Graham directed the world premieres of John Corigliano's opera, The Ghosts of Versailles, for the Metropolitan Opera; The Dangerous Liaisons and André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for San Francisco Opera; The Song of Majnun for Lyric Opera of Chicago; and a series of three operas by Miki Minoru.
She had some difficulty, however, when asked to sing at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, being asked to sing the roles of Rosina and Donizetti's Lucia in the Italian language, because she argued that she had not had sufficient time to re-learn those roles in their original language (throughout Europe at that time operas were largely sung in the tongue of the nation in which they were being performed).
On air he led WFMT's internationally syndicated broadcasts of live performances from the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1971 until his retirement.
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From 1991 until 1995, Foldi served as director of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists; he was succeeded by Richard Pearlman.
The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic Opera by Laurence Kelly and Nicolà Rescigno, both of whom had been active with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the first as administrator, the second as artistic director.
Since 1983, she has performed the role over a hundred times including at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Arena di Verona, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera, Opera Company of Boston under Sarah Caldwell (in 1983), Barcelona, and Houston Grand Opera.
Mattila appears regularly in the major opera houses worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vienna State Opera, Toronto Roy Thomson Hall and Großes Festspielhaus, Salzburg and with top orchestras.
Protopapas has also been an Assistant Conductor for the Los Angeles Opera and has served as Assistant Conductor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Santa Fe Opera.
As a performing arts center, Memorial Hall has hosted concerts by John Philip Sousa's band, Victor Borge, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and singers from the Boston and Chicago opera companies.
He has composed three major operas, McTeague, A View From the Bridge, and A Wedding, all commissioned and premiered by the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Dennis Russell Davies.
His two-act opera Orpheus Descending was premiered in 1994 at end of his stint as composer-in-residence at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Ruth Page became the leading force of ballet in Chicago, establishing many Chicago companies with various names: Chicago Grand Opera Company, Ravinia Opera Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Ballet, Ruth Page's International Ballet and Chicago Ballet, with Ben Stevenson and Larry Long as Co-Artistic directors in 1974.