The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s lineup for the 2025-26 season will feature a collection of six major productions. This includes five that have been introduced previously at various other venues and one revival, all selected by the former general director, Anthony Freud.
John Mangum, the current general director, took over on October 14, after Anthony Freud’s retirement following his 13-year tenure at the Lyric. Coming from the Houston Symphony, Mangum is ambitiously planning a 2026-27 season with seven mainstage operas, three of which will reflect his personal selections. Though Freud initiated plans for two productions for the 2027-28 season, his influence will diminish as Mangum prepares an extraordinary 2029-30 season to commemorate the opera’s 75th anniversary and the opera house’s centennial.
The season will kick off with an opening gala on October 10, followed by the company premiere of Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea” in Italian, the next night. Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky will reprise her role in this production, first staged under David McVicar’s direction for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2022-23 season opener. Mangum noted the financial challenges of independently launching productions, highlighting “Medea” as an exemplary co-production. “Producing alone is not economically viable these days,” he stated.
The upcoming season will see an increase in performances, rising to 59 from the current 47, although still below the 66 performances recorded in 2017-18, before the pandemic. The 2025-26 lineup includes three concerts featuring Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and a focus on rock music with seven performances by Billy Corgan, celebrating the 30th anniversary of “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” by The Smashing Pumpkins.
Ticket sales have reached 72% so far this season as the company prepares for the remaining productions of Puccini’s “La Bohème” and Missy Mazzoli’s “The Listeners,” both debuting this month. Last year’s season concluded with a 75% ticket sales rate, slightly down from the previous 76%.
Elijah Moshinsky’s 2002 productions of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” are set to open on November 1, marking the company debuts of Yulia Matochkina and SeokJong Baek. On January 25, Elena Stikhina and Nicholas Brownlee will make their debuts in a production of Strauss’s “Salome” by McVicar, first showcased at London’s Royal Opera in 2008.
A production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” will open on February 1, 2026, directed by Michael Cavanagh, initially appearing at the San Francisco Opera in 2021 and set in a 1930s U.S. country club backdrop. Karah Son will make her debut in Matthew Ozawa’s direction of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly,” launching on March 14, 2026, first seen at the Cincinnati Opera in 2023. The season wraps up with Gabriela Lena Frank’s “El último sueño de Frida y Diego,” which will open on March 21, 2026, courtesy of the Lorena Maza staging that premiered at the San Diego Opera in 2022.
