Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Music Director Sir Andrew Davis maintains full international performance and recording schedule

Photo: Sir Andrew Davis. Credit: Dario Acosta Photography

The curtain had scarcely fallen on the final performance of Lohengrin at Lyric Opera of Chicago last March when Sir Andrew Davis was off to New York to conduct Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera (starring Renée Fleming, Sarah Connolly, Joseph Kaiser, Russell Braun, Morten Frank Larsen, Peter Rose), and to Toronto to lead rehearsals of Ariadne Auf Naxos for the Canadian Opera Company (starring Jane Archibald/Amber Wagner, Alice Coote, Adrienne Pieczonka, Richard Margison).

Between Ariadne performances #2 & 3 in early May, Davis traveled to Besançon, France, for a press conference regarding the 52nd International Competition for Young Conductors of which Davis is jury president. (The competition is part of the Besançon International Music Festival, of which he is artistic advisor.) He then led rehearsals and performances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (of which he is conductor laureate). Following Ariadne #6, Davis caught a midnight flight to London in order to begin Peter Grimes rehearsals at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (starring Ben Heppner, Amanda Roocroft, Catherine Wyn-Rogers) – but returned to Toronto for the final two Ariadnes before heading back to London for an uninterrupted string of rehearsals in early June.

Such is the life of Lyric’s peripatetic music director (who is featured in the July issue of Opera News).  The day after the Grimes dress rehearsal June 15, Davis began Rusalka rehearsals (starring Ryan Opera Center alumni Dina Kuznetsova and Elizabeth DeShong, plus Pavel Cernoch and Larissa Diadkova) at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (where he is former music director), an hour’s drive from London. Those alternated with Grimes performances through early July, followed by a mostly straight stretch of the Dvořák fairytale opera, with a few detours: rehearsals and a BBC Proms concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (of which he is conductor laureate), and preparations with London’s Philharmonia Orchestra for the Three Choirs Festival.

In mid-August Davis will commence preparations of Thaïs with the Edinburgh Festival (starring Ryan Opera Center alumni Erin Wall, Quinn Kelsey, and Stacey Tappan, plus Eric Cutler), popping back to Glydebourne for remaining Rusalka performances through the end of the month. Then it’s off to the South Pacific for performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and recording sessions for Chandos Records in early September.

Davis returns to Besançon for the finals of the International Competition for Young Conductors and for the International Music Festival. In early October he returns to London for performances with the BBCSO, then returns to Toronto in mid-October for performances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

In mid-October Davis returns to Chicago to begin rehearsals for Boris Godunov and subsequently Ariadne auf Naxos and The Magic Flute at Lyric Opera. He will also collaborate with Reneé Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky for a Subscriber Appreciation Concert January 7 honoring William Mason, Lyric’s general director, for his lifelong career with the company.

Following the final Flute in late January 2012, Davis departs for Bamberg (two concerts) and then London for concerts with the London Philharmonic and recordings and performances with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. February through mid-March will find him at the Met for Don Giovanni, and then back to London with the BBCSO. Concerts in Rotterdam follow, and then Davis returns to Toronto for A Florentine Tragedy and Gianni Schicchi (starring Alan Held, Gun-Brit Barkman, Ryan Opera Center alumnus René Barbera, Michael Konig, Simone Osborne; directed by Catherine Malfitano) with the Canadian Opera Company, with a few Toronto Symphony Orchestra performances in between. Davis returns to the London Philharmonic in May 2012, and heads to the Bergen Festival in June for The Damnation of Faust and further recordings with Chandos. In June and late August 2012 he’ll be back in Melbourne, Australia, with a stint at The Santa Fe Opera in July and August.

Recent recordings on Chandos include Holst’s “Beni Mora,” Japanese Suite,” and “The Planets” with the BBC Philharmonic (released January 2011); Delius’s “Appalachia” and “Song of the High Hills” with the BBCSO (March 2011), and York Bowen’s Symphonies No. 1 & 2 with the BBC Philharmonic (April 2011) – which has been on the classical bestseller charts for the past month.