Be among the first to experience what is sure to be one of the most widely heralded musical events of the season: Proximity at Lyric Opera of Chicago. This powerful Chicago-set world premiere comes to life through innovative set design, March 24 – April 8, 2023.
Curated since its inception in 2019 by Lyric Special Projects Advisor Renée Fleming along with Lyric’s General Director Anthony Freud and director Yuval Sharon, Proximity brings together some of the leading creative thinkers in American culture, all in their Lyric debuts:
Daniel Bernard Roumain, the acclaimed Haitian-American composer, and Anna Deavere Smith, the legendary playwright and actress, have written The Walkers, an opera that gives voice to families grappling with gun violence in Chicago.
Caroline Shaw, a Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer, has teamed with writer Jocelyn Clarke for Four Portraits, an opera about the impact of technology on society.
Pulitzer and Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams has written Night, a short opera on the fragility of the natural world, set to a text by the late poet John Haines.
Director Yuval Sharon views the opportunity to share these stories on the Lyric stage as a chance to spread powerful messages and create an understanding of the greater world we live in.
Composed of 440 LED panels, the high-tech set for Proximity is unlike anything ever seen before on an opera stage. Take a behind-the-scenes look at how the groundbreaking design evolved and read a director’s note from Yuval Sharon.
See the world premiere of a production that is searing in its intimacy, revolutionary in its structure, and groundbreaking in its technical wizardry. Come closer to Proximity — only at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
