Lyric Opera Preview

The “Opera Up Close” series returns by popular demand to Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts, featuring Sunday matinees with world-class singers performing opera classics in an intimate, on-stage setting complete with cabaret style audience seating and a European café menu of coffee and desserts. First in the series is a Lyric Opera Preview Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011 at 4 p.m. when singers from the Lyric Opera Chorus perform selections from the upcoming Lyric season including Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Handel’s “Rinaldo,” Verdi’s “Aida,” Offenbach’s “The Tales of Hoffmann,” Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoore,” Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos,” and Kern and Hammerstein’s “Showboat.” The singers performing in this showcase include Soprano Rose Guccione (Oak Park), Mezzo-Soprano Janet Mensen-Reynolds (LaGrange Highlands), Tenor Kenneth Donovan (Chicago) and Baritone Keven Keys (Evanston).