With the best opera singers booked years in advance, getting soprano Ailyn Pérez for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s new production of Gounod’s “Faust” — just weeks before it opened — proved challenging.
Pérez, who grew up in Elk Grove Village and now lives in Bloomingdale, had to cancel engagements in Munich and Hamburg to take over the role of Marguerite after Ryan Opera Center alumna Erin Wall withdrew last month for health reasons.
“I thought that this would be too good to pass up,” said Ailyn (pronounced I-lean) Pérez. “We reached out to the other theaters and they were very understanding about my eagerness to sing in my hometown.”
Read more from the Daily Herald’s Scott Morgan here.