Broadway directors in mix for Lyric's new season

There's lots Broadway talent attached to the Lyric Opera of Chicago's 2015-16 season, the first fully planned by general director Anthony Freud. The season features nine new or new-to-Chicago productions:

• "The Marriage of Figaro" (nine performances, Sept. 26-Oct. 24) - Chicago Shakespeare Theater artistic director Barbara Gaines directs a new production of Mozart's romantic comedy. Waukegan native Amanda Majeski plays Countess Almaviva. Henrik Nánási conducts.

• "Cinderella" (eight performances, Oct. 4-30) - Lyric music director Sir Andrew Davis conducts Rossini's fairy tale opera for the first time in a Houston Grand Opera production. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee makes his Lyric debut as the prince.

• "Wozzeck" (six performances, Nov. 1-21) - Sir David McVicar ("Rusalka," "Elektra") directs a new production of Alban Berg's 1925 expressionistic masterpiece about a mentally unstable soldier who commits murder. Davis conducts.

• "The Merry Widow" (10 performances, Nov. 14-Dec. 13) - Lyric creative consultant Renée Fleming used her clout to get the Metropolitan Opera's current new production directed by Tony Award-winner Susan Stroman ("The Producers") transferred to Chicago. Fleming shares the title role with soprano Elizabeth Futral. Davis conducts.

• "Bel Canto" (seven performances, Dec. 7-Jan. 17) - Ann Patchett's best-selling novel about a classical singer caught up in a Latin American hostage situation is transformed into an opera by composer Jimmy Lopez and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz ("Anna in the Tropics"). Davis conducts director Kevin Newbury's world premiere production which stars Danielle de Niese.

• "Nabucco" (seven performances, Jan. 23-Feb. 12) - Verdi's first major hit inspired by the Biblical tale of King Nebuchadnezzar returns to Lyric in a modern-dress production. Carlo Rizzi conducts.

• "Der Rosenkavalier" (eight performances, Feb. 8-March 13) - Majeski returns to star as the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' wistful look back at 18th century Vienna in a traditional Otto Schenk production from Munich. Edward Gardner conducts.

• "Romeo and Juliet" (nine performances, Feb. 22-March 19) - Emmanuel Villaume conducts Tony Award-winner Bartlett Sher's European staging of Gounod's operatic take on Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers. Joseph Calleja and Eric Cutler share the role of Romeo opposite Susanna Phillips as Juliet.

• Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 Broadway classic "The King and I" is the postseason show for the Lyric's American Musical Theater Initiative (23 shows, April 29 to May 22). The Lyric also hosts two special concerts featuring Plácido Domingo and Ana María Martínez on Jan. 9 and Dmitri Hvorostovsky in recital with pianist Ivari Ilja on Feb. 26.

For more information, visit lyricopera.org or call (312) 827-5600.