New horizons: Rare premieres, new works, concert experiments dominating the Chicago, suburban opera scene
Opera companies around Chicago are reexamining aspects of the art form’s more than 400-year-old history this fall season. There are several intriguing opera rarities receiving Chicago premieres, plus new works and concert experiments that blend genres of music and storytelling.
Opera excavations
The Lyric Opera of Chicago opens its 71st season with the company premiere of Luigi Cherubini’s 1797 tragedy “Medea” (six performances Oct. 11-26). Though originally written to a French libretto, “Medea” gained more worldwide fame from its 1909 Italian translation and especially when star soprano Maria Callas started taking on the title role in the 1950s.
At the Lyric, Berwyn native Sondra Radvanovsky returns to perform the vengeful title soprano role. Chicago suburban native and tenor Matthew Polenzani also returns to play Medea’s unfaithful husband, Giasone. Both Radvanovsky and Polenzani previously triumphed with “Medea” in New York and Toronto.
Lyric music director Enrique Mazzola conducts this acclaimed staging of “Medea” by director and set designer Sir David McVicar, whose previous Lyric productions include “Rusalka,” “Il trovatore” and more. To align with the music, McVicar has reset this ancient Greek tragedy to the era of the opera’s composition.
More opera history and Greek myth are explored this season with the Chicago premiere of “Eurydice” in a co-production by Haymarket Opera Company and The Newberry Consort. Written by composer Jacopo Peri and librettist Ottavio Rinuccini in the year 1600, “Eurydice” is considered to be the oldest opera in existence.
Haymarket artistic director Craig Trompeter and Newberry artistic director Liza Malamut oversee this production of “Eurydice,” which is performed Oct. 24 at The Art Institute of Chicago’s Fullerton Hall, and then on Oct. 25 at the Music Institute of Evanston’s Nichols Concert Hall.
Chicago Opera Theater also delves into the operatic archives with the Chicago premiere of “Falstaff.” No, this isn’t Verdi’s famous 1893 adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” This “Falstaff” is actually an earlier one from 1799 by composer Antonio Salieri (mostly remembered as Mozart’s rival thanks to Peter Shaffer’s 1980s play and film “Amadeus”).
Chicago Opera Theater’s “Falstaff,” conducted by Christine Brandes and directed by Robin Guarino, stars bass-baritone Christian Pursell in the title role. “Falstaff” plays three performances between Dec. 3-7 at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago. And, coincidentally, Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago presents “Amadeus” from Nov. 6 to Jan. 6, 2026.
Welcoming the new
South Shore Opera Company of Chicago shines a spotlight on the Civil Rights Movement with the Chicago premiere of the opera “Fannie Lou Hamer: I’m Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired.” This new opera by composer Richard Thompson and librettist Cassandra Medley is based upon the real-life Mississippi activist and her drive to bring voting rights to Blacks across the U.S. in the 1960s.
Qiana McNary stars in the title role and Leslie B. Dunner conducts the performance on Oct. 26 at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago.
Chicago Opera Theater will let audiences in on the development of the new opera “Trusted” by composer Aaron Israel Levin and librettist Marella Martin Koch. It’s about a family embroiled in a high-stakes financial scandal. “Trusted” is presented as part of the company’s Vanguard Initiative.
There’s a piano/vocal workshop concert of “Trusted” on Sept. 21 at Gannon Concert Hall at DePaul University in Chicago. It has a world-premiere concert on May 30 at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago.
Chicago-area audiences will finally be able to experience the 2016 opera “Proving Up” this fall. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s previous two attempts to stage it were thwarted by COVID-19 pandemic surges.
Created by “The Listeners” composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, “Proving Up” is a haunting tale inspired by 1870s homesteaders who struggled to make a new home in Nebraska. “Proving Up” is staged by Northwestern Opera Theater from Nov. 13-16 at Northwestern University in Evanston.
Chicago Fringe Opera is a participant in the Ear Taxi Festival, which is presented by New Music Chicago and runs across multiple Windy City venues Oct. 3-31.
The festival’s theme this year is “The Composer’s Voice,” and Chicago Festival Opera presents snippets from new works by composers Kate Soper (“Here be Sirens”), Jasmine Barnes (“On My Mind”) and Regina Baiocchi (“No One’s Child”) on Oct. 18 at the Kehrein Center in Chicago.
Beloved classics
Opera fans who take comfort in what they already know can also take solace that several operatic favorites are on tap this fall in performance or in concert.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago revives the quintessential Italian double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” for eight performances Nov. 1-23. These two one-act operas are held up as exemplars of the late 19th-century push for “verisimo,” or blood-and-guts realism in the arts.
Enrique Mazzola conducts a “Cavalleria rusticana” cast that features South Korean tenor Seokjong Baek as the unfaithful Turiddu and Russian mezzo Yulia Matochkina as the spurned Santuzza. The “Pagliacci” cast includes American tenor Russell Thomas as the murderous clown Canio and Nicaraguan-American soprano Gabriella Reyes as his unhappy and unfaithful wife, Nedda. Famed Hawaiian baritone and Ryan Opera Center alum Quinn Kelsey stars in both operas, respectively, as Alfio and Tonio.
And though not technically operas, there’s plenty that is operatic to be found in the following classic choral concert pieces.
It’s a suburbs versus city sing-off this fall with two high-profile concerts of Carl Orff’s 1930s cantata “Carmina Burana,” inspired by 24 poems written by medieval monks.
First out of the gate is the New Philharmonic’s “Carmina Burana” Oct. 4-5 at College of DuPage’s McAninch Arts Center in Glen Ellyn.
Joining the New Philharmonic is the 80-voice Northwest Indiana Symphony Chorus and soloists Emily Birsan, Richard Ollarsaba and Thomas Aláan. The concerts also feature the “Polovtsian Dances” from Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor.”
The Lyric Opera of Chicago also presents “Carmina Burana” for three performances on Nov. 14, 16 and 18 with guest soloists Jasmine Habersham, David Portillo and Ian Rucker (all acclaimed Lyric veterans). The Lyric is also using its own in-house resources with Enrique Mazzola conducting the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra also hosts guest soloists Jeanine De Bique, Avery Amereau, Ben Bliss and Stephano Park performing Mozart’s “Requiem” with conductor Manfred Honeck for four performances Nov. 20-23 (these concerts also feature Beethoven’s overture to “Corilan” and Haydn’s Symphony No. 93).
And Music of the Baroque performs Handel’s “Messiah” with opera star soloists such as Grammy Award winner Will Liverman, Yulia Van Doren, Sasha Cooke and Miles Mykkanen. Dame Jane Glover conducts a performance at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie on Nov. 30, and then at the Symphony Center in Chicago on Dec. 1.
Special concerts and screenings
The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s official gala opening night is a concert featuring Tony Award-winning Broadway stars Brian Stokes Mitchell and Laura Benanti Oct. 10. Both stars have operatic ranges, which they have displayed on Broadway in such musicals as “Ragtime,” “Man of La Mancha,” “My Fair Lady” and “She Loves Me.”
The Lyric also teams up with the Black Leadership Arts Collective for the recital concert and gala “Echoes of Excellence” Nov. 8. The concert pays homage to previous generations of opera stars and to Black composers from the past and present.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago also experiments with Billy Corgan of the alt-rock band The Smashing Pumpkins for “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness.” Timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the iconic album of the same name, these concerts Nov. 21-30 look to fuse rock with opera.
The Lyric also continues its recent foray into cinema screening with “Disney and Pixar’s ‘Coco’ in Concert Live to Film” featuring the Lyric Opera Orchestra Oct. 16 and 18.
In advance of its production of “Falstaff,” Chicago Opera Theater explores how the Bard of Avon has been adapted into operas with the concert “Shakespeare Sings!” Oct. 19 at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago. Expect to hear selections by composers such as Purcell, Rossini, Berlioz, Britten and more.
The Harris Theater for Music and Dance’s series of “Beyond the Aria” opera star concerts on the stage of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago also continues this season. First up is Sondra Radvanovsky, Matthew Polenzani and baritone Finn Sagal, with Craig Terry on piano, Oct. 28. The next concert, on Nov. 17, features soprano Christine Goerke, soprano Adia Evans and tenor Travon D. Walker, with Terry again on piano.
Other companies
The Windy City also has a number of smaller opera companies dedicated to experimental and chamber works. Some of these companies have yet to announce their fall seasons, so be sure to check out what is going on with Oak Park-based Belissima Opera, Thompson Street Opera Company in Chicago and others.
The Opera Festival of Chicago recently completed its fifth summer season. The company specializes in operatic rarities tied largely to Italian composers, so be on the lookout for announcements regarding their 2026 summer season.
Another seasonal company is Chicago Summer Opera, which produces chamber productions for up-and-coming singers and musicians. Chicago Summer Opera has lately made a home in Ganz Hall in Roosevelt University’s Auditorium Building.