About Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is committed to redefining what it means to experience great opera. The company is driven to deliver consistently excellent artistry through innovative, relevant, celebratory programming that engages and energizes new and traditional audiences.
Under the leadership of General Director, President & CEO Anthony Freud, Music Director Enrique Mazzola, and Special Projects Advisor Renée Fleming, Lyric is dedicated to reflecting, and drawing strength from, the diversity of Chicago. Lyric offers, through innovation, collaboration, and evolving learning opportunities, ever-more exciting, accessible, and thought-provoking audience and community experiences. We also stand committed to training the artists of the future, through The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center; and to becoming increasingly diverse across our audiences, staff, programming, and artists—magnifying the welcoming pull of our art form, our company, and our city.
Through the timeless power of voice, the splendor of a great orchestra and chorus, theater, dance, design, and truly magnificent stagecraft, Lyric is devoted to immersing audiences in worlds both familiar and unexpected, creating shared experiences that resonate long after the curtain comes down.
About Sondra Radvanovsky
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is a globally celebrated artist. The depth and exquisite color of her voice are matched by her dramatic acting ability and versatility across a remarkable range of repertoire, from the title roles in Rusalka and Lucrezia Borgia, to Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac and the title role in Manon Lescaut. She is widely regarded as one of the finest living Verdi sopranos and is among the world’s premiere interpreters of bel canto.
Radvanovsky made history as the first soprano to perform Donizetti’s “Three Queens” at the Metropolitan Opera in a single season. Among her other recent successes have been Aida (new production, Opéra National de Paris) and Rusalka (Canadian Opera Company, in Sir David McVicar’s production). Radvanovsky is much acclaimed in Europe, from the Royal Opera House to La Scala, the major Spanish houses, and the Zurich Opera House. She has also appeared with the major orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Munich, as well as the Verbier Festival Orchestra. She can be seen on DVD in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac and has starred in three performances for the “Met: Live in HD Series,” for which she has also served as host three times. Radvanovsky can be heard on CD in a solo recital of Verdi arias and in Verdi opera scenes with Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
Sondra Radvanovsky trained at the Metropolitan Opera in the late 1990s in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. After performances in smaller roles there, she caught the attention of critics as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and was singled out as a soprano to watch. Since then, Sondra Radvanovsky has performed in every major opera house in the world, including the Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, the Met, Opernhaus Zürich, and numerous others, and has appeared in concerts throughout the world, singing with leading orchestras.
Radvanovsky is a co-creator and co-host of the podcast “Screaming Divas”, where she and her friend soprano Keri Alkema talk about their lives and operatic careers with friends and colleagues. In 2018, she was named Vocalist of the Year by Musical America and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music.
About Mattew Polenzani
American tenor Matthew Polenzani is one of the most gifted and distinguished lyric tenors of his generation. His elegant musicianship, innate sense of style, dramatic commitment, and timeless artistry have established his continued presence at leading operatic, concert, and recital venues worldwide.
Polenzani opens his exciting 2025–26 season with a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, reprising his portrayal of Giasone in Sir David McVicar’s lush production of Cherubini’s Medea. He returns to the Metropolitan Opera for two productions this season, in the role of Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, the latter of which he reprises later this season at Teatro alla Scala. Polenzani begins the new year in Budapest, with performances of Verdi’s Requiem at MUPA, followed by his role debut as Riccardo in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra Bastille. He brings his “spectacular” (Houston Chronicle) interpretation of Massenet’s Werther to Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, before appearing as Florestan in Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. He will also perform in recital at Philadelphia’s Perelman Center, where he will sing selections by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, accompanied by pianist Ken Noda.
Polenzani’s 2024–25 season featured a series of favored title roles: Werther at the Wiener Staatsoper, and Mozart’s Idomeneo in a new San Francisco Opera production directed by Lindy Hume. He bowed as Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at Teatro Real de Madrid, conducted by Nicola Luisotti, before taking on the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Gran Teatro del Liceu. He made a brilliant return to the Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, and he joined Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra as Anatol in Barber’s Vanessa. His season also included recital appearances with pianist Julius Drake at the Hungarian State Opera and Oper Frankfurt, as well as a concert debut of Schubert’s Schwanengesang with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Matthew Polenzani was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 Beverly Sills Artist Award, and a 2017 Opera News Award. An avid golfer, he makes his home in suburban New York with his wife, mezzo-soprano Rosa Maria Pascarella, and their three sons.
About Finn Sagal
The second-year baritone with Lyric Opera’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center from La Cañada Flintridge, California, has performed at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas with such luminaries as Liza Minnelli, Michael Feinstein, and Kristin Chenoweth.
Sagal will appear at Lyric this season in El último sueño de Frida y Diego following his company debut last spring in The Listeners. He received a 2025 Sara Tucker Study Grant, first place at the 2025 Saengerbund Awards, the 2025 Ginger and Jim Meyer Centennial Award from the American Opera Society, and third place in the 2024 Neue Stimmen competition. The baritone returned to the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program in 2025 as a Renée Fleming Artist, performing Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and participated in the 2023 Merola Opera Program.
Sagal recently received a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, where he performed the roles of Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, the Tutor in Le Comte Ory, and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress. He holds an undergraduate degree in vocal performance from UCLA.
