Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky has love, and mythological goddess Medea, to credit for bringing her home
Photo: Manuel Martinez/WBEZ
The Berwyn native, who has made an operatic career all over the world, is resettling in Chicago as the Met-backed “Medea” opens Lyric Opera’s fall season.
Most singers who perform with Lyric Opera of Chicago are artistic nomads who live elsewhere and spend six to eight weeks here for rehearsals and performances. They then depart for their next engagement.
But when Sondra Radvanovsky takes the title role in Lyric’s first-ever production of Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea” (1797), which opens the company’s 2025-25 season Saturday and runs through Oct. 26, she just has to zip downtown from Wilmette where she lives with her boyfriend.
Radvanovsky is a native of Berwyn. Since she moved back to the area in 2023, the soprano has essentially become Lyric’s artist-in-residence. No formal title has been set yet, but she is presenting masterclasses in its young-artist program, advising the company’s artistic team and appearing in at least one set of performances each season.
It is easy to imagine her role becoming something akin to that of famed soprano Renée Fleming, who served as Lyric’s creative consultant in 2010-19 and was a catalyst for a wide range of high-profile, often-collaborative activities.
“We’ve had a lot of discussions,” Radvanovsky said. “All I can say is, ‘Stay tuned.’ I’m very passionate about Lyric. I’m really, really interested in the new general director, John Mangum. I think he is a breath of fresh air for Lyric.”
Radvanovsky was living outside Toronto when, slightly before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her mother was diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. The singer rushed home to oversee her care, and in the middle of that dark time, she found a bright light.
“I take my mother to this memory-care facility in St. Charles,” she said, “and in walks this tall, dark and handsome doctor. My mother in her full dementia said, ‘He is really handsome. You should date him.’ “
Radvanovsky discovered that she and the Argentinian-born brain-trauma specialist, Ricardo Senno, had similar feelings. “Cupid’s arrow went, ‘Zing!,’ and my palms were tingling,” she said. “He kept coming back every half hour saying, ‘Oh, so you’re an opera singer. Tell me about that.’”
Medical ethics dictated that they couldn’t date until he had stopped treating her mother, who died in January 2022. But they stayed in touch. “The world is my oyster,” Radvanovsky said. “I can go anywhere I want as long as there is an airport. So, I said, ‘I’m just going to come visit.’ That was in March 2023, and I never left.”
Radvanovsky is living in an apartment in Wilmette as the couple waits for renovations to be done on a house they bought together in Evanston. Over an informal lunch on Evanston’s Central Street she describes a life that has come full circle. She has returned to the region where she lived until first grade and where members of her family still live, like a brother in Geneva. At the same time, she is growing even closer to Lyric, where she debuted in “Susannah” in 2002-03 and has appeared more than 10 times since.
The singer and her boyfriend are regulars at several nearby spots, including Hewn, a European-style bakery that has gained national attention; Union Pizzeria, a “very relaxed and fun” restaurant where the couple had their first date; Wilmette’s “really yummy” Argentinian-style FRÍO Gelato; and Sarkis Café, a funky 60-year-old breakfast and lunch spot.“Really love it,” she said. “It’s just a little dive. For brunch on the weekends – fabulous.”
The Medea Effect
It’s hardly happenstance that Lyric is staging the 1909 Italian translation of “Medea,” revived in 1953 for legendary soprano Maria Callas. The opera is rarely performed because it requires a rare brand of singer who has dramatic chops as well as vocal heft and stamina.
“‘Medea’ is an opera you only revive when you have a singer like Sondra,” said Mangum, who called her on one of today’s best dramatic sopranos. “You have other characters in the opera, but the show rises and falls on the strength of the Medea.”
The opera, originally written in French, was based on Euripides’ ancient tragedy about the Greek sorceress who helps Jason (“Giasone” in the opera, sung by tenor Matthew Polenzani) in his search for the Golden Fleece. She marries him but later goes on a bloody, vengeful rampage when he abandons her for Glauce (soprano Elena Villalón), the daughter of King Creonte.
Radvanovsky had never considered the role of Medea. Then famed director David McVicar approached her about starring in a co-production involving Lyric and the Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company and Greek National Opera. The opera premiered at the Met in September 2022 with the New York Times calling her performance “impressive and enjoyable.”
The soprano calls the role a “singer’s dream,” but it is challenging. Once Medea appears in Act 1, she remains onstage for nearly the rest of the opera. “If you give too much too soon, you have another two acts to go and you’re done,” she said.
A ‘No Regrets’ Career
McVicar, the director, and Radvanovsky have worked together on about 10 productions.Their easy rapport was obvious during a recent rehearsal as the director kneeled on the floor to show her how to embrace Medea’s two children as they rush to her at the top of Act 3.
He encouraged her to run her hands through the children’s hair but Radvanovsky kept putting her hands on their chins. “My mom did that,” she said.
Radvanovsky has no illusions about the longevity of her career. Singers, like athletes, inevitably reach a point as they age at which they can no longer perform at peak level. The 56-year-old singer plans to appear in stage productions for another five or six years, taking on one final new role in 2026 at the Met — Minnie in “La fanciulla del West” — completing her series of Puccini heroines.
“And that is OK,” she said. “I’ve done just about everything I wanted to do in my career. I’ve performed just about everywhere I wanted to perform. And I’ve performed with just about everybody whom I wanted to perform with. So, I have no regrets. And I feel it’s time to hand it over to the younger generation in a way.”
She also looks forward to enjoying Chicago and spending more time with her still-new boyfriend.
“You only have one chance at this life,” she said, “and I want to really enjoy it and live it now that I have a new lease on life with a new person. I’m very lucky.”