“As the progress with the vaccine process has been so great in recent weeks, we saw a dramatic change in confidence levels and a stated willingness to return.

“We have been surveying our audiences in conjunction with other arts organizations constantly for six to eight months,” Freud said.

Anyone dashing to the restroom would have to deal with the company’s late-seating protocols. All autumn productions will be limited to two and a half hours, each opera trimmed to fit, with only brief pauses – not intermissions for snacks and drinks. In an interview, Lyric general director Anthony Freud conceded that making audiences feel comfortable with the idea of reassembling in large numbers required a few practical adjustments. Ensuing productions of Donizetti’s rustic comedy The Elixir of Love and Mozart’s transcendent The Magic Flute promise an autumn at the opera house that should bear a familiar aspect. 17 as Mazzola leads off with Verdi’s Macbeth. With great fanfare, even figurative brasses no doubt socially distanced, Lyric announced on May 19 that it was wholly committed to an almost-normal season, beginning Sept.

In his first Lyric season, music director Enrique Mazzola will conduct Verdi’s ‘Macbeth,’ Donizetti’s ‘Elixir,’ and the Chicago premiere of ‘Proving Up’ by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek.

Magic flute lyric opera