Lyric Opera description

The Lyric Opera of Chicago 2026/27 Season kicks off with a thrilling fable of deceit and retribution. Under the baton of Music Director Enrique Mazzola, sharp humor, high drama, and an exquisite score intertwine in the story of a charismatic seducer whose unrepentant lustfulness brings about a most spectacular demise.

Singing with a voice that can “shake the heavens” (Opera Today), bass-baritone and Lyric veteran Christian Van Horn stars as one of opera’s most infamous anti-heroes, crowning a stellar cast.

Director Robert Falls’s instant-classic take on this morality tale for the ages offers an expansive and hard-hitting Don Giovanni sure to satisfy anyone with a wicked taste for drama.

Language: Sung in Italian with projected English titles
Running Time: 3 hours 25 minutes, including 1 intermission
Location: Lyric Opera House
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Chicago Sun-Times review

It is impossible not to perceive 1787 opera, “Don Giovanni,” in a more fraught way in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.

But there is no need for a director today to try to somehow unduly amp up the ugly side of this opera, which opened Saturday at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his famed librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte already took care of that by assuring Giovanni gets his well-deserved comeuppance at the hands of the devil.

And, indeed, in this 3½-hour take, which Lyric first presented in 2014-15 and reprised in 2019-20, stage director Robert Falls doesn’t try to impose some sociopolitical overlay onto this opera. He does shift the setting to the 1920s, but that seems to be more for the nifty visual effect than to make some kind of statement.

Chicago Classical Review review

You don’t mess with operatic success.

Such was the winning formula for Lyric Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, which opened the company’s 72nd season Saturday night.

This is the third time around for director Robert Falls’ much-lauded production of Mozart’s dramma giocoso, which was unveiled in 2014 and revived five years later.

Unlike Barbara Gaines’ inane, Mozart for Dummies staging of Le nozze di Figaro, Falls’ updating of Don Giovanni puts a quirky backspin on the opera while being respectful of the narrative and the characters, and always keeping Mozart’s music in a primary position.

From the curtain—with no mindless inserted pantomime during the Overture—to the jaw-dropping theatrical denouement where the Don gets his just desserts—Falls’ clever staging works nearly flawlessly and provides a sturdy framework for the large cast to shine both individually and as an ensemble in the opera’s somewhat chaotic mix of comedy and drama.

More details