English mezzo-soprano Diana Montague has withdrawn from all performances in Lyric Opera of Chicago's revival of The Marriage of Figaro Feb. 28-Mar. 27 due to ill health, Lyric's general director William Mason announced today. The distinguished singer was to have made her Lyric Opera debut as Marcellina in the Mozart opera.

American mezzo-soprano Lauren Curnow will portray Marcellina (role debut) in all 11 performances of The Marriage of Figaro at Lyric.

"We send best wishes to Ms. Montague for a swift recovery," said Mason. "We are fortunate that Ms. Curnow, a former member of our Ryan Opera Center who has graced our stage several times previously, is available on such short notice."

Lauren Curnow debuted this fall at Florence's Maggio Musicale as the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen; she debuted in the same production in 2008 at Japan's Saito Kinen Festival, conducted by Seiji Ozawa and directed by Laurent Pelly. An alumna of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Curnow has been heard at Lyric as Berta/The Barber of Seville (2007-08), Clorinda/Cenerentola and Papagena/The Magic Flute (2005-06), the Fox/The Cunning Little Vixen (2004-05), and Alisa/Lucia di Lammermoor (2003-04). Other engagements include Hansel/Hansel and Gretel (Opera Company of Philadelphia, 2007), Elle/La Voix Humaine and Second Sprite/Rusalka (Wexford Opera Festival, 2007), and Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni (Austin Lyric Opera, 2006). Also this season, the lyric mezzo-soprano performed as a soloist in a concert of folksongs by Luciano Berio at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. In Lyric’s 2007-08 Barber of Seville, the "other" Figaro opera, Curnow was praised by Opera News for her “unusual comedic flair.. and her quite fine voice. Berta afforded her a proper aria and she made a delightful thing of it."