Lyric Opera of Chicago To Perform Experts From Così fan tutte & Der Rosenkavalier, Wed. Aug. 15th @ 6:30pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion

Lyric Opera of Chicago To Perform Experts From Così fan tutte & Der Rosenkavalier, Wed. Aug. 15th @ 6:30pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion 1 The talented ensemble members of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago will be featured with the Grant Park Orchestra for a sparkling evening of opera excerpts Wednesday, August 15, at 6:30 pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.The talented ensemble members of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago will be featured with the Grant Park Orchestra for a sparkling evening of opera excerpts Wednesday, August 15, at 6:30 pm at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.

Carlos Kalmar conducts the Grant Park Orchestra, many of whom are also members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra. Act One of Mozart’s Italian comedy Così fan tutte will open the program, and the sublime final scene/Act Two of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier will close the concert. Lyric’s own Jack Zimmerman will narrate. A booklet containing texts and translations will be available at this performance. The concert is partially underwritten by a generous contribution from Rose Ann Grundman.

Several ensemble members of the Ryan Opera Center will participate in the concert. They are: sopranos

Emily Birsan, Tracy Cantin, and Kiri Deonarine; mezzo-sopranos J’nai Bridgesand Cecelia Hall; tenor John Irvin; baritones Joseph Lim and Will Liverman; and bass Evan Boyer.

Concert admission is free on a first-come, first-seated basis for the concert(Grant Park Music Festival members will receive priority seating in the pavilion.) Free open rehearsals will be held at Pritzker Pavilion Tues. Aug. 14, 3:00-5:30 pm; and Wed., Aug. 15, 11 am-1:30 pm. For more information, click here.

Each year The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, the professional artist-development program of Lyric Opera of Chicago, selects gifted young singers from some 400 applicants. Soon after arriving at Lyric in May, incoming Ryan Opera Center members begin an intensive full-year residency under the guidance of Gianna Rolandi and numerous other opera professionals. Coaching sessions and master classes are augmented by performance and understudy experience in productions mounted by Lyric Opera of Chicago, including the eight operas of Lyric’s regular season. (Until September 2006, the program was known as the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.)