BEYOND THE ARIA SONDRA RADVANOVSKY, MATTHEW POLENZANI, FINN SAGAL, CRAIG TERRY

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

SONDRA RADVANOVSKY

Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is a globally celebrated artist. The depth and exquisite color of her voice are matched by her dramatic acting ability and versatility across a remarkable range of repertoire, from the title roles in Rusalka and Lucrezia Borgia, to Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac and the title role in Manon Lescaut. She is widely regarded as one of the finest living Verdi sopranos and is among the world’s premiere interpreters of bel canto.

In the 2025–26 season, Radvanovsky brings her “extraordinary” (New York Times) portrayal of Puccini’s Tosca to stages around the world, including Teatro di San Carlo, the Opéra National de Paris, and Slovenia’s Ljubljana Festival. She will also return to another iconic role, Cherubini’s riveting Medea, bowing again in Sir David McVicar’s lush production at Lyric Opera of Chicago, and she brings her signature performance of Puccini’s Turandot to the Bayerische Staatsoper. On the concert stage, Radvanovsky will join the American Symphony Orchestra for a star-studded Christmas Night Opera Gala at Carnegie Hall, and will appear alongside tenor Freddie De Tommaso at the Teatro di San Carlo for a program of works by Verdi, Puccini, and Mascagni. She will also perform songs and arias in recital at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, accompanied by pianist Vincenzo Scalera.

Highlights from last season include Tosca at Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Metropolitan Opera, a performance praised as “legendary” by Operawire. Radvanovsky also starred as Odabella in Verdi’s Attila in concert at the Teatro Real, as Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and as Turandot at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, where she showed “why she is the reigning Turandot of the day” (Guardian). She also embarked on a concert tour with tenor Piotr Beczała, singing programs of arias and duets from various operas.

Radvanovsky made history as the first soprano to perform Donizetti’s “Three Queens” at the Metropolitan Opera in a single season. Among her other recent successes have been Aida (new production, Opéra National de Paris) and Rusalka (Canadian Opera Company, in Sir David McVicar’s production). Radvanovsky is much acclaimed in Europe, from the Royal Ballet and Opera to La Scala, the major Spanish houses, and the Zurich Opera House. She has also appeared with the major orchestras of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, and Munich, as well as the Verbier Festival Orchestra. She can be seen on DVD in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac and has starred in three performances for the “Met: Live in HD Series,” for which she has also served as host three times. Radvanovsky can be heard on CD in a solo recital of Verdi arias and in Verdi opera scenes with Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Radvanovsky trained at the Metropolitan Opera in the late 1990s in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. After performances in smaller roles there, she caught the attention of critics as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and was singled out as a soprano to watch. Since then, Radvanovsky has performed in every major opera house in the world, including the Royal Ballet and Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Met, Opernhaus Zürich, and numerous others, and has appeared in concerts throughout the world, singing with leading orchestras. Radvanovsky is a co-creator and co-host of the podcast “Screaming Divas”, where she and her friend soprano Keri Alkema talk about their lives and operatic careers with friends and colleagues. In 2018, she was named Vocalist of the Year by Musical America and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Conservatory of Music.

MATTHEW POLENZANI

American tenor Matthew Polenzani is one of the most gifted and distinguished lyric tenors of his generation. His elegant musicianship, innate sense of style, dramatic commitment, and timeless artistry have established his continued presence at leading operatic, concert, and recital venues worldwide.

Polenzani opens his exciting 2025–26 season with a return to Lyric Opera of Chicago, reprising his portrayal of Giasone in Sir David McVicar’s lush production of Cherubini’s Medea. He returns to the Metropolitan Opera for two productions this season, in the role of Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, the latter of which he reprises later this season at Teatro alla Scala. Polenzani begins the new year in Budapest, with performances of Verdi’s Requiem at MUPA, followed by his role debut as Riccardo in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Opéra Bastille. He brings his “spectacular” (Houston Chronicle) interpretation of Massenet’s Werther to Barcelona’s Gran Teatro del Liceu, before appearing as Florestan in Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. He will also perform in recital at Philadelphia’s Perelman Center, where he will sing selections by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, accompanied by pianist Ken Noda.

Polenzani’s 2024–25 season featured a series of favored title roles: Werther at the Wiener Staatsoper, and Mozart’s Idomeneo in a new San Francisco Opera production directed by Lindy Hume. He bowed as Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at Teatro Real de Madrid, conducted by Nicola Luisotti, before taking on the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Gran Teatro del Liceu. He made a brilliant return to the Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, and he joined Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra as Anatol in Barber’s Vanessa. His season also included recital appearances with pianist Julius Drake at the Hungarian State Opera and Oper Frankfurt, as well as a concert debut of Schubert’s Schwanengesang with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Polenzani was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Tucker Award, the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 Beverly Sills Artist Award, and a 2017 Opera News Award. An avid golfer, he makes his home in suburban New York with his wife, mezzo-soprano Rosa Maria Pascarella, and their three sons.

FINN SAGAL

The second-year baritone with Lyric Opera’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center from La Cañada Flintridge, California, has performed at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas with such luminaries as Liza Minnelli, Michael Feinstein, and Kristin Chenoweth.

Sagal will appear at Lyric this season in El último sueño de Frida y Diego following his company debut last spring in The Listeners. He received first prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation's 2025 Art Song Competition, a 2025 Sara Tucker Study Grant, first place at the 2025 Saengerbund Awards, the 2025 Ginger and Jim Meyer Centennial Award from the American Opera Society, and third place in the 2024 Neue Stimmen competition. The baritone returned to the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program in 2025 as a Renée Fleming Artist, performing Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and participated in the 2023 Merola Opera Program.

Sagal recently received a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, where he performed the roles of Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, the Tutor in Le Comte Ory, and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress. He holds an undergraduate degree in vocal performance from UCLA.

CRAIG TERRY

Grammy Award-winning pianist and arranger Craig Terry enjoys an international career regularly performing with the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists. Currently, Terry serves as Music Director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, following eleven seasons at Lyric as Assistant Conductor. Previously, he was an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Terry has performed with such esteemed vocalists as Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Lawrence Brownlee, Janai Brugger, Nicole Cabell, Sasha Cooke, Eric Cutler, Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato, Ying Fang, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Bryan Hymel, Brian Jagde, Quinn Kelsey, Kate Lindsey, Amanda Majeski, Ana María Martínez, Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, Nicholas Phan, Susanna Phillips, Luca Pisaroni, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, Fatma Said, Bo Skovhus, Garrett Sorenson, Heidi Stober, Christian Van Horn, Amber Wagner, and Laura Wilde. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchester, and the Pro Arte String Quartet.

Terry’s 2025-26 recital performance schedule includes concerts in North America and Europe with artists including Christine Brewer, Joyce DiDonato, Christine Goerke, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, and Christian Van Horn. He is also serving as artist-in-residence for the University of Miami and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His discography includes five recently released recordings: Diva on Detour with Patricia Racette, As Long As There Are Songs with Stephanie Blythe, Chanson d’Avril with Nicole Cabell, and French Horn Recital from 24 Preludes, Op. 11 - Alexander Scriabin with former Lyric Opera principal horn Jonathan Boen. His latest recording project with Joyce DiDonato, Songplay, released by Warner Classics, received the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.

Terry has appeared on numerous television, radio, and streaming programs, including multiple appearances on both Live from Lincoln Center and Great Performances for PBS, as well as on many programs broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS. In May 2021, he was the pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s Wagnerian Stars Live in Concert, transmitted from the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Terry hails from Tullahoma, Tennessee, and received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, continued his studies at Florida State University, and received a Masters of Music in Collaborative Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of renowned pianist Warren Jones.

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Land Acknowledgement

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance resides on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations. Many other tribes such as the Miami, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac, and Fox have also called this area home. The region has long been a center for Indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Today, one of the largest urban American Indian communities in the United States resides in Chicago, and members of this community continue to contribute to the life and culture of this city.

To learn more about the practice of land acknowledgement and the importance of honoring native land, visit usdac.us. The Chicagoland region is home to over 65,000 American Indians and the country’s oldest urban-based Native membership community center, American Indian Center Chicago (AIC). Visit aicchicago.org to learn more about AIC’s mission to foster physical and spiritual health in the community, an active connection with traditional values and practices, stronger families with multigenerational bonds, and a rising generation of educated, articulate, and visionary youth.

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Photo Credits: Harris Theater Exterior by Hedrich Blessing. Harris Theater Nevelson Reflection by Kyle Flubacker. Beyond the Aria by Kyle Flubacker. Sondra Radvanovsky Headshot by Cedric-Angeles. Matthew Polenzani Headshot by Fay Fox. Finn Sagal Headshot by Todd Rosenberg. Lyric Opera of Chicago by Todd Rosenberg. The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center 2025–26 Ensemble by Kyle Flubacker. Harris Theater donors by Kyle Flubacker.