Don Giovanni (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

About This Event

Mozart's Don Giovanni opens Lyric Opera of Chicago's 2026/27 season inside a building whose own opening night still gets talked about: the Civic Opera House debuted November 4, 1929, six days after the stock market crash that started the Depression, built by utility magnate Samuel Insull as a deliberately democratic alternative to the city's older Auditorium Building. Lyric itself didn't exist yet — the house spent its first 25 years passed between a rotating cast of Chicago opera companies before Lyric Theatre, as it was first called, formed in 1954.

This production pairs two Chicago heavyweights. Enrique Mazzola, Lyric's music director since 2021 and only the third in company history, built his reputation on bel canto and early Verdi, not Mozart — which makes his read on this one worth hearing. Directing is Robert Falls, who spent 35 years (1986–2022) running the Goodman Theatre and left it, per the Chicago Tribune, as "Chicago's most essential director"; his Death of a Salesman and Long Day's Journey into Night both transferred to Broadway and picked up seven Tony Awards between them.

Three weeks of performances means real date flexibility, and Lyric's dynamic pricing swings more than $25 between showings for the same seat — comparing two or three dates before buying is worth the five minutes it takes.