Chicago’s Lyric Opera announced its 2022-23 season Tuesday, the venerable company’s 68th subscription season, focused on classic operas, Broadway musicals and new work. All performances will be at Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive, except “The Factotum” at the Harris Theater in Millennium Park.
The extensive season, a recovery from pandemic closures and interruptions, opens with Verdi’s “Ernani” (Sept. 9-Oct. 1) conducted by music director Enrique Mazzola and directed by Louisa Muller, featuring Tamara Wilson, Russell Thomas, Quinn Kelsey and Christian Van Horn. The gala opening night is set for Sept. 10.
The season continues with a new “operatically scaled” production of the Broadway musical “Fiddler on the Roof” (Sept. 17-Oct 7) conceived by Barrie Kosky and conducted by Kimberly Grigsby in her Lyric debut. This production debuted in 2017 at the Komische Oper Berlin; the Lyric opening will mark the U.S. debut of this staging of one of the most popular Broadway musicals of all time, the work of the team of Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.
Next is Verdi’s “Don Carlos” (Nov. 9-25) presented at Lyric for the first time in its original five-act French version. Dvid McVicar’s production will be conducted by Mazzola and feature Rachel Willis-Sorensen, Clémentine Margaine, Joshua Guerrero, Igor Golovatenko, Dmitry Belosselskiy and Soloman Howard.
The fall continues with the Lyric premiere of Rossini’s “Le Comte Ory” (Nov. 13-26). Lawrence Brownlee, Kathryn Lewek and Joshua Hopkins will star in this Bartlett Sher production from the Metropolitan Opera, conducted at Lyric by Mazzola.
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Next in 2023, Lyric’s former music director Andrew Davis returns to conduct Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” (Jan. 25-Feb. 5, 2023) in the Lyric production originally directed by Richard Jones and last seen at Lyric in 2012.
The first of two world premieres in the 2022-23 Lyric season is the “soul opera” “The Factotum” (Feb. 3-12, 2023), composed by Will Liverman and DJ/producer King Rico and set in a barbershop on Chicago’s South Side. Kedrick Armstrong and Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj make their Lyric debuts conducting and directing this world premiere production, to be staged at Chicago’s Harris Theater.
The second world premiere is “Proximity,” a trio of new American operas (March 24-April 8). This project features three new works with intertwining themes (they are designed to be experienced together) and features the Lyric debuts of composer Daniel Bernard Roumain working with Anna Deavere Smith as librettist; Caroline Shaw, composer and co-librettist working with Jocelyn Clarke as co-librettist; and John Luther Adams setting a text by the late poet John Haines. Directed by Yuval Sharon, “Proximity” is conducted by Kazem Abdullah in his Lyric debut; Lyric’s special projects adviser Renee Fleming is the curator.
The spring at Lyric also includes the return of Bizet’s “Carmen” (March 11-April 7, 2023) starring J’Nai Bridges, Charles Castronovo, Golda Schultz and Andrei Kymach in their Lyric debuts. The production is conducted by Henrik Na’na’si and directed by Marie Lambert.
The annual spring musical at Lyric returns June 3-25, 2023, although it is not a new production but a reprise run of Francesca Zambello’s production of “West Side Story,” seen at Lyric in 2019.
The season also includes a fall concert on Oct. 8 featuring Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry in concert with the Lyric Opera Orchestra, conducted by Mazzola, the program of which includes the Chicago premiere of “The Brightness of Light,” composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.