Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Announces 2022 - 2023 Season

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler today announced its 2022-2023 season.

The season includes four mainstage productions at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Carmen, La traviata, The Shining, and Sondheim on Sondheim in addition to live performances of the holiday classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors and the Kansas City premiere of Listen, Wilhelmina!, an imaginative children's opera at the Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building. All Kauffman Center performances will be accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony.

The 2022- 2023 season opens with one of the most popular operas of all time, Carmen. Ginger Costa-Jackson, who gave an outstanding performance in last season's program Lyric Opera Goes to Hollywood, returns to the Lyric to sing the title role. Directing is Kansas City area resident, William Jewell College Guest Artist, and Metropolitan Opera stage director Kathleen Belcher. Then in November, audiences are transported to Paris for one of opera's deeply heart-wrenching stories, La traviata. Francesca Zambello will direct a superb cast, including Vanessa Vasquez as Violetta and Daniel Montenegro as Alfredo singing Verdi's most famous and beautiful melodies.

In December, audiences are invited to return to the Lyric Opera Production Arts Building for Kansas City's newest holiday tradition, Amahl and the Night Visitors. This touching story, created in collaboration with master puppeteer Paul Mesner is sure to pull both heart and puppet strings. In April, Kansas City families will delight in Listen, Wilhelmina!, a zany interactive children's opera exploring a kaleidoscope of styles and all the different ways there are to listen.

Kansas City audiences finally have a rare opportunity to visit the sinister Overlook Hotel as Lyric Opera presents a production canceled during the pandemic, The Shining. Based on the novel by Steven King, this operatic adaption by Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec is sure to bring audiences to the edge of their seats. An all-star cast returns to the Kauffman stage for this production, including Edward Parks and Kelly Kaduce and will be led by the major American conductor, Gerard Schwarz.

In November 2021, we lost the father of the modern American musical, Stephen Sondheim. To conclude the 2022-2023 season, Lyric Opera is excited to present Sondheim on Sondheim. This multimedia presentation with live singing, accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony, honors the life and legacy of Sondheim.

Sandler stated, "After two pandemic years and a reduced 21-22 season, we are thrilled to return to FOUR productions in the Kauffman Center for our next season.

Join us on musical adventures and travel to bull-fighting rings in Seville, elegant parties in Paris, the world of an extraordinary boy in Bethlehem, the sinister Overlook Hotel, the zany adventures of three wombats, and finally, explore the life and work of Stephen Sondheim. All through the power of live performance that only opera can achieve, and most importantly, right here in your own Kansas City community. We invite you to join us and OPEN YOUR WORLD.

2022-2023 Season

Carmen

In one of the most popular operas of all time, Bizet's free-spirited femme fatale, Carmen, is the kind of woman your mother warned you about. We meet Carmen as the soon-to-be-smitten soldier, Don José, is arresting her. So powerful and potent is Carmen's beauty and passion that he impulsively leaves behind a career in uniform and follows her into a new life among her people: smugglers and fortune-tellers. But their budding romance ends as abruptly as it started when Carmen takes up with a bullfighter named Escamillo. Fueled by jealousy and obsession, Don José tracks her down and confronts her at a bullfight, where we'll find out if she has one last trick up her sleeve.

Composer: Georges Bizet
Librettists: Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halév
Sung in French with English subtitles

Artists and Artistic Team

Director: Kathleen Belcher
Conductor: Emmanuel Plasson *
Carmen: Ginger Costa-Jackson
Don José: Eric Fennell *
Escamillo: Richard Ollarsaba *
Micaëla: Celine Byrne *

* Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, KCMO 64108)

• Saturday, September 24, 2022, at 7:30 pm

• Friday, September 30, 2022, at 7:30 pm

• Sunday, October 2, 2022 at 2:00 pm

La traviata

Violetta is a far-famed courtesan whose skills in seduction and savoir-faire attract admirers from the cream of the aristocratic crop. From this host of hedonistic heathenry emerges a youthful hopeless romantic, Alfredo. Soon swayed by his professions of love, Violetta forsakes her Parisian life of luxury and settles countryside with the love of her life. But Alfredo's father, filled with preconceived notions about her scandalous past, pressures Violetta into leaving her one true love. With Verdi's goosebump-inducing melodies serenading the star-crossed couple, a betrayed and broken-hearted Alfredo learns that Violetta has become bedridden with tuberculosis. He goes to her, and once in each other's arms, love is rekindled, and redemption is swift. But is this happy reunion the first step toward a second chance or their last chance to say goodbye?

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

Artists and Artistic Team

Director: Francesca Zambello
Conductor: Christopher Allen
Violetta Valery: Vanessa Vasquez*
Giorgio Germont: Weston Hurt
Alfredo Germont: Daniel Montenegro*

* Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut

La traviata

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, KCMO 64108)

• Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 7:30 pm

• Friday, November 11,2022, at 7:30 pm

• Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 2:00 pm

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Seamlessly pairing live singing and music with masterful puppetry, Amahl and the Night Visitors brings to life the story of three kings - the Magi - who have traveled from faraway lands to bring gifts to a child born in Bethlehem. When they stop to rest for the night, they are taken in by an impoverished boy who is disabled and his mother. Amahl is dazzled both by their stories and the exotic treasures they carry, but the humble host will soon show them what it truly means to give with a generous heart, triggering a miraculous ending to this inspiring story. Based on Italian folktales of the Nativity and the Epiphany, this imaginative, unique telling of the first Christmas is an original Lyric Opera of Kansas City production created in collaboration with master puppeteer Paul Mesner. It's a heartwarming holiday tradition designed with families in mind, and you can only experience it right here in KC.

Music and Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti

Sung in English with English subtitles

This production is owned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Cast and Artistic Team

Conductor: Piotr Wiśniewski
Featuring Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Resident Artists

Amahl and the Night Visitors

Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building (712 E. 18th St., KCMO 64108)

• Friday, December 2, 2022, at 7:30 pm

• Saturday, December 3, 2022, at 2 pm & 7:30 pm

• Sunday, December 4, 2022, at 2:00 pm

• Friday, December 9, 2022, at 2 pm & 7:30 pm

• Saturday, December 10, 2022, at 2 pm & 7:30 pm

• Sunday, December 11, 2022, at 2:00 pm

The Shining

Deep in the shadows of the Colorado Rockies and miles from where anyone can hear you scream; the Overlook Hotel awaits. For its new caretakers, the Torrance family, the only thing more unnerving than their profound seclusion and solitude is the realization that they are not the hotel's only guests.

While the young son with a sixth sense endures this house of horrors, his father faces demons - past and present, real, and remembered - that ultimately turn him into a monster. What started as a desperate search for financial (and marital) sanctuary now spirals and sinks into a terrifying struggle for sanity and survival. With music as haunting as the story is horrifying, only through opera does The Shining discover more frightening and fulfilling depths than ever before, come to life by two Pulitzer Prize-winners, composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell.

Composer: Paul Moravec
Librettist: Mark Campbell
Sung in English with English subtitles

This production is jointly owned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City, The Atlanta Opera, and Austin Opera.

Cast and Artistic Team

Conductor: Gerard Schwarz*
Director: Eric Simonson
Jack Torrance: Edward Parks
Wendy Torrance: Kelly Kaduce
Dick Halloran: Aubrey Allicock*
Lloyd the Bartender: Roger Honeywell*

* Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut

The Shining

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, KCMO 64108)

• Saturday, March 11, 2023, at 7:30 pm

• Friday, March 17, 2023, at 7:30 pm

• Sunday, March 19, 2023, at 2:00 pm

Sondheim on Sondheim

An intimate look at the father of the modern musical, featuring new arrangements of his most beloved work.

Hailed as a "revelatory revue full of wonderful moments" and a "funny, affectionate and revealing tribute to musical theater's greatest composer and lyricist," Sondheim on Sondheim is an intimate portrait of the famed songwriter through his beloved songs and words. With exclusive interviews interspersed among favorite songs, audiences get an inside look at the renowned composer's personal life and artistic process. Honoring the legacy of Stephen Sondheim, who passed away in November 2021, this production features wonderful Sondheim stylists accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony.

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, KCMO 64108)

• Saturday, May 6, 2023, at 7:30 pm

• Sunday, May 7, 2023, at 2:00 pm

Listen, Wilhelmina!

Join us at the Lyric Opera Production Arts Center for Listen, Wilhelmina!, a zany interactive children's opera exploring a kaleidoscope of styles and all the different ways there are to listen. Three wombats have come to their first concert. One of them, Wilhelmina, is beside herself with excitement. She can't stop clapping, singing, or even dancing when she's supposed to be quiet (much to the horror of the other Wombats, Ranger Nat, and the very famous conductor). Appropriate for all ages, Listen, Wilhelmina! is specially designed for children ages 3 - 8. Stick around after the show for a host of fun (and educational) activities!

Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building (712 E. 18th St., KCMO 64108)

• Saturday, April 15, 2023, at 11:00 am & 1:00 pm

• Sunday, April 16, 2023, at 1:00 pm & 3:00 pm

Subscriptions for the 22-23 season are 4-show packages containing Carmen, La traviata, The Shining, and Sondheim on Sondheim with one optional add-on experience: Amahl and the Night Visitors. Subscribers can add Listen, Wilhelmina! to their subscription to introduce opera to the young people in their lives.

Subscribers save 20% off single ticket prices and access seats before the general public. Subscribers received early renewal information on March 14 by email, and subscription renewal packets will be mailed in early April, 2022.

Season ticket packages range from $80 to $527. For ticket information, visit https://kcopera.org/ or contact Lyric Opera Ticketing & Patron Services at (816) 471-7344.

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