Photo: Lyric Opera of Chicago
Last week was a hectic one at Lyric Opera. Not only was the company getting ready to launch the world premiere of first-ever Chicago poet laureate avery r. young’s “safronia,” but it was also presenting film-to-live-music performances of “Mary Poppins” and the final performances of Matthew Ozawa’s reimagined “Madama Butterfly.”
Amidst that flurry of activity, Lyric general director, president and CEO John Mangum and Lyric music director Enrique Mazzola also announced the 2026-27 season last Thursday morning in the foyer of the Lyric Opera House and made themselves available immediately after in a second-floor lounge for a wide-ranging conversation.
“Enrique still has a throng of admirers,” we are told, “but will be along shortly.”
“You get me first,” says Mangum, “then you get Enrique. I’m act one, and he’s the grand finale.”
“A Transitional Season”
How much of the 2026-27 season did Mangum inherit, and what’s new about this season that he had directly to do with?
“This is a transitional season from my predecessor, Anthony Freud, to me,” says Mangum. “In terms of titles, four of the titles were selected by Anthony: ‘Don Giovanni,’ ‘Don Pasquale,’ ‘Omar’ and ‘La traviata.’
“In terms of productions, really the only one that was selected by Anthony was the Bob Falls’ ‘Don Giovanni.’ And of course, I’m delighted with all of these choices. Some of the casting was already done when I got here, but a lot of the casting I got to be involved in and lead the discussions on that. And most of the productions also, I got to make those selections.”
So what Mangum really inherited when he came in as general director at Lyric Opera were the planned opera titles of his predecessor.
“Yes. And Christian Van Horn was lined up to sing ‘Don Giovanni,’ and Mané Galoyan and Larry Brownlee were all lined up in their roles as well. But we built up the rest of the cast. Enrique and I heard auditions over in Europe in December of 2024 to get some of those roles filled. With ‘Traviata,’ the tenor is somebody that I was part of selecting for the role of Alfredo. Some casts were more done than in other cases. With ‘Omar,’ we built that cast after my arrival. Since ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ was a title I selected, we also cast that. So it’s a mix.
“But I think what you’re seeing is by the time we get to the 2028-29 season, that will be from start to finish, one-hundred percent something that was put together under my leadership.”
Lyric audience during “Singin’ in the Rain”/Photo: Kyle Flubacker
Where is Mangum’s vision of Lyric Opera heading as he sees it?
“I feel good about this season as kind of representative of the direction that people should see at Lyric. We have six fully staged productions of both the old and popular, the old and slightly less familiar, and the new. So you’ve got these three things combining to create a nicely balanced, fully staged opera season.
“But around that, you have this really good ecosystem of concerts, the ‘Hérodiade’ performances, the musical, that just builds it out and kind of fills out the picture. And I think that’s what people can expect from me. An audience brings a certain set of expectations to a ‘Traviata’ or a ‘Don Giovanni.’ And we need to be putting productions on stage that meet those expectations.
“I actually think Matthew [Ozawa]’s ‘Butterfly’ is a pretty good example. It meets the expectations, but it also has a contemporary twist to it that is thought provoking for those of us in the audience who are seeing their fifteenth production of ‘Butterfly.’ But for those of us seeing ‘Butterfly’ for the first time, you’re also having an incredible experience.
“I think the vision is to deliver the best of the tradition to your audiences, but also to give some real signposts about where the tradition is headed. And that’s both in terms of newly commissioned works but also in terms of new ways of presenting opera. I think there’s a lot of potential in video-concert presentations for less-familiar titles. I think there’s a lot of potential in collaborating with well-known visual artists to create.
“This is what’s unique about Enrique; he has these particular areas of the repertoire that he has explored, and he wants to bring that here. If we look at it in a very rigid way and say, ‘Well, everything we do has to be fully staged,’ there are all sorts of barriers to that.
On “Hérodiade”
“There’s not a production of ‘Hérodiade’ out there in the world that I can bring to Chicago. And it would be, frankly, fiscally irresponsible of us to spend two or three million dollars on making a production. So unless there’s a donor out there who loves ‘Hérodiade’ and wants to write that check, this is a great way to approach it.
“We have a beautiful cast and it will be a rich visual environment. It’ll feel like the ‘Carmina Burana’ that we did in the fall. So it’s a way to present a musically very worthy work about which our music director is passionate to our public here in Chicago.
“So I think the vision is a balance of the tradition and the new. And with the new, I don’t just mean new works. I also mean new ways of presenting opera that are exciting and engaging for audiences.”
John Mangum/Photo: Kyle Flubacker
John Mangum’s Opera Passions
When Mangum was first announced as Lyric Opera general director, president and CEO in 2024, there was much discussion about his having been a brilliant arts manager, but with no practical opera management experience. However, Mangum’s academic background in opera and passion for the art form were duly noted. Are there ways in which his current responsibilities at Lyric and his lifelong love of opera intersect?
“Yes.” Long pause. “I mean, very much so. When I looked at what we had from Anthony for this season and that we had the opportunity to fill two of the staged-opera slots, we looked at different factors. But ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ is one of my favorite operas.
“What I love about it is that it is Strauss going back to those eighteenth-century conventions, you know, with the ‘Let’s put on a show’ kind of atmosphere in the first part. And then you see the show, which is absolutely, you know, right out of Metastasio opera seria with Bacchus and Ariadne and these sorts of things. But it’s all Strauss’ music. And it’s just glorious. You know it’s meta-opera because it’s about opera, but then you get the opera itself.
“And then ‘Susanna’ is just, I mean, it is right at the top. There are other great American operas, ‘Nixon in China,’ some of the Philip Glass operas, like ‘Akhenaten’ is one of my favorites. But from that period, kind of the middle of the twentieth century, ‘Susannah’ is the top, for me.”
Enrique Mazzola/Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography
Enrique Mazzola on the Spirit of the Opera House
Mazzola enters and joins in. During the season announcement, he had made reference to the fact of Verdi’s “Macbeth,” the first work Mazzola had conducted as music director, having been five seasons ago now. What kind of vision does he see emerging in terms of his role as music director over that time and going forward?
“My role has been—how can I say?—very shaped from the beginning. There is not really an evolution of the role of music director. The music director is always working on artistic support: of the orchestra, of the chorus, of the singers, on working with the general director on the shape of the seasons.
“The difference is not about how I see the role of music director, but the difference is more where I’ve been and what I have been doing in these five years. Yesterday, I was coming back from Berlin, and in Berlin, I was super happy. I was making my debut at the Staatsoper Berlin, where Christian Thielemann is the music director. I’ve been a guest conductor there and felt super privileged. We had the Festtage and he was conducting one opera and I was conducting the other opera. It was a big honor.
“In taking the flight back to Chicago, I really felt I’m involved in shaping the social role of an opera house. I’m coming back to Chicago, and Chicago is now the city where I belong. I belong to this opera house. When I walk around town, but also when I’m in Berlin, in a way I represent this opera house, the spirit of this opera house, the quality of this opera house, the dreams of this opera house.”
Do Europeans now see it that way? Do they say, “How are things in Chicago?”
“Yes, of course. Europeans are very aware. When the opera director of Staatsoper introduced me to Staatskapelle Berlin, he said, ‘Okay, here we have the music director of Lyric Opera of Chicago.’ So people, of course, they know.”
“The other thing that I would say,” adds Mangum, “is that when Enrique goes in front of that orchestra, that chorus, and those singers in that opera house in Berlin and has the kind of success that he had with his ‘Ballo,’ people then say to themselves, ‘Oh, the standard in Chicago must be very high. Things in Chicago must be very good.’ And that’s also really wonderful to know that he’s out there representing an artistic level that is true to this house, but also in all the work that he’s doing everywhere around the world, carrying the reputation of Chicago with him when he has those successes.”
When Sir Andrew Davis became music director at Lyric Opera back in 2000, there was always a sense of, “My wishlist of operas to do here are x, y and z. I want to do this, I want to do that.” Is Mazzola thinking that way? Are there things in the back of Mazzola’s mind that he’s thinking that while he’s here, he would like to do?
“I have the privilege to conduct everywhere now. So my next things will be at Paris Opera, at Glyndebourne, at Staatsoper Berlin, at the Met here. So my wishlist is, if you want, distributed all over the world, and I have possibilities to conduct so many things.
“I would say that I’m happy about the repertoire that I’m doing here in Chicago. There are so many different things to conduct. Here in the future, we have some other ideas about contemporary opera that you see. So, I find myself very lucky and privileged to have the possibility to do all that I do.”
So the world is Mazzola’s oyster, as he sees it. He can pretty much choose where he wants to go and what he wants to do.
“It is, that’s true.”
Photo: Kyle Flubacker
A Return of the Ring Cycle?
One thing that wasn’t mentioned at the season announcement was the return of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle after having been cancelled during the pandemic in 2020. Its return was mentioned in passing in a press release earlier in the year.
“Our rainbow bridge to Valhalla is a lot of money we have to raise that gets us there,” says Mangum. “But we are very much looking forward to bringing back that David Pountney ‘Ring’ and finishing the cycle. That’s a real priority, and I feel like the anniversary season, which is the 2030 season—the seventy-fifth anniversary of Lyric, the hundredth anniversary of the Lyric Opera House—is the perfect sort of launch pad for that project.”
Is that part of why they announced it early—so that the fundraising can start?
“It’s a big plane and we need a long runway.”
Lyric’s late music director Sir Andrew Davis was central to that cycle. He conducted the premieres of “Das Rheingold,” “Die Walküre” and “Siegfried” and was scheduled to conduct the premiere of “Götterdämmerung” and three subsequent “Ring” cycles. As his successor, is the “Ring” something that Maestro Mazzola is ultimately interested in conducting?
Long pause.
“He has the scores,” Mangum interjects.
“I have the scores,” says Mazzola, “but ‘Walküre’ was very difficult to find.”
“You couldn’t find all three acts, right?” asks Mangum.
“It’s three volumes,” says Mazzola, “and Schott is printing only the second and third acts. The first act is not on sale anymore. So I had to go to an antiquarian shop to find it. And they asked an unbelievable price, but I had to have it. So I paid the unbelievable price.”
To even think about conducting the “Ring,” the first step is having the score.
“Well, I think that from a planning perspective,” Mangum interjects, “we’re very aware that the Metropolitan Opera will have its full cycles in 2030. San Francisco Opera will revive Francesca [Zambello]’s production in 2028. And so, you know, we need to be clear of those runs before we bring our cycle back.”
Did either Mangum or Mazzola see the cycle?
“I’ve seen the video archival recordings of it,” says Mangum. “I thought the beauty of the production is the way that it makes all the theatrical business readily apparent. And then it has these wonderful nods to the iconography and architecture of the opera house.
“We own this beautiful production, and David Pountney is a fantastic artist. I think we owe it to all the people who invested in the production, and to David to see it through to the end. Also, it’s a great production. So, you know, I’m happy about it.”
Is there any talk about casting, or is it just too soon?
“We know what our wish list looks like. Some of those people hopefully have wishes that align with our wishes, and some will probably have different wishes. So we’ll see what we come out with. But, you know, this is a front-rank international opera house, and it will be a cast that is commensurate with that status.”
As steps leading to a return to the “Ring,” there are two Wagner highlights concerts next season that will be conducted by Alexander Soddy.
“You’ll see that through line of Wagner and Strauss leading up to the ‘Ring,’ which I think is important. And honestly, I think Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ a couple of seasons ago, is at the beginning of that journey. And between concerts and fully staged works, you’ll see other areas of the repertoire that are very germane to getting those Wagnerian muscles built back up.”
Mazzola has done “Der Freischütz” in Europe, which has never been done at Lyric. Will we see it here as a step to the “Ring?”
Mazzola smiles.
“Okay, this is my very political answer,” says Mazzola. “We may have ‘Freischütz.’ I would love to do it, John knows, I would love to.”
“I would, too,” says Mangum. “You don’t have a ‘Rheingold’ without a ‘Freischütz.’ We’ve also talked about ‘Lohengrin.’ The German Romantic repertoire is a beautiful repertoire.”
“You will also hear an opera like ‘Hérodiade,’ which is so Wagnerian in many aspects,” says Mazzola. “Massenet had a love for and attraction to Wagner that is fascinating.”
DC Shakespeare Theatre Company’s “Guys & Dolls”/Photo: Teresa Castracane Photography
A Summer Musical
It says in the season’s press release that Lyric is returning to a summer musical next year, with a production of “Guys & Dolls” (of course, it was always a spring musical, which would sometimes go into June).
“And we’re doing three weeks with nineteen performances, whereas in the past, we’ve usually done four weeks with twenty-six or twenty-seven performances,” says Mangum.
“If you limit supply, you hopefully boost demand. And if it’s a success for us a year from June, probably in the subsequent season or the season after, if we can get the rights to a title for which we know we can put on a spectacular production and for which we know there will be audience demand, you’ll see another musical here. But I doubt we will, at least in the near term, have an annual musical.”
Does that mean that musicals will not necessarily be part of the standard repertoire season?
“My goal is that each year we’re adding opera performances for the season. Otherwise, yes, we do better on a net basis on the musical, on the concerts, on the movies than we do rather than fully-staged opera. But unless we’re supporting what’s at the heart of our mission and actually increasing the number of opera performances, we need to ask ourselves why we’re doing all this extra stuff?
“We have one more opera title performance next season than we had this season. It’s the three performances of ‘Hérodiade’ that give us the increase. The point is we want the work we’re doing with movies and with the musical to help so that we can offer more opera to our audience.”
Finale
Speaking of which, any Handel in the works? We haven’t had any at Lyric in quite some time.
“There’s a beautiful production of ‘Semele’ that Claus Guth did a couple of years ago at the Munich Opera that I would love to be able to bring here. We’re waiting for the exclusivity of the partners who invested in the production originally to run out. And then if I can make it happen, I’ve got my eye on that.
“There are also a couple of really interesting directors working in this space over in Europe that, if that ‘Semele’ doesn’t come to pass in the next few years, I think we’d look at bringing something of theirs here. That’s my area of academic specialty—eighteenth-century Italian opera—and I want to bring that music here.
“I have a long wish list, but there are lots of places where there is real confluence, and I think you even see that next season.
“I’m absolutely thrilled, especially after the ‘Così’ that Enrique did this season, that he is doing ‘Don Giovanni.’ And that he is doing ‘Don Pasquale,’ which hasn’t been heard here in thirty years, and ‘Traviata.’ And the ‘Hérodiade,’ especially after ‘Salome’ this year, is really exciting.”
Massenet’s “Hérodiade,” which has never been done at Lyric Opera, was certainly the last thing I would have expected to see announced, I have to confess.
“We surprised you!” exclaims Mazzola. “You see? I’m so happy. Thank you very much.”
For more information on Lyric Opera’s 2026-27 season, view the company’s season preview here.
Photo: Kyle Flubacker
