Lyric Opera of Chicago, under the baton of Enrique Mazzola, presents The Listeners, a striking new opera by Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek, based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill. The work unfolds within a community bound together by circumstance and belief, shaped by the unsettling presence of an unexplained “hum” that blurs perception and reality. Through Mazzoli’s richly textured orchestral writing and Vavrek’s incisive dramaturgy, the opera becomes a powerful reflection on vulnerability, tenderness, rage, and hope, all sung into existence with a haunting sense of optimism. The cast is led by soprano Nicole Heaston as the high school math teacher Claire Devon, tenor Jonas Hacker as Claire’s student Kyle, bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as Howard, the leader of a cult called the Listeners, and mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack as Angela, Howard’s right hand woman.