American Soprano Jennifer Holloway to Star in SALOME at Lyric Opera of Chicago

Lyric Opera of Chicago revealed that soprano Jennifer Holloway will portray the title role in Richard Strauss’s Salome, on stage January 25 through February 14, 2026. Holloway will step into the role in place of Elena Stikhina, who is withdrawing from the production due to her pregnancy.

Holloway makes her Lyric debut in the title role of Salome, which returns to the house for the first time in 20 years. A distinguished interpreter of Strauss, Holloway has appeared in the tour-de-force title role with the Vienna State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, and Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, and has performed many other leading roles in the German repertoire.

The soprano began the 2025/26 Season performing Salome in concert with the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and Bucharest. She also appeared this season as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa before taking on Elsa in a new production of Lohengrin at the Rome Opera. With her debut in the title role in Barber’s Vanessa, she makes her first appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in concert performances of the work. She will be heard at the Vienna State
Opera as Kundry (Parsifal) and at the Hamburg State Opera as Chrysothemis (Elektra). The 2026 Bayreuth Festival has engaged Holloway as Adriano in the first-ever production of Rienzi in festival history.

Other recent highlights include her role debut as Kundry at Oper Frankfurt; her house debut at Oper Zürich as Beethoven’s Leonore (Fidelio); and Chrysothemis (Elektra), Elisabeth (Tannhäuser), Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer), Leonore (Fidelio), and Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes) at the Hamburg State Opera. Further recent engagements included Senta at the Semperoper Dresden, Cassandre (Les Troyens) and Senta at the Bavarian State Opera, Sieglinde in concert with the Orchestre de Paris under Jaap van Zweden and at the Vienna Konzerthaus under
Joana Mallwitz.

Salome marks the North American premiere of Sir David McVicar’s provocative production, set against the backdrop of pre-war fascist Italy. Along with Holloway, Lyric favorites Brandon Jovanovich and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner will assume the roles of her demented parents, Herod and Herodias. Rising star Nicholas Brownlee makes his Lyric debut as the object of Salome’s deadly affection, Jochanaan.

Conductor Tomáš Netopil, the new Chief Conductor and Music Director of the FOK - Prague Symphony Orchestra, makes his Lyric debut leading the Lyric Opera Orchestra in Strauss’s groundbreaking score. Before his role with the FOK - Prague Symphony Orchestra, Netopil was Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic from 2018 to 2024. Winner of the first Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in 2002, Netopil served as General Music Director of the Aalto Musik Theater and Philharmonie Essen from 2013 to 2023, where his opera productions included many performances of Salome. His interpretations bring stylistic authority and dramatic fire to Strauss’s demanding music, revealing both its sumptuous beauty and its capacity for violence.

Supporting roles include mezzo-soprano Catherine Martin as the Page; tenor Bille Bruley in his Lyric debut as First Jew; current Ryan Opera Center Ensemble tenors Travon D. Walker as Second Jew and Daniel Luis Espinal as Third Jew; tenor Zhengyi Bai in his Lyric debut as Fourth Jew; Ryan Opera Center bass-baritone Benjamin R. Sokol in his Lyric debut as Fifth Jew; baritone Aleksey Bogdanov in his Lyric debut as First Nazarene; Ryan Opera Center baritone Sihao Hu in his Lyric debut as Second Nazarene; bass Scott Conner in his Lyric debut as First Soldier; Ryan Opera Center bass-baritone Christopher Humbert, Jr. as Second Soldier; Ryan Opera Center baritone Sankara Harouna as a Cappadocian; and mezzo-soprano Angela De Venuto as a Slave.

A bold production calls for a master storyteller. Internationally acclaimed visionary Sir David McVicar was the original director of this production, which is seen for the first time in North America in these performances. McVicar’s reimagining transposes the action to pre-war fascist Italy, shedding a harsh light on the timeless greed, entitlement, and moral corruption of the elite. Salome marks McVicar’s eleventh opera with Lyric Opera of Chicago, continuing a collaboration that has produced some of the company’s most memorable productions, including Cherubini's Medea earlier this season, Verdi’s Don Carlos (2022/23) and Macbeth (2021/22), and Strauss’s Elektra (2018/19 and 2012/13).

A production that dazzles the eye and haunts the mind. The creative team of Salome includes revival director Julia Burbach in her Lyric debut, designer Es Devlin in her Lyric debut, original lighting designer Wolfgang Göbbel, revival lighting designer Chris Maravich, video designer 59 Productions, choreographer Andrew George, and revival choreographer Emily Piercy in her Lyric debut.

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