A famous Chicagoan once said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Life does move fast, and opportunities and experiences are the simplest way to pause time. For me there’s no better place in all of Chicago where time stops, even for a short while, than the Lyric Opera. There’s something magical about the venue, from the moment you enter the theatre to marvel at the grandness of the entrance hall until the time the lights blink to usher you to your plush red chairs in the audience to view an operatic masterpiece. It’s when you leave the theatre, wandering into the chilly Chicago night air, that you realize that the opera allowed you to stop time, and not just for the lengthy three plus hour run times the operas tend to be, but truly stop time. Because the magic of the opera allows us to stop, look, and reflect that we watched an opera that has been performed for thousands of years. Plays and operas based on plays and works that reach to the earliest stages of life on earth and that we as a modern audience are still moved by today, can still connect to on an emotional level. Time stops at the opera and for a brief run time, you can view the same operatic magic as the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2025/26 Season kicks off with a searing tale of vengeance and betrayal: Cherubini’s Medea, on stage October 11–26, 2025.
Hell hath no fury like a sorceress scorned. Euripides's ancient tragedy comes to blazing life in this riveting opera, a late 18th-century masterpiece with music and themes that continue to resonate across the millennia. This centuries-old tale burns with unrelenting emotional fire, and in Cherubini’s hands, it demands to be retold. Audiences witness the tragedy of Medea, a powerful sorceress betrayed by her lover, Giasone, who abandons her and their two children to marry another woman, Glauce, the daughter of the king Creonte. Given just 24 hours to accept her fate, Medea instead bends it to her will, with her accomplice, Neris, at her side, delivering vengeance that shakes the very foundations of the kingdom. A favorite of Beethoven himself, who considered Cherubini to be the greatest living composer of his time, Medea channels the raw power of Greek tragedy and sets it to unforgettable music, leaving audiences breathless as love curdles into rage, and a mother’s heartbreak becomes her most devastating weapon.
With a cast of operatic Olympians, visionary direction, and music that blazes with wrath and beauty, Medea sets the tone for a season defined by bold storytelling and emotional intensity. Medea marks the return of three Chicago-born international stars to the Lyric stage, superstar soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in an Olympic-level performance of the title role, acclaimed tenor Matthew Polenzani, and the rising star mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams. Coupled with the Lyric Opera Orchestra conducted by “Chicago’s Maestro-Around-Town” Lyric Music Director Enrique Mazzola, Cherubini’s score delivers operatic fire and fury as never before. Lyric presents Medea for the first time in its seven-decade history in a production directed by Sir David McVicar, who returns with a sweeping vision of beauty and decay that commands attention from first note to final breath. This spellbinding production transforms myth into music and passion into fire and creates an unforgettable night at the opera that proves hell hath no fury like a sorceress scorned.
Is there anything more profound or timeless as a woman’s rage? Particularly a woman scorned? It’s quite easy to dive into debates about the merits of female rage, how we can examine ancient texts with an often more critical or kinder lens as we reflect on the story that unfolds on the stage. But more striking is the lasting power of the emotions captured in Medea, rage, vengeance, and spite. The emotions depicted and beautifully portrayed in 2025 are the same emotions that were originally captured when the play was first written in 431 BC, the same emotions depicted as an opera for the first time in 1797 France. It’s the power of the humanities, the way that prose and storytelling capture the human experience of a woman scorned and the lengths she would go to seek her revenge. The same shock and outrage audiences felt on October 11th, 2025, are the same feelings audience members experienced in 1797, and in 431 BC. That’s the magic of opera. Other theatric mediums offer testaments and homage to classic tales but operas have an altogether unique quality about that. The blend of storytelling and musicality captivates you, enchants you, and transcends you through time and space with drama tales that still resonate today.
There are only five remaining opportunities to see Medea at the Lyrics Opera in Chicago (20 N Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606): October 14, 17, and 20, at 7 p.m., and matinee performances on October 23 and 26 at 2 p.m. The performance is sung in Italian with easy-to-follow English titles projected above the stage and runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one intermission. Life does move pretty fast, I’d wager those n 431 BC and 1797 thought the same thing. So be sure to stop and look around every once in a while and see this incredible opera before it passes you by. For more information and tickets, visit lyricopera.org/medea or call 312.827.5600.
