CMU School of Drama


Thursday, April 23, 2026

Lyric Opera's Mangum and Mazzola on the 2026-27 Season

www.newcitystage.com: Last week was a hectic one at Lyric Opera. Not only was the company getting ready to launch the world premiere of first-ever Chicago poet laureate avery r. young’s “safronia,” but it was also presenting film-to-live-music performances of “Mary Poppins” and the final performances of Matthew Ozawa’s reimagined “Madama Butterfly.”

1 comment:

Sophie Bilodeau said...

The theatre I worked at in Maine is in a transitional period. They just changed artistic directors and when you look at the season, you can definitely tell which show was selected by who. I wonder if opera is different and if the differences lie in the production of the piece rather than the show selections. Although, in making this assumption, I know that I risk angering opera people; if someone were to say the same thing about plays, I would claim they didn’t understand.
I would like to know what led to the transition of power at the opera. John Mangum seems enthusiastic about the selections made by his predecessor, and talks about how he would like to continue putting together the kinds of seasons the opera has been doing and emphasizes fostering tradition. I think it’s cool that he seems to really care about the organization's mission and understands what kinds of things the audience is looking for.