Gianna Rolandi
American soprano Gianna Rolandi has died at age 68, Lyric Opera of Chicago president and CEO Anthony Freud announces.
After an accomplished international onstage career, Rolandi retired from performance in the 1990s. She then became involved with Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center, where she served first as the director of vocal studies (the program’s first), and then the program’s director from 2006-2013.
Lyric announces that next season’s concert presentation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Sir Andrew Davis will be dedicated to her. Rolandi and Davis, who completed his 20-year run as music director of Lyric at the end of the 20/21 season, were married in 1989. The concert will also feature the world premiere of a work by Ed Frazier Davis, who is the son of Rolandi and Davis.
