Kc-opera.org
Title
The Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Description
The Company
Lyric Opera of Kansas City is one of the nation's premier regional opera companies, and is now in its 47th season with 89 different productions (27 of which are American operas) to its credit. The Company has built a reputation for offering performance opportunities to young singers, directors, scenic and lighting designers and other production staff. The current season consists of four operas performed in September, November, March, and May in the Lyric Theatre. Lyric Opera produces an eclectic repertoire, and offers one production of an American or contemporary opera most seasons. In the fall of 1998, the Company began performing many traditional operas in original language. During the 2004-2005 season all operas will be performed in original language with English translations.
In the fall of 1957, a young conductor, Russell Patterson, and J. Morton Walker, who had been associated with civic opera ventures in Minneapolis and Fort Worth, initially organized the Lyric as an experiment. These two proposed to transplant the European opera-theater pattern to a more or less typical American setting. A number of local opera buffs welcomed the idea, but there were many qualms: Would Kansas City accept opera so unorthodox by the prevailing national standards-without stars or spectacular stage investitures? Friends told them it could not be done. The company has been proving them wrong ever since.
The initial hurdle proved to be locating an available venue for rent. The 40-year-old motion picture theater, the Rockhill, was selected. Here, on the night of September 29, 1958, the Company presented La Bohème, as the first performance of a four-week repertory season. In the early 1960's, such auxiliary groups as the Women's Committee (formerly known as the Lyric Opera League and now merged with the Guild) and Lyric Theater Guild (now Lyric Opera Guild) had formed. By 1965 touring of nearby towns, first in Missouri and later in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas and South Dakota had begun, yet ceased in fall 1992. After the close of the 10th season, a fire gutted the Rockhill and the company was offered use of the Uptown Theatre on Broadway. The destruction of the Rockhill ended an era for the Lyric. Over the previous decade the company had mounted more than 200 performances of 30 different works. In the process, Kansas City had become one of the very few American communities where it was possible-even if only during a brief period every year-to see four different operas on as many successive nights of the week. Time magazine had pronounced the company as "a valid and important part of the American operatic explosion."
Contact
- Kansas City Symphony
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- Kansas City MO
- United States 64105
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- +1.816218261
