Chicago's upcoming opera season is one worth singing about

Chicago opera fans have a lot to be excited about this season. There are plenty of starry singers and conductors making their debuts with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, while all of the works in Chicago Opera Theater's 50th anniversary season are receiving professional Windy City premieres.

There are also a plethora of smaller opera companies around Chicago that explore more experimental or specialized works, especially Haymarket Opera Company, which focuses on operas from the baroque era.

But many opera companies are still reeling from the aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic like financial difficulties and shrinking subscriptions bases.

Chicago's main opera companies have noticeably slimmed down the number of works they are producing this season. Chicago Opera Theater recently announced the cancellation of a planned production of Rameau's baroque comedy “Platée,” while the Lyric did not announce any plans for a postseason Broadway musical.

But there's still a lot to cheer about with the operas on offer this season.

New-to-Chicago stars and stagings

Richard Wagner's “The Flying Dutchman” (now through Oct. 7) returns to open the Lyric after an absence of more than two decades in an imported Toronto production by director Christopher Alden. Soprano and former Naperville resident Tamara Wilson returns to star as Senta, a young woman obsessed with the ghostly legend of The Dutchman (Polish bass-baritone Tomasz Konieczny). Lyric music director Enrique Mazzola conducts this 1843 masterpiece.

Cuban-American soprano Lisette Oropesa and Italian conductor Speranza Scappucci both make highly anticipated Lyric debuts in “The Daughter of the Regiment” (Nov. 4-25). Donizetti's 1840 French romantic comedy about an orphan raised by a military regiment returns to the Lyric after a 50-year absence in director Laurant Pelly's internationally acclaimed production that updates the action to World War I. Production veterans such as American tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Italian baritone Alessandro Corbelli also star.

Die-hard opera fans are also flying in from around the world to catch the Scandinavian star power headlining Janácek's 1904 drama “Jenufa” (Nov. 12-26). Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Lyric debut in the title role of a young Czech woman facing an unintended pregnancy, while Swedish soprano Nina Stemme stars as her fanatically religious stepmother. The Lyric is importing director Claus Guth's stark London staging, which won the 2022 Olivier Award for Best Opera Production, while Czech conductor Jakub Hruša also makes his Lyric debut.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's classic 1969 production of Rossini's 1817 fairy tale “Cinderella” (Jan. 21-Feb. 10) returns as a showcase for Russian mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, American tenor Jack Swanson and Taiwanese conductor Yi-Chen Lin — all making their Lyric debuts. The cast also includes Lyric singing veterans Alessandro Corbelli, Joshua Hopkins and Nicholas Newton.

The Lyric also imports a new-to-Chicago production of “Aida” (March 9-April 7) in a stylized staging by director Francesca Zambello rather than reviving the company's old Nicolas Joël production from 1983. Verdi's 1871 Egyptian spectacle is led by conductor Enrique Mazzola and re-teams the Lyric's recent “Tosca” stars of soprano Michelle Bradley as the Ethiopian princess Aida and tenor Russell Thomas as the Egyptian military leader Radams. Award-winning mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton rounds out the love triangle as the Egyptian princess Amneris.

Preeminent premieres

The one contemporary opera making a big Chicago premiere this season at the Lyric is “Champion” (Jan. 27-Feb. 11) in an enlarged co-production with The Metropolitan Opera where it was staged last season. This 2013 opera by composer Terence Blanchard (“Fire Shut Up in My Bones”) and playwright Michael Cristofer (“Man in the Ring”) is inspired by the conflicted life of bisexual boxer Emile Griffith. Conductor Enrique Mazzola leads a starry cast featuring Eric Owens, Justin Austin, Whitney Morrison and Paul Groves.

For opera fans looking for more rarities and new works, Chicago Opera Theater is filling in the gaps. There are big Chicago premieres and more intimate concert stagings.

“Soldier Songs” (Oct. 5) is based on composer and librettist David T. Little's interviews with veterans. Bass-baritone Nathan Gunn stars in this concert at Chicago's Epiphany Center for the Arts. The venue also is host to “The Weight of Light” (April 27), a Vanguard Opera in-development concert of a coming-of-age story by composer Gillian Rae Perry and librettist Marcus Amaker.

Shostakovich's modernist 1930 comedy “The Nose” (Dec. 8 and 10) is an absurdist bureaucratic nightmare originally dreamed up by Gogol. Francesca Zambello directs and Chicago Opera Theater music director Lidiya Yankovskaya conducts this Windy City premiere at the Harris Theater.

Chinese folk tales are the inspiration for the 2021 opera “Book of Mountains and Seas” (Jan. 27-28), which makes its Midwest debut at Chicago's Studebaker Theater as part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Internationally famed puppeteer Basil Twist directs and Miles Lallemant conducts composer Huang Ruo's opera in Chinese with projected English translations.

Rounding out the season is “Before It All Goes Dark” (May 25-26) at the Studebaker Theater. This world-premiere commission is by Music of Remembrance, a Seattle-based organization that uses music to tell stories tied to the Holocaust.

“Before It All Goes Dark” is inspired by Chicago Tribune columnist Howard Reich's reporting on a Vietnam War veteran who inherited an art collection that was stolen by Nazis. The work features a score by composer Jake Heggie (“Dead Man Walking”) and Gene Scheer (“Everest”), with Joseph Mechavich as conductor.

Other companies

Beyond the Lyric and Chicago Opera Theater, the Windy City also has a number of smaller companies dedicated to experimental and more intimate pieces. Many of these companies are on the verge of announcing their next season, so be on the lookout for updates.

The historically minded Haymarket Opera Company continues to build upon its legacy of uncovering forgotten baroque works with “The Liberation of Ruggiero From the Island of Alcina” (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) at DePaul University's Jarvis Opera Hall in Chicago. This 1625 mythological work by Francesca Caccini is believed to be the oldest extant opera composed by a woman.

The Opera Festival of Chicago hasn't announced its plans for its fourth summer season, though fans were keen to catch their take on rarely performed gems like “Murder in the Cathedral” and “Attila” this past July. This company specializes in Italian rarities that are seen more often in Europe.

Chicago Summer Opera also completed its past season for up-and-coming singers and musicians.

South Shore Opera Company of Chicago recently staged a memorial concert to honor the late opera diva Grace Bumby, but no future plans were available on its website.

Chicago Fringe Opera was another company that resumed performances after the pandemic shutdown, but its website wasn't updated with future season plans by press deadline.

Chamber Opera Chicago was famed for doing holiday runs of Menotti's classic 1951 opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” before the pandemic, and the company's website still reflects that.

Other opera companies to keep an eye on for future announcements include: Thompson Street Opera Company, Transgressive Theatre-Opera and Opera Cabal. Also be on the watch for announcements from Oak Park-based Bellissima Opera, Elgin-based Valley Lyrical Productions and Wheaton College Opera.