Lunga Eric Hallam

South African tenor Lunga Eric Hallam is a recent graduate of the prestigious Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and was previously in the Young Artist Programme at Cape Town Opera. 

Future engagements include Carmina Burana with the Richmond Symphony, followed by Il Conte d’Almaviva Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Pittsburgh Opera and a debut at Houston Grand Opera in the 2023/24 season. In future seasons Hallam will debut with the Sao Paolo Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  

He began his career in Cape Town, where he studied at the University of Cape Town College of Music, and was in the Young Artist programme at Cape Town Opera. There he performed the roles of Tebaldo I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Edgardo Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Maria Stuarda, and Ramiro La Cenerentola. He also founded a non-profit organisation called Phenomenal Opera Voices in his home of Cape Town.  

At the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lunga appeared in the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series alongside Joyce DiDonato, and his recent debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti as the Judge in Un ballo in maschera. Recent performances at the Lyric Opera include the “Sunday in the Park with Lyric’s Rising Stars” concert, as well as in the Chicago premieres of Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Adult Nathan) and Le Comte Ory (First Courtier). In the 2022/23 season, he debuted at Wolf Trap Opera as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Jupiter in Semele.