Porgy and Bess

L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O

which opera companies don’t actually bring the skills and the experience that would benefit those pieces.” Taking this careful and measured approach, Lyric selected the greatest works of Rodgers and Hammerstein to begin the initiative. These five masterpieces of the American musical are perfect examples of works that benefit from an operatic treatment. The partnership between Lyric and Rodgers and Hammerstein was fortuitous from the start. “From the first meeting I had with Anthony Freud and Renée Fleming, I was thrilled with the idea that this major American opera company would devote the same sort of passion and artistry to the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein that they already give to Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner,” said Ted Chapin, president and executive director of The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization: an Imagem Company, when the series was announced. “This is the first series of its kind. For Lyric Opera to recognize the role that musicals from Broadway’s Golden Age have in the world of 21st-century lyric theater is remarkable – and a great honor for us.” New works, new audiences, new challenges Part of the essence of the American Musical Theater Initiative is to expand the breadth of repertoire that Lyric produces and to attract new audiences to the Civic Opera House. “Opera is and will always be the heart of why Lyric exists,” Freud warmly reminds. “Broadening our operatic repertoire, doing more new productions, giving our audiences opportunities to think about the great masterpieces as well as introducing them to more rarely performed

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Sweeney Todd was presented at Lyric in 2002-03, with Judith Christin as Mrs. Lovett and Bryn Terfel in the title role.

Sweeney Todd, and The Sound of Music. While the idea of an opera company presenting musicals might seem contradictory, the lines between opera and musicals have always been blurred. Renée Fleming, Lyric’s creative consultant since 2010 and one of the forces behind the creation of the initiative, believes wholeheartedly that musicals and opera are not mutually exclusive. “The Broadway musical is a natural descendant of the European opera and operetta tradition. With its productions of classics like the great Rodgers and Hammerstein shows, Lyric is celebrating music theater that is a central part of American culture,” says Fleming.

Lyric’s general director Anthony Freud also embraces the fluidity and ambiguity between the two genres: “Many people have tried to define the difference between an opera and a musical, but I don’t think there is a truly useful distinction. Any attempts to describe the basic characteristics of an opera versus a musical ultimately don’t hold water.” However, Freud does add an important caveat. “There are certain types of musical theater for which an opera company – its scale, its expertise, its range of skills – can be truly transformational,” he notes. “But there are many musicals, indeed the majority of musicals, to

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DANREST

Following Sweeney Todd, Show Boat (2011-12) was the second musical to be presented as part of Lyric’s mainstage stage. Pictured at left are Angela Renée Simpson (Queenie) and Morris Robinson (Joe); and at right, Ericka Mac (Ellie, center).

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