Tony Award Winner Susan Stroman Debuts in Lyric Opera of Chicago's THE MERRY WIDOW Tonight

Lyric Opera of Chicago presents the sparkling operetta The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár in a new-to-Chicago production directed and choreographed by five-time Tony Award winner Susan Stroman. Presented in English with projected titles, the production opens tonight, November 14 with 10 performances through Sunday, December 13. Performance dates are November 14, 17, 20, 23, 25, 28 at7:30pm; and December 3, 9, 11, and 13 at 2pm. For tickets and information call (312) 827-5600 or go towww.lyricopera.org/merrywidow.

Broadway legend Susan Stroman most recently received a Tony Award nomination for Best Choreography for Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway. She garnered Tony Awards for acclaimed productions includingThe Producers, Contact and Crazy for You. Stroman's work has also been honored with numerous Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Astaire and Lucille Lortel Awards, and the Society of Directors and Choreographers' George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The Merry Widow comes to Lyric Opera in a lavish production that premiered last New Year's Eve at the Metropolitan Opera. Lyric's music director Sir Andrew Davis conducts. Renée Fleming (7 performancesNov. 14-Dec. 3) and Elizabeth Futral (3 performances Dec. 9-13) share the title role of Hanna Glawari, the merry widow whose fortunes may save her homeland - if she marries a fellow Pontevedrian. Thomas Hampson portrays Count Danilo, the playboy-bon vivant who's her former lover (and eventual new husband), with Heidi Stober as the saucy Valencienne, Michael Spyres as her would-be suitor Camille (who Valencienne tries to set up with Hanna), and Patrick Carfizzi as Valencienne's diplomat-husband Zeta. The production is designed by Broadway veterans Julian Crouch (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), andPaule Constable (lighting). Michael Black is chorus master.

"It's a very elegant piece!" says Davis, who conducted the Met performances of this production in January with Fleming in the title role.

"Susan Stroman is a very distinguished Broadway director, so this show has all the spectacle, style, and energy that one would expect," says Anthony Freud, Lyric's general director. "This production is set in period and looks ravishing. Having Renée and Thomas together again on our stage will be exciting, and then Thomas will partner with Elizabeth, who's shone in the role here previously. And Heidi Stober will have a great debut here as Valencienne."

Founded in 1954, Lyric Opera of Chicago's mission is to express and promote the life-changing, transformational, revelatory power of great opera. Lyric exists to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to Chicago and the nation, and to advance the development of the art form.

Lyric is dedicated to producing and performing consistently thrilling, entertaining, and thought-provoking opera with a balanced repertoire of core classics, lesser-known masterpieces, and new works; to creating an innovative and wide-ranging program of community engagement and educational activities; and to developing exceptional emerging operatic talent.

Under the leadership of general director Anthony Freud, music director Sir Andrew Davis, and creative consultant Renée Fleming, Lyric strives to become The Great North American Opera Company for the 21st century: a globally significant arts organization embodying the core values of excellence, relevance, and fiscal responsibility.