Help Us Create Magic Onstage!

When the Lyric Opera House (formerly Civic Opera House) was built in 1929, it was the most state-of-the-art building of its time. Today, the Ardis Krainik Theatre stage is one of the most antiquated of any major opera house in the world. 

The company did not purchase the opera house (and all the square footage that the company occupies) until the mid-1990s, at which time much of the original equipment had become inoperable.  Since then, Lyric has had to implement temporary ad hoc solutions in order to offer our audiences productions that have become, over the years, increasingly complex. The inadequacies of our stage infrastructure and equipment make the Lyric Opera House incompatible with opera houses around the world with whom we wish to collaborate, including The Met, Royal Opera House, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra National de Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, and Bayerische Staatsoper. 

We will not put our stagehands and artists at risk with these temporary fixes, and we cannot continue to pay for inefficient, impermanent solutions.  Therefore, we are in the process of raising $7.6 million to allow us to invest in permanent solutions: a custom stage lift system, a fleet of 64 new point hoist motors, a fully automated counterweight flying system, a motorized turntable, and proper video projection equipment. 

To meet the immediate needs of our upcoming new productions, Das Rheingold, Les Troyens and The Magic Flute, Lyric must purchase and install by October 1, 2016 at least 16 new point hoist motors at $64,000 each, 3 stage lifts at $500,000 each, and a turntable which costs $750,000.

Help us create magic onstage! Please make a gift today online or by calling 312.827.5723.