Lunga Eric Hallam News Today

John de los Santos directs a cast of eight in “Don Giovanni”

Now more than ever, the emphasis is on the "new" in the world of Classical & Choral music.

"The Factotum" is a civic statement by Lyric Opera, an organization finally embracing locality as well as its long-standing leadership of international opera.

This “Song of Chicago” had a well-researched thesis, arguing that Chicago was uniquely nurturing to composers in the 20th century.

Riccardo Muti’s last season as music director of the CSO, and Lyric Opera’s “Don Carlo” are also among the highlights of the season.

On Sunday evening, in the wake of a thunderous few days of the Chicago Air and Water Show, Enrique Mazzola, Lyric Opera’s Music Director (along with Donald Lee III, the inaugural Ryan Opera Center conductor/pianist), led the Lyric Opera Orchestra and singers from the Ryan Opera Center’s esteemed training center on the same stage of the Pritzker Pavillion.

Thursday evening’s bravura production was a major event in Muti’s penultimate season as the CSO’s music director. And it was a grand homage to both the composer whose work he has long cherished, and the orchestra he has embraced and nurtured since becoming its music director in 2010.

“Un Ballo in Maschera” is the last in a series of Verdi operas led in concert by the Chicago Symphony’s music director, who departs after next season.

A superlative Verdian, Muti has cradled the Italian master’s music close to the CSO and inaugurated a golden era of opera at Orchestra Hall.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, the professional artist-development program at Lyric Opera of Chicago, announced the complete roster of 16 artists who comprise its 2022/23 Ensemble.