Lindsey Lyddan

Lindsey Lyddan, Lighting Designer, is thrilled to be working with Haymarket Opera once again on another fantastic production. She has worked all over Chicago with Silk Road Rising, Roosevelt University’s Opera Program, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, Drury Lane Theatre Oakbrook, Lookingglass Theatre, Steppenwolf, the Goodman, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Adventure Stage Chicago, and the Cherub program at Northwestern University. She received her MFA in lighting and scenic design from Northwestern University. Lindsey is grateful to her husband, Bill, for his support in all her endeavors.

Q&A with Lindsey Lyddan

Q: What do you do for Haymarket and how will you be involved in this production? 

LL: I will be providing the lighting for the production. To help intone the energy of the piece.

Q: What do you love about the operas? Do you have a favorite moment or piece of music from them?

LL: I love the feeling opera gives you. The way it whisks you into a different place and the music surrounds with such beauty.

Q: What is the biggest challenge in presenting Haymarket in HD? What are you most excited about?

LL: I will miss the stage and the energy the audience adds to a piece. But I am excited to create with this wonderful group once again.

Q: Where are you drawing inspiration from? Are you drawing from other films? Other Haymarket productions?

LL: I definitely have found a quality we at Haymarket always give to our productions that I plan to embed into this production. And I also will study the operas story and history for inspiration.

Q: How does this production continue Haymarket’s unique stamp of early opera conventions?

LL: By changing our format in order to keep the music alive, we are very much doing what inventive people in the Baroque era would do to maintain art in life.

Q: These operas center around a theme of forced transformation. How has the pandemic forced you to change? Have there been any silver linings?

LL: The pandemic has definitely changed daily life. I do enjoy spending more time with my husband and family.

Q: As it’s Haymarket’s 10th anniversary, do you have a favorite Haymarket memory?

LL: Too many wonderful memories to count.