Curtis Bannister stars in Chicago Opera Theater’s Der Silbersee
The Chicago Opera Theater has announced its 2025-2026 season, featuring two fully-staged operas, two themed “Discovery Concerts,” plus a workshop and concert staging of a a new work by the company’s current emerging composer-in-residence. All told, the season runs from September to May and features one world premiere and two Chicago premieres. Most performances take place at the Studebaker Theater in the Loop’s historic Fine Arts Building.
The season is bookended by an opera in development. Trusted, by Aaron Israel Levin and Marella Martin Koch, will be the latest title produced through COT’s Vanguard Initiative, a residency for emerging opera composers. This new work follows the personal, professional, and societal fallout of a financial scandal. In September 2025, the developing opera will have a piano/vocal workshop performance at DePaul’s Gannon Concert Hall. Then in May 2026, the work will have its concert world premiere to close out COT’s season. Former COT music director Lidiya Yankovskaya, artistic director of the Vanguard Initiative, will conduct Trusted.
In October, the COT hosts Shakespeare Sings, a concert of music inspired by works of the Bard, sampling works by Rossini, Britten, and Adès, among others. Chicago-based artist Yasuko Oura leads this performance from the piano.
COT continues with more Shakespeare in December with the Chicago premiere of Salieri’s Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle (Falstaff, or The Three Tricks). The Classical Era opera adapts The Merry Wives of Windsor, following roguish Sir John Falstaff in his farcical attempts to woo two married women. The three-performance run will be conducted by Christine Brandes and will star Stephen Powell in the title role, both making their company debuts.
In the new year, COT mounts In America’s Embrace, a concert of music by composers who immigrated to the US, including Bright Sheng, Igor Stravinsky, and Tania León. Laurie Rogers directs the performance from the piano, marking her company debut.
The company picks up this thread with Der Silbersee (The Silverlake). Kurt Weill’s opera premiered in Germany in 1933, just a month before the composer fled to Paris amidst mounting persecution and denunciation by the Nazi regime. The composer, whose work often incorporated Jewish themes, ultimately immigrated to the US. Der Silbersee explores reconciliation, unity, and hope. COT general director Lawrence Edelson will direct the production, and conductor James Lowe will make his company debut leading the performances. The cast will be headlined by tenor Curtis Bannister and bass-baritone Justin Hopkins.
For ticketing and information, visit chicagooperatheater.org.
