Arts & Entertainment
Lyric Opera Announces a Smashing 2025-26 Season With Billy Corgan, Chicago Premieres and Hometown Favorites
Billy Corgan. (Courtesy of Big Foot Media)
Lyric Opera announced Tuesday that it will open its 2025-26 season in October with a double dose of Chicago talent: soprano Sondra Radvanovsky and tenor Matthew Polenzani in “Medea,” a gruesome tale of revenge.
The hometown heroes keep coming when Billy Corgan teams with Lyric to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins’ epic double LP “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” for a week of performances in late November.
It’s a planned rebirth of the mega-selling record with guest artists, plus the Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus. “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness” is being framed as “a new sonic and visual experience” based on the album.
Corgan made new arrangements and orchestrations with input from conductor James Lowe, and Corgan spoke of creating a “beautiful, immersive environment.”
“This is not rock goes opera, or opera goes rock,” Corgan said. “This is to celebrate the compositional aspect of the work. We want to recast the work in a different light and have some fun with it as well.”
WTTW News asked Corgan whether he has ambitions to compose for musical theater or opera beyond this project.
“Let’s just start here,” Corgan said with a laugh. “The translation from rock and pop music to the greatest works of art, that’s a difficult translation point. Would I have the chops in that field? I’m not saying I would or I wouldn’t, but I would say it’s a different endeavor than writing a four-minute pop song about being unhappy.”
At Tuesday’s announcement, new Lyric Opera general manager John Mangum spoke of inheriting an outstanding season from previous GM Anthony Freud, a lineup that includes multiple Lyric premieres and new-to-Chicago productions.
Music director Enrique Mazzola displayed his trademark enthusiasm for a season where he’ll conduct a double bill of passionate one-acts: “Cavalleria rusticana” and “Pagliacci.”
Scheduled for early 2026 is Richard Strauss’ “Salome,” another bloody thrill ride like “Medea.” Then Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” opens right before Valentine’s Day, followed by Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”
El ultimo sueño de “Frida y Diego.” (Cory Weaver / San Francisco Opera)
Tuesday’s announcement included a performance by Daniela Mack as Frida Kahlo in “Frida y Diego,” a Lyric premiere opening next March.
avery r. young, Chicago’s first poet laureate, sang a Curtis Mayfield-inspired tune from “safronia,” the story of his family’s experience in the Great Migration. This world premiere, commissioned by Lyric Opera, will play the Civic Opera House in April 2026.
One must-see on the season schedule would have to be “Carmina Burana,” conducted by Mazzola and featuring 225 singers and musicians. The very thought of this army of artists performing “O Fortuna” ought to give you chills.
Superstar Renee Fleming returns to the stage for a program created in partnership with the National Geographic Society called “Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene.”
After Tuesday’s news conference, WTTW News asked Corgan if, growing up in the Chicago area, he had a chance to be exposed to the arts.
“I grew up in DuPage County and occasionally we’d come to the city and go to a ballet or something, but we didn’t have any context for what we were seeing,” Corgan said. “It’s, like, here’s the ballet, enjoy. If we had talked to people and saw their dedication and work it would’ve been a different level of inspiration.”
“My father used to say to me, it’s good that I had a bad life because it made me a better rock star, but I used to say, ‘Daddy, I’m a composer,’ Corgan said. “I might have done very well in the orchestral field as a composer. I just never had that opportunity or even any context to pursue that, so I pay great respect to these great artists because it really is the highest achievement of musical endeavor.”
The full lineup for the 2025-26 Lyric Opera season can be found at lyricopera.org/newseason.
Marc Vitali is the JCS Fund of the DuPage Foundation Arts Correspondent.
Related Stories
