CHICAGO — The Lyric Opera of Chicago laid out its 2025-26 season at a presentation at the Civic Opera House on Tuesday, the first season to be announced under the direction of John Mangum, Lyric’s newly installed general director, president and CEO. Many of the projects first were put in motion by Mangum’s predecessor, Anthony Freud. The increased pace of performances reflects what Mangum called a continuation of Lyric’s recovery from the pandemic.

The fall slate of the leading Midwestern opera company opens with the Lyric premiere of a new co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Greek National Opera and Canadian Opera Company of Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea” (Oct 11-26). It will star Sondra Radvanovsky, who was born in Berwyn and rose to a reputation as one of the opera world’s leading sopranos.

Also coming this fall, a double bill of two one-act operas, Pietro Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” (Nov. 1-23). Director Elijah Moshinsky’s production will be staged by revival director Peter McClintock and feature a cast that includes Russell Thomas, Quinn Kelsey, and Gabriella Reyes. Enrique Mazzola conducts.

November will see three performances of Carl Orff’s cantata “Carmina Burana” (Nov. 14-18) and the world premiere of a new “alt rock opera” penned by Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame, titled “A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness” (Nov. 21-30).

Corgan was in the house Tuesday. His new opera is based on the Smashing Pumpkins conceptual double album of roughly the same title, the band’s third studio album. Recorded in Chicago and released in 1995 with 28 tracks, “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” represents the emotional and philosophical ambitions of 1990s alternative rock at its most expansive. “Billy could have celebrated the 30th anniversary of this album anywhere,” Mangum said. “He wanted to do it at the Lyric.”

Corgan said that he was a longtime Lyric audience member and wanted to pay tribute to the operatic world. “This is to celebrate the compositional aspect of the work,” Corgan said. “We’re not trying to do opera-goes-rock.” Corgan also said he will “get a sing a few songs” but also wanted to “get out of the way” of the orchestrations and the operatic singers involved in the project.

“My dream here is for us to create a beautiful immersive environment,” Corgan said. He hopes the project “will be able to travel beyond Chicago.”

How much actual staging will take place remains to be seen, given that this is a world premiere planned for seven performances, mostly on consecutive nights. But the songs have been reorchestrated and reordered and there will be costumes and other design elements. Its presence on the mainstage season (requiring an add-on ticket for subscribers) is a departure from custom for the Lyric, although one likely to prove popular with Smashing Pumpkins fans.

In January, Lyric will stage Richard Strauss’ “Salome” (Jan. 25 to Feb. 14, 2026), the 1905 opera based on the Oscar Wilde play, as staged by David McVicar and starring Elena Stikhina in the title role in her Lyric debut. “Salome,” among other attributes, is famous for its Dance of the Seven Veils. McVicar’s production originated at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008.

A San Francisco Opera production of Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” (Feb. 1-15) follows, directed by Michael Cavanagh and set in a seaside resort in the 1930s — featuring Ana María Martínez and Rod Gilfry in leading roles. At Lyric, Mazzola will conduct. On Tuesday, Mangum said that the opening production of Lyric’s 2026-27 season will be “Don Giovanni,” completing the trilogy of the Mozart/Lorenzo Da Ponte operas at Lyric.

Next, Lyric will stage Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” (March 14 to April 12, 2026), directed by Matthew Ozawa, with Karah Son making her Lyric debut in the title role. That piece will be paired with “El último sueño de Frida y Diego (The Last Dream of Frida and Diego)” (March 21 to April 4, 2026) by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist (and famed playwright) Nilo Cruz. Sung in Spanish and embracing of Mexican folk music traditions, the piece will star Daniela Mack and Alfredo Daza.

Finally, the season concludes with the world premiere of “safronia” (April 17-18, 2026), an Afro-surrealist opera both penned by and starring Chicago Poet Laureate avery r. young. This new piece follows a family who took part in the Great Migration but has returned home to reckon with the past. Timothy Douglas directs an opera that will include gospel, blues, funk and soul. Young said Tuesday that the story is based on that of his grandparents.

Additional special events aside from the opening night gala (on Oct.10) include Renée Fleming, who has ended her association with Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, in concert in Chicago on Feb. 5, 2026, and an expanded version of “Movie Nights at Lyric” (Disney’s “Coco” on Oct. 16-18 and “Mary Poppins” on April 10-11, 2026) where the Lyric’s orchestra provides a live accompaniment to one of two classic Hollywood movies.

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