The 2025 Opera Festival of Chicago Kicks Off With “The Love of Three Kings”

The Opera Festival of Chicago, May 9 –June 29, kicks off its fifth season with The Love of Three Kings (L’Amore dei tre Re), by Italo Montemezzi, directed by General Director Sasha Gerritson and music directed by Uff. Emanuele Andrizzi, Friday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 11 at 2 p.m. at Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. 

In addition to The Love of Three Kings (L’amore dei tre re) by Italo Montemezzi, the Opera Festival continues with its Young Artists program performing a delicious program featuring songs inspired by food in opera, Delicatessen Recital,June 5,the Opera Festival of Chicago’s leading artists then appear in concert for Love is a Triangle, June 14, with the season concluding with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, June 27 and 29. 

“The 2025 Festival, our fifth season, is going to be a season of celebration here at the Opera Festival of Chicago. This organization began forging its path in the opera world in 2021 with the mission of presenting Italian opera masterworks that rarely-if ever- grace the stage in the United States,” said General Director Sasha Gerritson. “These fully staged productions featured star-studded casts and have included several United States and Chicago premieres. We look forward to welcoming audiences from all over the Chicagoland area to this year’s season, which is based on a powerful theme, “Love is a Triangle,” and continues our mission in 2025 with concerts and two Italian masterworks.”

The Love of Three Kings (L’Amore dei tre Re) tells the dark and powerful tale of love, passion, jealousy, betrayal and murder, and was once a staple of the operatic repertoire, then mysteriously vanished. For the first time in 70 years, The Love of Three Kings returns to Chicago. 

The Opera Festival of Chicago presents world-class standard productions of Italian opera masterpieces in Chicago that rarely grace the stage in the United States. In doing so the Opera Festival of Chicago aspires to: generate an inquisitive operatic appetite within Chicago audiences; make its work – and its cultural context – accessible to a wide audience; provide a stimulating and inspirational environment of Italian opera for artists and audiences alike; provide a vital opportunity for young artists entering the profession to uphold the high integrity and demands of Italian opera with artists and musicians who are established professionals and to highlight and celebrate the immense talent that has originated from the Chicagoland area.

The cast of The Love of Three Kings features Andrea Silvestrelli (bass, King Archibaldo); Maria Kanyova (soprano, Fiora); Franco Pomponi (baritone, Manfredo);  Andrew Morstein (tenor, Avito); Matthew DiBattista (tenor, Flaminio); Aldo Alan Navarette (Giovanetto/Fanciulo); Jade Dashá (soprano, Ancella/Giovanetta) and Viktoria Vizin (mezzo-soprano, Una Vecchia).

In addition, there will be a chorus including Floriana Bivona; Lizzie Broeker; Melanie Budreck, Winifer Castaneda; Jorie Clark; Brooke Craig; Ryan Daly (cover, Avito); Angela DeVenuto (cover, Fiora); Katrina Dubbs; Theresa Egan; David Green; Abigail Greer Arcamona; Lauren Ingebretsen; Marlina Karimi; Ally Lewkowski; Joe Lodato (cover, Manfredo); Jake Luellen; Samantha Mcgonigal (cover, Una Vecchia);  Margaret Meierhenry; Grisella Milla; Chimerie Obianom; Jennifer Parr (cover, Ancella/Giovanetta); Brian Pember; Leah Rockweit, Pamela Spann; Meg Thomas-Cary; Leo Radosavljevic (cover, Archibaldo); 

 Jose Vargas Ramirez; Carmen Vizin-Esquivel;Kevin Wheatle and Jonathan Wilson (cover, Manfredo).

Performances take place Friday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 11 at 2 p.m. at Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave. Single tickets are $25 – $50 with subscriptions available at OperaFestivalChicago.org.