Deanna Isaacs

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced Thursday that its 2026-2027 season will feature seven mainstage operas and—after a four-year hiatus—the return of the spring musical with a new (2025) production of Frank Loesser’s Guys and Dolls. Also on deck: two movies—Encanto and Amadeus—with live performance of the score by the Lyric Opera Orchestra (and, for Amadeus, the Lyric Opera Chorus).

Inflation is rampant, jobs are vanishing, and the nation is divided between political extremes. The loudest voices are on the far right, which has gained a power hold, in part by scapegoating immigrants. Anti-Semitism is on the rise, and a megalomaniac has been installed as the national leader. He declares a trumped-up state of emergency, using it to suspend constitutional processes and civil rights, control academia and the arts, and turn federal military forces on the citizenry.

Lyric Opera is advertising its current production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte as a great big delicious Valentine treat. Also, as a sunny antidote to our long, bitter, deep-freeze of a winter. A trite seasonal marketing strategy? Not in this case. Così fan tutte Through 2/15: Wed 2/4 2 PM, Sat 2/7 7:30 PM, Tue 2/10 7 PM, Fri 2/13 7 PM, Sun 2/15 2 PM; Lyric Opera House, 20 N. Wacker, 312-827-5600, lyricopera.org, $47-$383. Sung in Italian with English titles.