The 2013-2014 Lyric Opera of Chicago Season Announced

The Chicago Opera has announced their new season with Anna Maria Martinez (Rusalka, Otello), Jonas Kaufmann (Gala Concert), Joyce Didonato (La Clemenza di Tito), Joseph Calleja (La Traviata) and Johan Botha (Otello) leading an all star season. Falk Struckmann (Otello), Brandon Jovanovich (Rusalka), Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn (Barber of Seville) and Thomas Hampson (Parsifal) will also take part in the season.

The season will open October 5 with Verdi’s Otello. Johan Botha will sing the role of the Moorish general undone by his obsessive jealousy. Ana Maria Martinez will make her role debut as the doomed Desdemona with Falk Struckmann as the evil Iago. Bertrand de Billy conducts.

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly will be presented with two casts in October and January, continuing the company trend toward extended double runs of audience favorites. South African soprano Amanda Echalaz (Chicago debut) and Patricia Racette will portray the tragic geisha Cio-Cio San with tenors James Valenti and Stefano Secco alternating as her caddish lover, Pinkerton. Conductor Marco Armiliato makes his company debut in a Houston Grand Opera production new to Chicago.

Wagner’s Parsifal opens November 9, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis in a new production. Paul Groves will make his role debut as the title knight with Thomas Hampson as Amfortas, Daveda Karanas as Kundry, Kwangchul Youn as Guernemanz and Tomas Tomasson as Klingsor.

Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka will make her Chicago debut starring as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, opening November 20 with Joseph Calleja as Alfredo and Quinn Kelsey as Germont. Massimo Zanetti will conduct a new Lyric Opera production.

Continuing the Lyric’s light-work-in-December tradition, Johann Strauss Jr.’s operetta Die Fledermaus will open December 10. German soprano Juliane Banse makes her house debut as Rosalinde with Adrian Eröd as Falke, Bo Skovhus as Eisenstein, and Emily Fons as Orlofsky. Ward Stare conducts in a production borrowed from San Francisco Opera.

Isabel Leonard will make her company debut as Rosina in a new production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville, opening Feb. 1. Nathan Gunn is the barber Figaro with Alek Shrader as Almaviva, Alessandro Corbelli as Bartolo and Kyle Ketelsen as Basilio with Michele Mariotti conducting.

In her second major role next season, Ana Maria Martinez will portray the title role of Dvořák’s melancholy water-nymph in Rusalka, opening Feb. 22. The strong supporting cast includes Brandon Jovanovich, Eric Owens and Jill Grove with a David McVicar production and Sir Andrew Davis conducting.

Joyce DiDonato returns to Chicago in the role of Sesto for the season-closing production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito. Amanda Majeski will sing the role of Vitellia with Matthew Polenzani as Tito, Emily Birsan as Servilia and Cecilia Hall as Annio. Davis will conduct.

Lyric creative consultant Renee Fleming will team up with tenor Jonas Kaufmann for next year’s Subscriber Appreciation Concert on March 19.