For more than a decade, Tamara Wilson has sung leading soprano roles on the world's great opera stages. Yet Wilson, who grew up in Naperville, is only now making her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut this season in "Il trovatore" ("The Troubadour"). "A lot of my family and friends from the suburbs would go, 'Are you sure you're an opera singer? Because you haven't sung at the Lyric,'" laughed Wilson. "Now I can prove it to them."

Wilson plays the Spanish noblewoman Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 revenge tragedy. Leonora is romantically pursued by both the title troubadour, Manrico (American tenor Russell Thomas), and Count di Luna (Polish baritone Artur Rucinski). These rivals are mortal enemies, but also (in a melodramatic twist) long-lost brothers.