Seasons Come, Seasons Go

Hmmm…are there troubled times ahead for the Lyric Opera?

First came December’s announcement that artistic director and resident envelope-pusher Matthew Epstein was stepping down. Epstein himself wouldn’t spill, but those ever-reliable other sources cited ever-reliable “artistic differences” as the reason for his exit, causing the Sun-Times’ Wynne Delacoma to warn that “the last thing this city, or the opera world in general, needs is an overly cautious Lyric Opera.”

Then came last week's release of the 2005-06 line-up, which likely has much to do with both Epstein’s departure and Delacoma’s continued cloudy forecast. To be fair, it’s hard to win in these economic and artistic smackdown times, when the surest road to success is simply to avoid pissing off the people with the $$$$ (apparently the Lyric’s naughty 2000 production of “Rigoletto” drew written complaints and caused some donors to snap those Louis Vuitton pocketbooks shut). Thus all signs for next season's calendar point to PALATABLE (i.e., user friendly, risk averse, and utterly conventional):

• Bizet, “Carmen,” with Denyce Graves
• Rossini, “La Cenerentola,” with Juan Diego Florez in his Lyric debut
• Puccini, “Manon Lescaut,” with Karita Mattila
• Tippett, “The Midsummer Marriage”
• Mozart, “The Magic Flute”
• Verdi, “Rigoletto,” in what we imagine will be a controversy-free staging
• Strauss, “Der Rosenkavalier,” with Susan Graham in one of her money roles
• Gluck, “Orfeo ed Euridice” with hot-hot-hot (and we do mean hot) countertenor David Daniels

Photo: Lyric Opera of Chicago