General Director Chase Hopkins on Lyric’s 2025/26 season announcement

Our friends at Lyric Opera of Chicago have announced their 2025-26 season, and I’m thrilled to see three artists who are dear to Haymarket scheduled to perform there next season.  

Contralto Lauren Decker will portray the central role of tavern owner Mamma Lucia in Pietro Mascagni’s verismo one-act potboiler Cavalleria rusticana when Lyric revives the Elijah Moshinsky production Nov. 1-23. Lauren made her role debut as Turiddu’s anguished mother at Deutsche Oper Berlin during her European debut season in 2023.

Also that year, Haymarket audiences will remember Lauren Decker’s heartfelt performance as the romantic Mark Anthony in our production of Johann Adolph Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra. The work relies on just two singers who portray a final conversation between the fated lovers and their ultimate decision to take their own lives. In a stunning subversion of our modern expectations, Hasse scored Cleopatra for a male castrato (Farinelli no less) opposite Marc’Antonio as a contralto. I knew we needed a true contralto for the role of Marc’Antonio, and indeed Lauren showcased her low notes with ornaments that took optional low notes where possible! Lauren is an exceptional artist, and I am struck by the sheer power and volume of her voice, depth of her range, and the pathos in her performances. Lauren’s debut with Haymarket followed her tenure as a member of the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. We are excited to see Lauren returning to Chicago as Mamma Lucia in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana at Lyric later this year. 

Tenor David Portillo will be a featured soloist in Lyric’s concert performances of Carl Orff’s rousing Carmina Burana Nov. 14, 16, and 18. Specifically, David will portray the Swan in one segment of the roller-coaster cantata based on 24 medieval poems, collaborating with the Lyric Opera Chorus and Orchestra. A chiding chorus sympathizes with the Swan's demise as it sings of its former beauty and elegance, only to find itself being roasted and at the center of a banquet table. David returns to the Lyric as an alumnus of the Ryan Opera Center.

Haymarket audiences will recall David’s dramatic expressivity as Bajazet in our 2024 production of Handel’s Tamerlano that celebrated the 300th anniversary of the work and its Chicago premiere. The warmth, beauty, and agility of David’s voice make him in demand at opera houses and orchestras around the world, and this role is notable for some of Handel’s more challenging and lengthy stretches of recitative. The dramatic variety he brought to Bajazet’s famous death sequence remains a lasting memory from that production.   

Countertenor Key’mon Murrah is set to make house debuts with Haymarket and with Lyric in 2025-26, and our respective audiences can look forward to hearing this rising star take the stage. When casting Baroque opera and oratorios, we are often confronted by the question, “How do you solve a problem like a soprano castrato?” The castrati were 17th- and 18th-century superstars who left difficult shoes to fill: extraordinary ranges, virtuosic coloratura, and lengthy roles. Their repertoire is not necessarily only to be filled with countertenors, as the roles divide into soprano, mezzo, and alto registers that require as much discernment as casting traditional female roles and ranges. To produce Leonardo Vinci’s rare opera Artaserse, five varied castrati roles are required! Key’mon will make his role debut as Arbace with Haymarket this June. Following that performance at Haymarket, he will reprise the role of Leonardo in El último sueño Frida y Diego at Lyric (Mar. 21-April 4, 2026). This critically acclaimed 2022 opera by Gabriela Lena Frank & Nilo Cruz imagines Mexican artist Frida Kahlo returning from the underworld on the Day of the Dead to visit her still-living husband Diego Rivera, encouraged by Leonardo, a fellow denizen of the underworld. Key’mon possesses one of the most exciting voices of his generation and I do not want audiences to miss hearing his glorious singing, with two upcoming opportunities in Chicago!

Learn more about the Lyric’s 2025/26 season, and don’t miss performances by incredible artists at Haymarket this year.

About the author

Chase Hopkins currently serves as the General Director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company and the artistic director of Opera Edwardsville. Hopkins offered a "skillful" (Chicago Classical Review) debut as a stage director in 2023, leading a critically acclaimed production of Hasse's Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra. In 2024, Hopkins directed Haymarket's production of Handel's Tamerlano, praised as an "impressive achievement" (Opera Magazine), and will semi-stage Handel's Alcina for Haymarket's Ravinia Festival debut in August, 2025.

About The Haymarket Review: This new digital publication including thoughts about  the work produced by Haymarket is designed to deepen our connection to audiences, nurture and feed audience curiosity about historical performance, offer critical opinions and thoughtful reflections on our performances, and provide a forum for Haymarket and its audience to connect through sharing insights, opinions, learning, and expertise.