THE BRIGHTNESS OF LIGHT Comes to Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Lyric Opera of Kansas City General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler Kemper have announced the inaugural production of the 2024-2025 season, The Brightness of Light, an innovative new work featuring superstar soprano Renée Fleming and esteemed baritone Rod Gilfry. Composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts, The Brightness of Light is based on correspondence between renowned painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband Alfred Stieglitz, the celebrated photographer and will run for two performances, September 27 & 29, 2024 at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64108). Performances will be accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony conducted by Robert Moody, who is also making his Lyric Opera debut. 

A moving exploration of love and marriage, The Brightness of Light explores the relationship between Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz and is a love letter all its own. Drawn from the couple’s correspondence over 30 years of married life, the letters offer an intimate portrait of the intense emotions—and humor—of their impassioned and complicated marriage.

This musical event chronicles O’Keeffe’s vivid journey from a young artist enthralled by the older Stieglitz to her immersion in the American Southwest where she found inspiration for her best-known works. Alongside Stieglitz’s candid images, we sense the fleeting fragility of the moment and our desperation to make it last a little longer. Painting in layers, Puts’s song cycle gives each letter new life, connecting contrasting ways of seeing the world. From the deserts of New Mexico to stark city streetscapes to roads less traveled in between, we see complementary visions of life, art, and love.

Originating the roles in 2019, the incomparable Renée Fleming as Georgia O’Keeffe and the charismatic Rod Gilfry as Alfred Stieglitz will perform in a semi-staged concert with projections, including representations of O’Keeffe’s emerging and evolving artistic vision, images of the couple’s letters, stark black-and-white photographic images and the beautiful landscape of Taos, New Mexico. The second half of the performance will consist of Broadway hits specially selected by Ms. Fleming and Mr. Gilfry for Lyric Opera audiences.

Sandler Kemper stated, “The Brightness of Light provides the perfect kick-off for the exciting 2024-2025 season at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. We are thrilled to welcome the transcendent Renée  Fleming and multiple Grammy-nominee Rod Gilfry for this very special performance at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. We have assembled a team of exceptionally talented creative artists to bring The Brightness of Light to our audiences in a deeply engaging presentation format. Maestro Robert Moody will conduct the Kansas City Symphony, Selena Gonzalez-Lopez is our Lighting Designer and Paul Vershbow will be Projection Programmer and Design Realizer for Wendall K. Harrington’s original designs. This is not to be missed!”

 

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