Free Concert STARS OF LYRIC OPERA Announced at Millenium Park

Lyric Opera of Chicago launches its new season with the 17th annual Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park concert. Join us at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion on Friday, September 8, at 7:30pm. The free outdoor performance, presented in cooperation with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, annually attracts capacity crowds to the pavilion, great lawn, and surrounding areas of the park.

Sir Andrew Davis leads the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with an array of outstanding soloists including current* and former** members of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center: J'Nai Bridges**, Janai Brugger/#LyricTurandot, Andriana Chuchman**/#LyricOrphee, Anthony Clark Evans**/

#LyricPuritani, Dmitry Korchak/#LyricOrphee, Emmett O'Hanlon*/#LyricFaust, Eric Owens/#LyricWalkure, Matthew Polenzani**/#LyricRigoletto and #LyricPearlFishers, and Lauren Snouffer/#LyricOrphee.

The Lyric Opera Chorus will be prepared by chorus master Michael Black.

The program features excerpts from Mozart's The Marriage Of Figaro, Verdi's Rigoletto, Puccini's Turandot, Gounod's Faust, Bellini's I Puritani, Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Massenet's Werther, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers, and Wagner's Die Walküre. (Program subject to change.)

The Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park free concert will be aired live on 98.7WFMT and wfmt.com. 98.7WFMT announcer David Schwan and Roger Pines, Lyric's dramaturg, will co-host the concert broadcast beginning at 7:15pm in Lyric's opening broadcast of the season.

Lyric will post live updates via social media throughout the evening. Join the conversation by tagging your posts with #LyricStars on Facebook at facebook.com/lyricopera and on Twitter and Instagram at @LyricOpera.

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Lyric Opera of Chicago opens its 63rd season on Saturday, September 23. The opera season continues through March 25, 2018, with 64 performances of nine operas: Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice with the Joffrey Ballet (Sept. 23-Oct. 15), Verdi's Rigoletto (Oct. 7-Nov. 3), Wagner's Die Walküre (Nov. 1-30), Bizet's The Pearl Fishers (Nov. 19-Dec. 10), Puccini's Turandot (Dec. 5-Jan. 27), Bellini's I Puritani (Feb. 4-28), Mozart's Così fan tutti (Feb. 17-Mar. 16), Gounod's Faust (Mar. 3-21), and Spears and Pierce's Fellow Travelers at the Athenaeum Theatre (Mar. 17-25).

Lyric's 2017/18 season will also include Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar (April 27-May 20), and several limited-engagement special events, including Chicago Voices Community Created Performances (Sept. 10 at the Harris Theater), Piotr Becza?a in Recital (Feb. 25), and Celebrating 100 Years of Bernstein (Mar. 10).

All of Lyric's regular-season performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive at Madison Street, in Chicago. There are projected English texts for every opera. Subscriptions are still available, as are tickets for individual performances. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. For information on specific performance dates and ticket availability, please call (312) 827-5600 or go to lyricopera.org.

Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park is a Lyric Unlimited event. For more information, visit lyricopera.org/lyricunlimited.

About Lyric

Lyric Opera of Chicago's mission is to express and promote the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great opera. Lyric exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to Chicago and the nation, and to advance the development of the art form.

Founded in 1954, Lyric is dedicated to producing and performing consistently thrilling, entertaining, and thought-provoking opera with a balanced repertoire of core classics, lesser-known masterpieces, and new works; to creating an innovative and wide-ranging program of community engagement and educational activities; and to developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.

Under the leadership of general director Anthony Freud, music director Sir Andrew Davis, and creative consultant Renée Fleming, Lyric strives to become The Great North American Opera Company for the 21st century: a globally significant arts organization embodying the core values of excellence, relevance, and fiscal responsibility.

To learn more about Lyric's current season, go to lyricopera.org. You can also join the conversation with @LyricOpera on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #Lyric1718 #LongLivePassion

About Lyric Unlimited

Lyric Unlimited, a division of Lyric Opera of Chicago, offers a multifaceted program of education, community engagement and artistic initiatives. The purpose of Lyric Unlimited is to provide a relevant cultural service to communities throughout the Chicago area, including communities for whom opera and opera companies have been largely irrelevant; to explore a wide range of ways in which Lyric can collaborate with cultural and community organizations throughout the area; and to advance the development of opera, exploring ways in which opera as an art form can resonate more powerfully, and in a range of different ways, with people of multiple backgrounds, ethnicities, and interests. In the 2016/17 season, 102,168 individuals participated in Lyric Unlimited programs.

For more information about Lyric Unlimited program offerings, visit lyricopera.org/lyricunlimited.

Stars of Lyric Opera at Millennium Park concert is supported by Lead Sponsor closerlook, inc. and cosponsors: Rhoda L. and Henry S. Frank, an Anonymous Donor, Amy and Paul Carbone, Crain-Maling Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Annie & Greg Jones Family Foundation, Sipi Metals Corp., Lake Geneva Chapter, Allan and Elaine Muchin, the Komarek-Hyde-McQueen Foundation/Patricia Hyde, and the Music Performance Trust Fund and Film Funds. Presented in cooperation with The City of Chicago and Millennium Park.

Lyric Unlimited was launched with major catalyst funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and receives major support from the Caerus Foundation, Inc.

The Lyric Opera of Chicago Broadcasts are generously sponsored by The Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Family, The Matthew and Kay Bucksbaum Family, and The John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Foundation.

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