Lyric Opera of Chicago

Chicago's operatic history has been one of false starts, and the company now called Lyric Opera of Chicago is the one that endured. The American opera company was founded in 1954 as the Lyric Theatre of Chicago by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, and it is based in Chicago, Illinois. Its home is a theatre and related spaces within the Civic Opera Building, which the company now owns. The city's first performance, Bellini's La sonnambula, had been given by a travelling company back in 1850.

The debut season set the tone. Fox opened it with Maria Callas in the title role of Norma, and the company was reorganised under its present name two years later. Fox was also responsible for bringing Rudolf Nureyev to make his American opera stage debut at Lyric. In 1954 the season lasted three weeks; by 2007/08 it ran for almost six months. Maria Tallchief later directed the ballet and founded the company's ballet school in 1974. Andrew Davis led Lyric as music director from 2000 until his retirement in 2021, when Enrique Mazzola succeeded him, and Anthony Freud has been general director since October 2011.