Lyric Opera will bring back its summer musical with ‘Guys and Dolls’ after a four-season hiatus

Lyric Opera of Chicago will bring back its summer musical with a 2027 production of “Guys and Dolls” after a four-season hiatus, the company announced Thursday.

Lyric’s upcoming 2026-27 season is slated to include 74 performances with six fully staged operas and another in concert, which is still less than the eight that was standard prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lineup includes everything from Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” to the return of Carlisle Floyd’s American opera, “Susannah.” Plus, the Chicago premiere of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Pulitzer Prize-winning, “Omar.”

The company also announced that Chicago's “hometown diva,” soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, will begin in a new role as artistic adviser for the next five seasons, which will include one mainstage appearance per year and close collaboration with the Ryan Opera Center, the company’s training program for emerging singers.

Together, Lyric’s General Director John Mangum called the lineup “one of the most robust and diverse seasons in recent memory.”

Mangum took over Lyric’s top job in 2024 after the company’s longtime leader, Anthony Freud, retired. However, Mangum’s vision for Lyric won’t be fully reflected for another couple of seasons, due to the industry’s long planning process, which sets production schedules far in advance. Mangum, who came to Lyric from the Houston Symphony, has said his goal is to make the art form relevant and accessible to Chicagoans.

In the new season, he said the company is “expanding what opera means.”

"I think [this is] a lineup that shows our dedication to honoring the tradition, but also pushing the tradition forward and being a space where exciting new work can happen," Mangum said.

The company will open the season with “Don Giovanni” on Oct. 10, directed by Chicago theater legend Robert Falls, who last directed the work at Lyric in 2019. The production completes Lyric’s presentation of the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy, which began with “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Così fan tutte” over the past two seasons.

Lyric’s Music Director Enrique Mazzola said the work “has the entire world of opera inside it: comedy, drama, philosophy, and singular musical architecture.” The Italian maestro will conduct five works next season, including Verdi’s “La traviata” next spring and a concert presentation of Jules Massenet’s rarely performed “Hérodiade” in February. Mazzola has worked closely with the latter score, having recorded it at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Following “Don Giovanni,” Chicago audiences will get to see Giddens and Abels’ “Omar,” in October. The Lyric co-commission won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2023. It draws inspiration from Omar ibn Said’s 19th-century memoir. The Muslim scholar was born in West Africa, then enslaved for decades in the American South. The work’s score incorporates hymns, spirituals and bluegrass to create “a tapestry as emotionally direct as it is musically breathtaking,” according to the Lyric.

Mangum said the presentation of “Omar” is part of the company’s acknowledgement of the country’s 250th birthday. “We want to look at the complexities of our nation’s history,” Mangum said.

In November, Lyric will present Gaetano Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale” and two performances of “Wagner: Myth and Music,” which brings the full force of the company’s orchestra and chorus to the stage for a concert featuring tales of valiant heroes and ghostly figures.

Mazzola will return with Joseph Haydn’s oratorio, “The Creation” in January, featuring an English language libretto, which brings bits of Genesis, the Psalms and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”

The spring mainstage lineup will also include Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos,” “La traviata,” and, finally, “Susannah” in April, which returns to Lyric for the first time since 2002, aligned to mark the centennial of Carlisle Floyd’s birth. Radvanovsky will appear in concert with tenor SeokJong Baek April 30-May 2.

The season will close with “Guys and Dolls,” reviving a Lyric tradition of showing American musical theater. The production will be led by director Francesca Zambello, conductor James Lowe and choreographer Joshua Bergasse. At a season announcement Thursday, Mangum stopped short of committing to presenting a musical annually going forward.

“What I love about when an opera company does a musical, it’s done to the absolute highest artistic standard,” Mangum said. “From the casting, sets, costumes to the choreography, you really are getting a superlative musical and dramatic experience.”

Lyric will also continue its movie series, which screens films as the score is performed live. The first will feature Disney’s “Encanto” in November with original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. And, in January, the company will screen “Amadeus,” which will also feature the Lyric Chorus.

Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2026-27 season:

“Don Giovanni,” Oct. 10-Nov. 1
“Omar,” Oct. 23-28
“Don Pasquale,” Nov. 12-27
“Wagner: Myth & Music,” Nov. 20 and 22
“Encanto” live to film, Nov 28-29
“Amadeus” live to film, Jan. 15-16, 2027
Haydn’s “The Creation,” Jan. 22-23, 2027
“Hérodiade: An opera in concert,” Feb. 23-28, 2027
“Ariadne auf Naxos,” March 11-26, 2027
“La traviata,” March 24-April 25, 2027
“Susannah,” April 11-23, 2027
Sondra Radvanovsky and SeokJong Baek in Concert, April 30 and May 2, 2027
“Guys and Dolls,” June 4-20, 2027

Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.