Lyric Opera of Kansas City Announces 2012-13 Season

The Lyric Opera of Kansas City today announced the 2012-2013 season which will be held in the Muriel Kauffman Theatre in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

“In choosing the repertoire for our second season in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, we knew without a doubt that we wanted this season to retain the same scale of grandeur as our first season,” notes Ward Holmquist, Lyric Opera Artistic Director. “I believe that audiences and critics will be blown away by this season’s electrifying productions.”

The Company’s 55^th season will open September 15, 2012 with Giacomo Puccini’s tragic Madama Butterfly.  “Our opening season in the Kauffman Center did not include any tragedies,” notes Lyric Opera Artistic Director Ward Holmquist.  “We decided the second season should return to opera’s tragic roots with three of the most heart wrenching, vocally taxing, tragedies in the canon.” The season begins with a production of Madama Butterfly featuring soprano Elizabeth Caballero in the title role and directed by Mark Streshinsky.  “There shouldn’t be a dry eye in the audience by the final curtain.” 

The 2012-13 season will feature two all new productions, built in the state-of-the-art Lyric Opera Production Arts Complex in the east Crossroads Arts District. Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, will be designed by Lyric Opera Director of Design and Technical Production R. Keith Brumley.  Mr. Brumley states, “It is an exciting opportunity to have the ability to create two all new scenic designs in one season.  With our new Production Arts Building at the Lyric Opera Center, we will be able to construct the sets and rehearse The Flying Dutchman in one area of the building and concurrently construct the sets for The Mikado in another area, a feat never before possible by this Company.” 

 

2012-2013 Season

Madama Butterfly  

By Giacomo Puccini                                    

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

September 15, 2012       7:30 p.m.

September 19, 2012       7:30 p.m.

September 21, 2012       7:30 p.m.

September 23, 2012       2:00 p.m.

 

Puccini’s beautifully tragic Madama Butterfly is a story of love, fidelity and betrayal that occurs when two very different cultures collide.  A marriage contract has drastically different meanings to a U.S. Navy lieutenant and his Japanese child-bride.  When the nuptials result in a beloved child, the mother will do anything to protect her honor and her child’s future as an American.

 

Soprano Elizabeth Caballero (Liu, Turandot 2011) returns to the Lyric Opera to make her role debut as the title character in Madama Butterfly after her widely acclaimed debut performance in Turandot: “Most notable was the Cuban-American soprano Elizabeth Caballero, who sang Liu in sensuously glowing tones, her charged legato shaping the music into cogent paragraphs.  Liu’s death scene tore at the heart,” The New Yorker.   

 

Director Mark Streshinsky returns to the Lyric Opera (Julius Caesar 2008, The Marriage of Figaro 2011) to direct this Puccini tragedy.  Mr. Streshinsky is currently the Artistic Director of West Edge Opera in California, and has directed numerous productions around country including at Cincinnati Opera, Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Ziff Opera House.  

 

Il Trovatore

By Giuseppe Verdi

Sung in Italian with English subtitles

November 3, 2012                  7:30 p.m.

November 7, 2012                  7:30 p.m.

November 9, 2012                  7:30 p.m.

November 11, 2012                2:00 p.m.             

 

Nobility, gypsies, murders, curses, kidnappings, a suicide and a love triangle – all combined with a sensational score – no wonder this opera has been bringing audiences to their feet since its premiere.  This opera is jam-packed with show stopping music including the legendary “Anvil Chorus.”

 

“I am excited to conduct Il Trovatore, the most vocally dramatic piece in the Verdi canon,” notes Lyric Opera Artistic Director Ward Holmquist. “There are incredibly high expectations for all of the principal singers in this opera because each performs arias that are highly recognizable to opera patrons.  Each principal singer is required to deliver performances to the extremes of their vocal range and dynamic capabilities. They have to showcase the full color of their vocal expression.  I am assembling the perfect mix of singers to compliment the Kauffman Center’s acoustics.” 

 

The Flying Dutchman – All New Production

By Richard Wagner                 

Sung in German with English subtitles

March 2, 2013                7:30 p.m.

March 6, 2013                7:30 p.m.

March 8, 2013                7:30 p.m.

March 10, 2013    2:00 p.m.

 

After a 38 year absence from the Lyric Opera repertoire Ward Holmquist will conduct an all new production of The Flying Dutchman. Wagner’s great music, set to this haunting tale of a damned sea captain who can only be saved by true love, will encompass the entire theatre, rocking audience members’ senses with enormous sets, voices and orchestrations.  

 

Baritone Richard Paul Fink (Rigoletto 2010, Nixon in China 2012) returns to the Lyric Opera to sing the cursed sea captain.  Opera News hailed Mr. Fink as a “…healthy, big-voiced, commanding Dutchman.”  Mr. Fink has sung the role previously with The Atlanta Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Canadian Opera Company, and Portland Opera. Mr. Fink recently won a Grammy for his role in John Adam’s Doctor Atomic.

 

This all-new production designed by R. Keith Brumley (Turandot 2011) will be worth the 38-year wait!  Brumley received rave reviews for Turandot, “The sets were simply phenomenal, where vertical and horizontal elements met on the new stage in a grand scale, offering a physical perspective not possible at the Lyric Theatre,” raved Sarah Tyrell of KCMetropolis.org.

 

Director Bernard Uzan returns to the Lyric Opera after his acclaim for his 2010 production of Carmen.  Mr. Uzan has directed productions across the United States and Canada including companies such as: Seattle Opera, Montreal Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Carolina, Michigan Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, Opera New Orleans, Dallas Opera and Portland Opera.

 

The Mikado – All New Production

By Gilbert and Sullivan                     

Sung in English with English Subtitles       

April 20, 2013               7:30 p.m.

April 24, 2013                7:30 p.m.

April 26, 2013               7:30 p.m.

April 28, 2013                2:00 p.m.

         

Widely regarded as the finest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado will captivate and delight you at every turn.  Nanki-Poo, son of the Emperor of Japan, is desperately in love with Yum-Yum.  But she is betrothed to Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner!  Witty lyrics and brilliantly constructed plot twists make this tale of forbidden love, deception and beheadings a light-hearted favorite among opera-goers everywhere. 

 

Ticket Information

All performances will be held in the Muriel Kauffman Theatre at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.  All performances will be accompanied by members of the Kansas City Symphony.  Season ticket holders for the 2012-2013 season receive a substantial discount - four operas for the price of three.  Subscribers to the 2011-2012 season will receive subscription renewal information beginning the week of February 20, 2012, and will have until April 30 to renew or improve their current subscription and seat locations.  Reservations for new subscriptions will go on sale to the general public on Monday, February 27, 2012.  Single tickets will go on sale to the general public on August 6, 2012.

 

Season ticket prices range from $150 to $450. For ticket information, contact Lyric Opera Patron Services at (816) 471-7344, toll free at 1-877-OPERAKC (673-7252), or visit Lyric Opera Patron Services at 1616 Broadway in downtown Kansas City.