History of Lyric Opera of Chicago

Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the world’s great opera companies. It is renowned internationally for its artistic excellence and
financial strength. Founded in 1954, Lyric has always distinguished itself by presenting the finest international singers, conductors,
directors, and designers in classic and less-familiar operatic repertoire and in world-premiere productions.

The company’s mission is to express and promote the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera. Lyric
exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and the nation, and to advance opera’s development
by producing and performing consistently world-class opera, with a balanced repertoire encompassing core classics, less-known
masterpieces, and new works; creating a diverse, innovative, wide-ranging program of community engagement and education
activities that reaches the widest possible public; and developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.

Anthony Freud, Lyric’s general director, began his tenure in 2011. Sir Andrew Davis has served as Lyric’s music director since
2000. Renée Fleming became Lyric’s first creative consultant in 2010.

The company, originally known as The Lyric Theatre of Chicago, was formed in 1954 by Carol Fox, Lawrence V. Kelly, and Nicola
Rescigno. The latter two founders withdrew after the 1955 season, and the company was renamed Lyric Opera of Chicago prior to the
1956 season. Carol Fox served as founding general manager (1954-80); she died in 1981. Fox was succeeded by Ardis Krainik, who
had been with the company since its founding and served as general director from 1981 until her death in 1997. William
Mason served as general director from 1997 until his retirement in 2011. He is Lyric’s first general director emeritus.

Bruno Bartoletti and Pino Donati were co-artistic directors from 1964 to 1974. Bartoletti served as sole artistic director from 1975
until retiring in 1999. He was artistic director emeritus until his death in 2013. Bartoletti made his American debut at Lyric in 1956
and conducted more than 600 performances of 55 operas at Lyric (1956-2007). Matthew A. Epstein, who had been Lyric’s artistic
adviser beginning in 1980, served as artistic director from 1999 to 2005.

In 2014-15 Lyric presented 69 performances of 8 operas (Don Giovanni, Capriccio, Il Trovatore, Porgy and Bess, Anna
Bolena, Tosca, Tannhäuser, and The Passenger). Don Giovanni, Tosca,and Anna Bolena were new productions,
and Tannhäuser and The Passenger (a Midwest premiere) were new-to-Chicago productions. Lyric also presented a 60th-anniversary
Gala, 25 performances of Carousel, the world premiere of the second mariachi opera, El Pasado Nunca Se Termina, a special family
performance entitled The Magic Victrola, and a piano recital by Lang Lang.

In addition to planning repertoire and productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s recent and future seasons at the Civic Opera House, in
2012 Anthony Freud launched Lyric Unlimited,a long-term initiative that provides a relevant cultural service to communities
throughout the Chicago area not previously touched by opera. Lyric Unlimited encompasses collaboration with other cultural
organizations and explores ways to make opera as an art form resonate more powerfully and broadly with people of all backgrounds,
ethnicities, and interests.

Lyric Unlimited highlights to date include The Second City Guide to the Opera; a pair of mariachi operas, the commission of The
Property, a klezmer opera from Wlad Marhulets and three original family performances at the Civic Opera House; the formation of a
special high-school program, the Youth Opera Council; and a Community Ambassador Program, inaugurated by soprano Ana María
Martínez and bass-baritone Eric Owens. In August, 2015, Lyric Unlimited will present the world premiere of another new
https://www.lyricopera.org/about/history/lyricoperahistory
commission, Second Nature, an opera for young audiences by Matthew Aucoin.

2012-13 saw the inauguration of Lyric’s American Musical Theater Initiative, encompassing new productions of classic musicals
by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II each spring: Oklahoma! (2013),The Sound of Music (2014), Carousel (2015), The
King and I (2016), and Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady (2017).

Renée Fleming became Lyric Opera’s first-ever creative consultant in December 2010 and was elected to the Board of Directors as a
vice president at that time. Fleming has an active leadership role in developing new projects designed to increase opera audiences and
awareness of the art form, while sharing in the company’s artistic vision. In collaboration with her Lyric colleagues, Fleming has
worked to establish a prominent presence for Lyric in a variety of web-based marketing projects, and in print and broadcast media;
expand the education and community-engagement activities of Lyric to include a joint program with several key community music
organizations called the Vocal Partnership Program, devoted to finding and nurturing young, talented singers in the Chicago area,
and to making Lyric more accessible to the children and young adults involved in all areas of music education at Merit School of
Music, Music Institute of Chicago, ChiARTS, Gallery 37 Advanced Arts Education Program, Sherwood Conservatory, and Chicago
Academy for the Arts; present non-operatic and off-season performances at the Civic Opera House including recitals by major
international artists; foster an annual commitment to American music theater; curate the world premiere of Bel Canto, Lyric’s
10th new-opera commission (2015-16 season); collaborate with other Chicago-based arts institutions to send a special message about
the strength of culture in Chicago and to promote and expand arts education in the Chicago Public School system; and further develop
Lyric’s young-professionals initiative, which takes opera into the workplace and provides entry-level experiences for the curious adult.
Most recently Fleming was named Ryan Opera Center Adviser. In May, Fleming extended the tenure of her role as Creative
Consultant through 2017.

The Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus are considered among the finest in the world. The orchestra comprises 74 musicians. The
regular chorus consists of 48 members plus a core supplementary chorus of 12 and a supplementary chorus of several dozen.

The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center (originally the Apprentice Artist Program, subsequently The Lyric Opera
School of Chicago and the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists) was established in 1973 as the professional artist-development
program for Lyric Opera of Chicago. The Ryan Opera Center is recognized as one of the premier programs of its kind in the world.
That standing is maintained by providing the finest up-and-coming singers with unparalleled training and experience.

The Civic Opera Building, at 20 North Wacker Drive on the east bank of the Chicago River between Washington and Madison streets,
is the permanent home of Lyric Opera of Chicago. The 3,563-seat capacity of the theater makes it second only to New York’s
Metropolitan Opera as the largest opera auditorium in North America.

Lyric Opera purchased the Civic Opera House and adjacent backstage spaces from the building’s owner in 1993, the first time in the
history of the opera house (built in 1929) that the resident opera company has actually owned the space. Lyric simultaneously
launched a $100-million capital campaign: Building on Greatness...An Opera House for the 21stCentury, to finance the purchase
and renovation of the art-deco house. The renovation was completed in time for the 1996-97 season. In 1996 the Civic Opera House
auditorium was named the Ardis Krainik Theatre for Lyric’s second general director.

Lyric Opera of Chicago annually employs about 900 seasonal, part-time and fulltime staff, including orchestra musicians, chorus
members, stagehands, production and technical staff, stage management, ushers, etc. There are approximately 90 fulltime year-round
administration staff.

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s opening performances have been broadcast live since 1973 (except for a four-year span early in the 2000s).
A virtually limitless worldwide audience can hear the broadcasts each year – live on opening nights during the season (on 98.7WFMT
in the Chicago area and worldwide via live streaming on www.wfmt.com), and again during an eight-week rebroadcast period
beginning in May.

In 1989 Lyric Opera of Chicago launched its Toward the 21st Century artistic initiative – the most important artistic initiative the
company had undertaken to date, and one with far-reaching impact on American opera in North America as well as in the international
opera community. Throughout the 1990s Lyric produced one 20th-century European and one American opera each season as part of
the regular subscription series. Within this initiative Lyric commissioned three new works: William Bolcom’s McTeague (1992-93);
Anthony Davis’s Amistad (1997-98); and Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge (1999-00).

Among other major artistic achievements is Lyric’s first presentation of Wagner’s Ring cycle in a single season within the span of a
week, during the 1995-96 season. Sold out months in advance, the three cycles had a total economic impact of $34.7 million on the
Chicago metropolitan area. The Ring again sold out when remounted for three cycles during the 2004-05 season.

Over the course of the company’s 60-year history, Lyric Opera of Chicago has consistently offered its patrons a world-class roster of
singers, conductors, directors, designers, choreographers, and dancers in a wide-ranging repertoire.
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