My Fair Lady

P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O

He has performed with Chicago OperaTheater, Goodman Theatre, Paramount Theatre, Drury Lane Theatre, Marriott Theatre, Saint Louis’s MUNY, New Orleans Opera, Finger Lakes Opera, and many local dance companies.

Fool Theater. Diebold received his master’s degree in acting from Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.

ROBERT CARSEN ( Ori- ginal Director, Co-Lighting Designer ), whose produc- tion of Eugene Onegin was seen at Lyric this season, has directed five other operas for the company, most recently Dialogues des Carmélites and Iphigénie

JENNIE SOPHIA ( u/s Eliza Doolittle ), who debuted at Lyric in The Merry Widow last season, has been featured with many Chicago-area the- aters, including the Good- man ( Brigadoon ), Drury Lane Theatre ( The Sound

JACQUELINE STEWART has appeared at Lyric this season in Les Troyens and Eugene Onegin . She has also recently performed with the Chicago Repertory Ballet, New York’s Artisan Dance Company ( The Nutcracker ), Thodos Dance

en Tauride. His current season includes the Metropolitan Opera ( Der Rosenkavalier , new production), Turin’s Teatro Regio ( Katya Kabanova ), and Opéra de Lausanne (Monteverdi’s Orfeo ). Carsen has worked extensively at the Opéra National de Paris, in repertoire ranging from Les Boréades to Les contes d’Hoffmann, Rusalka, and Capriccio (all released on DVD) . Other major achievements include Dialogues des Carmélites (10 major companies, among them Amsterdam, Covent Garden, and La Scala), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aix-en-Provence and many other theaters), The Magic Flute (Baden-Baden), Falstaff (Covent Garden, La Scala, Met, Amsterdam, Toronto), and L’incoronazione di Poppea and Rinaldo (Glyndebourne). His Ring cycle has triumphed in Cologne, Venice, Barcelona, and Shanghai. Musical-theater productions include The Beautiful Game (West End), Sunset Boulevard (U. K. tour), Candide (Châtelet, English National Opera, La Scala), My Fair Lady (Théâtre du Châtelet, Mariinsky Theatre), and Singin’ in the Rain (Châtelet). (See director’s note, p. 35.)

of Music , Oliver! , Les Misérables ), Chicago Shakespeare Theater ( Passion , How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back ), Light Opera Works ( Camelot ), Court Theatre ( The Secret Garden ), and Circle Theatre ( Kiss Me Kate! ). She starred as Nellie Forbush in the U. S. Broadway national tour of South Pacific . Sophia was nominated for an IRNE Award for best lead actress in a musical for South Pacific (Ogunquit Playhouse).

Chicago, and in the pre-Broadway presentation of Anastasia . Stewart’s choreography has been showcased by numerous dance companies, including the Madison Ballet, the Chicago Repertory Ballet, and Winifred Haun. She is the recipient of the choreographic award from the Joyce Theatre Foundation’s A. W. A. R. D. Show.

J TYLER WHITMER* is an active Chicago performer, having appeared with the Marriott Theatre ( Anything Goes , La Cage aux Folles , Cats , 9 to 5 , The Producers , The Bowery Boys ), Mercury Theatre ( Barnum ), and Paramount

Production Team

DAVID CHASE ( Con- ductor ) has been on the podium for Lyric productions of Carousel (debut) and The King and I. Chase has been music director, music supervisor, and/or dance arranger on 32 Broadway productions

Theatre ( Miss Saigon , Oklahoma! , The Little Mermaid ). Performances at other venues include Carnegie Hall, Guthrie Theater, Write Act Repertory, The Gallery Players, Beef and Boards Theatre, and the Kansas City Pops. Whitmer also appeared in PBS’s production of HMS Pinafore staged at the Guthrie Theater.

OLIVIER FREDJ* ( Revi- val Director ) studied British literature, drama, and music at the Hoge- school voor de Kunsten in the Netherlands. Starting off as a coor-dinator of educational and social projects in several cities

and his work can currently be heard on Broadway in the new musical Anastasia and the Bette Midler revival of Hello, Dolly! , as well as on the national tours of Finding Neverland and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella . He has two Emmy nominations for music direction for NBC’s live 2013 telecasts of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan, and a Grammy nomination for co-producing the Broadway cast album of Nice Work if You Can Get It . His arrangements can also be heard in London’s West End (revivals of Evita and Guys and Dolls , currently-running Dreamgirls ) . Beyond the theater, Chase has written multiple arrangements for the Boston Pops (including their signature “Twelve Days of Christmas”), the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Honors, Essential Voices USA, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular .

Principal Understudies

around Europe and South Africa, he then worked as a cultural journalist before attending the Studio Théâtre d’Asnières. He was a stage manager at the Opéra-Comique, Théâtre de Caen, and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In 2010 Fredj began his collaboration with Robert Carsen on theThéâtre du Châtelet’s production of My Fair Lady and directed its reprise at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. He worked again with Robert Carsen on Singin’ in the Rain at the Châtelet, where he also assisted Lee Blakeley ( Sweeney Todd ) and Emilio Sagi ( The Sound of Music ) and directed Mozart’s Il re pastore . He assisted Robert Carsen ( Rigoletto ) and Simon McBurney ( The Magic Flute ) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Fredj’s current season highlights include Verdi’s Macbeth

JEFF DIEBOLD ( u/s Henry Higgins ) has been featured in many leading roles throughout the Chicagoland area. Most recently he portrayed Sam Carmichael/ Mamma Mia! at the Paramount Theatre, a role repeated on the U.S.

tour of the Broadway production. Other notable appearances include Lurch/ The Addams Family (Mercury Theatre), Cornelius Hackl/ Hello Dolly! (Drury Lane Theatre), and Joe Hardy/ Damn Yankees (Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights), as well as productions with Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Court Theatre, Theatre at the Center, and Noble

*Lyric debut

28 | April - May, 2017