Lyric Opera Of Kansas City Announces Two Opera Commissions For Audiences Of All Ages

General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler Kemper today announced the commission of two operas created to be presented in community spaces where audiences of all ages gather. The Haberdasher Prince by the twin-sister creative team of composer Rosabella Gregory and librettist Dina Gregory will premiere in April 2024. Maya and the Magic Ring by composer Lori Laitman and librettist Dana Gioia will premiere in spring 2025.

Sandler stated, “We are thrilled to announce these two new commissions. Opera tells stories that are important, relevant, and universal. We strive to create artistic experiences in each production, regardless of where they're performed, that allow all of us to express ourselves, share in a common humanity, and create a feeling of belonging. These works, performed in community and communal spaces, will demonstrate the power of art to deepen the connections between each of us.”

The Haberdasher Prince

Music by Rosabella Gregory

Words by Dina Gregory

Based on The Haberdasher Prince by Dina Gregory, an Audible Original

The Haberdasher Prince tells the story of the very musical King Hamluk and his not-very-musical son Prince Panderbash. No matter how many hours he practices, Prince Panderbash is unable to master the elusive silver-stringed gilrabi. Despite this, he is forced to go on a royal musical tour. Making the best of the situation, Prince Panderbash entertains himself with one thing he can control—his attire. Everyone pretends to enjoy the prince's terrible concerts—except for a bold village girl who refuses to play along. The village girl is, in fact, a secret prodigy of the gilrabi but resigned to her role as a seamstress. King Hamluk demands she be punished, but Prince Panderbash shows mercy. Happily, Prince Panderbash and the village girl plan to showcase their true talents.

Drawing inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes, this musical encourages audiences to celebrate the power of music as a transformative force. This work will include a chamber orchestra to be performed in community spaces for families in April 2024, as well as a piano reduction of the score to use for in-school performances in the 2024 school year. Support for The Haberdasher Prince is generously provided by the Hall Family Foundation. The creative team includes director Jerry Jay Cranford, music director Piotr Wiśniewski, and scenic designer Steven Kemp.

Rosabella Gregory is an award-winning songwriter and composer working in theater, television, and opera. Her work has been performed nationally and internationally at venues such as Hoxton Hall and Arcola Theatre in London to 59E59 Theaters in New York. Collaborating with her twin Dina has given Rosabella some of the most rewarding writing experiences, from a rock opera for the English National Opera Lilian Baylis program at 16, to winning the Vivian Ellis Prize at 21, up to the present day and their adaptation of The Wind in the Willows for Audible and the Broadway Records release of their musical My Marcello with an all-star cast including Santino Fontana, Laura Osnes, and Terrence Mann. Recent opera commissions include Tutankhamun's Shoes for English Touring Opera and Sammy and the Beanstalk for OperaUpClose. Her brand-new show T-Room, The Musical, written in collaboration with her sister, premiered in summer of 2023 at Endstation Theatre Company in Virginia. rosabellagregory.com

Dina Gregory is a storyteller and librettist who hails from Devon, England. She is a graduate of Somerville College, University of Oxford, and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Her musicals, plays, songs, arias, and choral anthems have been performed at venues large and small, both in the USA and the UK. As lyricist and librettist, her works include My Marcello, released by Broadway Records in 2021; “Words Apart;” “Grateful;” “Where No Bell Tolls,” commissioned by the National Opera Studio in 2018; and the frequently performed choral piece “Angel Breathing Out.” As book writer-lyricist, her works include T-Room, The Musical (Endstation Theatre Company, 2023); Hello Sky, a piece about artist Georgia O'Keeffe (OperaLancaster, 2010); Falling (Daegu International Musical Festival, South Korea, 2010); Willy & Rupert, an original musical comedy (The O'Neill, 2005); and In Nomine Amoris (Vivian Ellis Prize winner, 1997). Her short stories—many penned for children—can be heard on Audible. dinasorayagregory.com

Maya and the Magic Ring

Music by Lori Laitman

Libretto by Dana Gioia

Maya and her grandmother lead an ordinary day until Maya stumbles upon a dusty ruby ring in her grandmother's cedar chest. When Maya cleans it, a genie emerges, revealing he was trapped for fifty years due to unfulfilled wishes. The genie grants Maya three wishes but warns her to choose wisely. Maya's first two wishes bring chaos as her cat starts talking and her toy unicorn comes to life. Racing against time, Maya ponders her final wish and desperately calls for her grandmother. Surprisingly, her grandmother appears and reveals she was the ring's previous owner. Maya's grandmother frees the genie, having made only one wish in the past. Maya asks, “Why did you only make one wish?” “Because I only needed one wish to get what I wanted,” Maya's grandmother replies. Maya asks, “What did you wish for that was so wonderful?” “I wished for you,” Maya's grandmother replies.

Maya and the Magic Ring is a story full of joy, fantasy, and laughter—all rooted in a strong foundation of familial love. This project will include a chamber orchestra to be performed in community spaces for families in spring 2025.

Described by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the most talented and intriguing of living composers,” Lori Laitman has composed operas, choral works, and hundreds of songs setting texts by classical and contemporary poets, including those who perished in the Holocaust. Laitman's music is praised for its uniqueness, craft, and beauty: “unmistakable sense of identity…masterful skill” (Opera News); “artistry of the highest order” (Textura.org); “gripping and thought-provoking” (American Record Guide). She's received commissions from the BBC, The Royal Philharmonic Society, Opera America, Opera Colorado, Seattle Opera, Grant Park Music Festival, Music of Remembrance, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and others.

The Naxos release of Opera Colorado's production of The Scarlet Letter, to David Mason's libretto, was named a Critic's Choice by Opera News and one of the top 5 CDs of 2018 by Fanfare Magazine. Laitman and Mason also collaborated on the Holocaust oratorio Vedem, staged by Indianapolis Opera in March 2022, and Ludlow, an opera that examines the U.S. immigrant experience. Ludlow's “The Wind Sighs” opens Stephen Powell's 2021 Grammy-nominated American Composers at Play.

The Three Feathers, Laitman's children's opera with librettist Dana Gioia (2014) was commissioned by the Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech. Seattle Opera commissioned an abridged version for school touring (2017) and L'arietta Productions presented the international premiere in Singapore (2019). Solo Opera (with the San Francisco Girls Chorus) will produce the opera in September 2023.

Uncovered, Laitman's one-act opera with librettist Leah Lax (based on her memoir), examines a woman's right to choose. Co-commissioned by Utah State University, City Lyric Opera and The New York Opera Society, the work premiered in 2022 and was a finalist in the 2018 Pellicciotti Competition.

A magna cum laude graduate, Laitman received her MM from Yale School of Music. artsongs.com

Dana Gioia is the former Poet Laureate of California. An internationally recognized poet and critic, he has published six collections of verse, including Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016), which won the Poets' Prize. His influential critical collections include Can Poetry Matter? (1992), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Award.

Gioia has collaborated with many classical and jazz composers, including Lori Laitman, Morten Lauridsen, Ned Rorem, Paul Salerni, Stefania de Kenessey, Alva Henderson, Tom Cipullo, David Felder, Helen Sung, and Dave Brubeck. He has also written four opera libretti, including Nosferatu (2004) with Alva Henderson, Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast (2010) and Haunted (2019) with Paul Salerni, and The Three Feathers (2014) with Lori Laitman.

Gioia served as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts from 2003 to 2009. He has been praised as “the man who saved the NEA.” Gioia has been awarded 11 honorary doctorates. He has also received Notre Dame's Laetare Medal, the Aiken-Taylor Award in Modern Poetry, and the Presidential Citizens Medal. For many years Gioia was the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. danagioia.com

The Haberdasher Prince and Maya and the Magic Ring are integral components of Lyric Opera of Kansas City's learning initiatives which emphasize teaching empathy, social-emotional learning, and artistic literacy for all ages. Artistic literacy is defined as, “The ability to connect both personally and meaningfully to works of art and, through this process, to forge connections to our humanity and the humanity of others.”

Lyric Opera Director of Learning Neal Long said, “Opera is musical storytelling, and we are proud to bring two fanciful and meaningful stories written by leading creatives in our industry to our beloved Kansas City community. In doing so, we hope to inspire a passion for arts and build engaged arts-going audiences for today and the future.”

The presentation of both operas will utilize a place-based strategy, removing barriers to accessibility. Lyric Opera will partner with community organizations—such as houses of worship, community centers, and schools—throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area to bring these works free of charge to their spaces. Through this programming, it is our expectation that many audience members will encounter opera for the first time. To further enhance the experience, a host of engagement materials and curriculum will accompany the performance. Community conversations will follow each performance, enabling those in attendance to reflect on their experience.

A comprehensive performance schedule will be announced. If you are interested in bringing one of these works to your community, please contact Director of Learning Neal Long at nlong@kcopera.org..

Founded in 1958 and now one of the nation's premier regional opera companies, Lyric Opera of Kansas City brings high-quality live operatic performances to the people of Kansas City and a five-state region. Repertoire choices encompass original-language performances of standard repertory, as well as contemporary and American operas. The company's productions enrich the community it serves while reflecting the highest artistic standards of the profession. Lyric Opera offers innovative programs to further music and arts education in schools and in the community. Opera lovers can be fans of Lyric Opera of Kansas City on Facebook or follow the company on Twitter, TikTok or Instagram at @kcopera and at kcopera.org.

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