Welcome to the Civic Opera House, a world-class concert venue that is among the most beautiful around the globe, also known as the home of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, one of the world’s great opera companies. Renowned internationally for their artistic excellence and financial strength, the Lyric Opera presents the finest international singers, conductors, directors, and designers in classic and less familiar operatic repertoire. They excel in world premiere productions and provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago region and nation as a whole.
The Lyric Opera puts on about 60-70 annual performances, spanning among 8-10 different Operas. Their home, the Civic Opera House, is a Chicago historic landmark, a hybrid of Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles as far as architecture goes. This majestic setting for entertainment of any sort seats 3,563 people and is considered to be the second largest auditorium of its kind in North America. It is also considered to be the largest stage in downtown Chicago, featuring excellent sightlines, premium acoustics, and intricate architectural detailing. This fantastic and unique concert venue together with the amazing talent of the Lyric Opera have as a team played host to such renowned performers as David Byrne, Bryan Ferry, Wilco, and Straight no Chaser. Protip: be sure to get here well before curtain time if you are seeing a show, the doors are closed and locked promptly when the performance begins!
