. The evocative new work, commissioned from Chicago’s first Poet Laureate, avery r. young, draws on Black folklore and poetic narrative, and is rich with the musical lineages of gospel, blues, funk, and soul. It’s a deeply personal story that might never have been told were it not for young’s memorable contributions to the company’s pandemic era Twilight: Gods production. There, young’s poetic narration connected scenes and helped reformulate Wagner’s Ring cycle as a site-specific, communal experience. safronia marks the Chicago native’s first foray into opera, penning both the score and the libretto himself. This semi-staged production, directed by Timothy Douglas in his Lyric debut, marks a significant addition to Lyric’s ongoing commitment to new work that reflects the cultural vibrancy of Chicago and the stories of the communities that shape it.

Similarly contemporary is Gabriela Lena Frank and Nilo Cruz’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego, which received its premiere in 2022, and will run at Lyric March 21 through April 4, 2026. The work presents an imaginary tale taking place on the Day of the Dead, when Mexican artist Frida Kahlo crosses over from the underworld for 24 short hours with Diego Rivera, who remains in the living world, alone and grieving her loss. The pair’s legendary marriage — and revolutionary art — arrive onstage with vivid colors, surrealist touches, and lush, evocative music sung in Spanish and inspired by Mexican folk music traditions.

Lyric’s increasingly popular Live to Film concert series — which this season included the charming Coco — continues April 10 and 11 with Mary Poppins. Audiences will have a chance to see a much younger Dick Van Dyke (who recently marked his 100th birthday) join a high-flying Julie Andrews in this legendary masterpiece.

Mangum sees film as a natural cousin to opera rather than a detour from it. In the 19th century, he notes, opera was the medium for epic storytelling; in the 20th, film emerged as the vehicle for those broad narratives. “The 19th century’s operetta, light music, singspiel and the like developed into the musical theater of the 20th century,” he says. “The films that we’re putting on at Lyric are true descendants.” 

Mangum has often stated his commitment to “the tried and true cornerstones of the repertoire,” and there is perhaps no better example than Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, running March 14 to April 12, 2026 (though it’s interesting to note, too, that Mangum cites the work’s appropriation of Eastern source material as an example of the pliable, hybrid nature of opera, hiding in plain sight). This breathtaking production, conceived and directed by Matthew Ozawa, Lyric’s Chief Artistic Officer, is a much-acclaimed hit, fusing the colorful splendor audiences have grown to expect from the work with an innovative frame. Time past and time present onstage, love and loss, a hypnotic score — sounds like grand opera at its finest.