Lyric Opera of Chicago cancels fall season due to pandemic

CHICAGO (AP) — The Lyric Opera of Chicago has canceled the fall portion of its 2020-21 season due to the new coronavirus, a move that eliminates four of its 10 productions and delays opening night from Sept. 17 to Jan. 16.

General director Anthony Freud said Tuesday he hopes to reschedule the missed stagings for future seasons: a double bill of Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana” and Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci;” what was to have been the North American premiere of George Benjamin’s “Lessons in Love and Violence;” Puccini’s “Tosca;” and Verdi’s “Attila.”

Twenty-six performances in all were canceled.

The season now is set to start with the Chicago premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s “Proving Up” at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. The main auditorium, where renovation continues during the pandemic, is to open Jan. 23 with Saint-Saëns’ “Samson et Dalila.”