We Want to Hear from YOU!

The holiday season is upon us and with it brings a feeling of nostalgia and tradition. As a fan of opera, is there any production you love to watch during this time of year? If there’s an opera that you like to watch with family or friends during the holidays, let us know in the comments section. Happy Holidays from all of us at Lyric Opera of Kansas City!

RIP Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak, American author and set designer, passed away at age 83 two days ago on May 8, 2012. Mr. Sendak is widely recognized for the writing and illustration of the children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. However, as The New York Times explains, “he was a man of many enthusiasms – for music, art, literature, argument and the essential rightness of children’s perceptions of the world around them.” In addition to the writing and illustration of children’s books, Mr. Sendak also applied his talents to the stage. Working with the Houston Grand Opera and the New York City Opera, Mr. Sendak designed the sets of operatic staples like Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. When designing for opera, Mr. Sendak told WQXR radio, “the answer to the artistic puzzle lies within the music.”

In 1979 Mr. Sendak started the process of adapting his own book, Where the Wild Things Are, to the opera stage. In collaboration with British Composer Oliver Knussen, the revised version of Where the Wild Things Are premiered in London in 1984. Just two short years later, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City brought Where the Wild Things Are to the Midwest.

Learn more about Mr. Sendak:

WQXR: http://www.wqxr.org/#!/blogs/wqxr-blog/2012/may/08/classical-music-fueled-maurice-sendak-muse/

NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html

NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/08/152248367/maurice-sendak-where-wild-things-are-author-dies

Clip of Where the Wild Things are with Glyndebourne Opera: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSbOCfIh3HI

Farewell to Evan Luskin

After more than two decades of service to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, General Director Evan Luskin will retire on June 30, 2012.  Mr. Luskin joined the Lyric on June 1, 1986 as its managing director, and became general director in 1998. The tenure under Mr. Luskin has seen a marked increase in the artistic standards and financial health of the Company.

A lifelong fan of opera, Mr. Luskin received an MBA with a specialization in Arts Management in 1977 from the State University of New York at Binghamton.   He then served as Assistant Director of the Tulsa Opera from 1977 to 1979, Managing Director of the Chattanooga Opera from 1979 to 1982, and Vice President for Finance and Administration of Michigan Opera Theatre from 1982 until coming to Kansas City in 1986. He is looking forward to spending more time with his wife Andrea and his grandchildren in Topeka and Washington, D.C. He also plans to become involved in volunteer activities with children, take up the piano after a hiatus of many years, and travel.

Please share your memories with and congratulations to Evan!

Evan Luskin, General Director, Announces Retirement

Evan Luskin, Lyric Opera General Director

Last night at the Lyric Opera Board of Directors meeting Lyric Opera General Director Evan Luskin announced that he will be retiring in June of 2012.  Evan has been with the company for over 25 years and has seen it grow in many different ways.  He will be leaving the Company at a historic moment, the completion of the Company’s first season in the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Join us in giving Evan a standing ovation for all of the hard work he has put into making the Lyric Opera of Kansas City what it is today.  Thank you!

Read an article by Steve Paul in The Kansas City Star:  Lyric Opera chief Evan Luskin to retire after 2011-2012 season

Some of the Best of 2010

Photographer: Karen Almond

In case you didn’t notice, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City was featured in a couple of year-end “Best Of” lists.  We are honored and exited that the Lyric Opera is seen as a great example of the arts in Kansas City.  With the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opening in September of THIS YEAR, the continued work on our Opera Center complex, and continued support from our patrons, we know that we can do even better in 2011.

Read what was said about the Lyric Opera:

The Independent:
Paul Horsley picked as his Big Twelve of 2010.

The Kansas City Star:
Patrick Neas recognized as the year’s high notes.

Survival Skills, Opera Style

You may have noticed that Kansas City resident Yve Rojas is on the cast of the latest season of the reality show Survivor, which premiered last night on CBS.

What you may not have known is that Yve starred as a super in the 2008 production of Julius Caesar.  The goal of Survivor is to outwit and outlast your opponents and Julius Caesar sure provided a lesson on how to do that.

Hopefully, she picked up a few tips from the Romans and Egyptians.  If you want to cheer her on and find out if she learned anything from the opera, follow her on Survivor this fall.  There is  no singing but the drama is on the level of many opera favorites.

Oh Captain, Our Captain!

Opera News has a review of the recording, which you can find Long time Lyric Opera patrons may be interested to learn that the original recording of Jack Beeson’s Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines is being returned to the marketplace.

Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines was a world premiere at the Lyric Opera in 1975 under conductor and Artistic Director Russell Patterson.

here.   Reviewer Arlo McKinnon may have it right when he suggested that it is “worthy of a larger presence in American opera houses,” but you should judge for yourself by giving it a listen.

You can find recordings available for purchase on a variety of websites.  Three of many are:

• Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Beeson-Captain-Jinks-Marines/dp/B002ZTM0BG

• CD Universe – http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8091746

• ArkivMusic.com – http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=381933

This flash performance is surprising, but not obscene!

Thanks to our friends at The City Market for hosting us last Saturday for a flash opera performance during their annual Pepper Party. Did you miss the fun? Not to worry — check out the video of the performance:

The Lyric Opera Needs Your Help!

A note from General Director Evan Luskin:

You have probably heard about the budget shortfall which the state of Missouri is facing.  Proposed expenditures for the coming year total over 8 billion dollars, but revenues fall 1 billion dollars short of footing the bill. Obviously, cuts need to be made, and I have been expecting a cut in the Missouri Arts Council funds which will affect the Lyric Opera.  It is only fair that the arts shoulder their fair share of the budgetary shortfall.  I had not, however, anticipated that the State Senate would propose zeroing out the Arts Council for the coming year!

As opera supporters, you and I attend and support the opera because we love the art form.  I understand that Jefferson City must make its decisions on something more tangible than our love for great art.  In fact, the arts in Missouri are a business, and are significant employers and provide tax dollars which contribute to state revenues.

The Lyric Opera is a $4.5 million business.  Most of the money we spend stays in our community.  More than half the budget goes into payrolls, providing the means by which individuals support themselves and their families and pay taxes.  The arts attract tourists throughout the region who come to Kansas City and eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores, generating additional revenue for the state.  While the arts community understands the necessity of making cuts, we believe that eliminating all state support is just plain bad business.

The members of the State Senate’s Appropriations Committee need to know that arts funding matters to you.  While you understand that the arts budget must be cut, you believe it does not make good business sense to eliminate it completely.  Please phone or email the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee today.  Just a brief email which states “Don’t zero out the Missouri Arts Council.  The arts are good for the economy” would let the Senators know where citizens stand.

Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee

Senator Rob Mayer                   Rob.Mayer@senate.mo.gov

Senator Tom Dempsey            tom.dempsey@senate.mo.gov

Senator Chuck Purgason         chuck.purgason@senate.mo.gov

Senator Frank Barnitz              Frank.Barnitz@senate.mo.gov

Senator Joan Bray                     jbray@senate.mo.gov

Senator Timothy Green           timothy.green@senate.mo.gov

Senator Yvonne Wilson           Yvonne.Wilson@senate.mo.gov

The following senators prefer not receiving emails.  You may reach their offices through the capitol switchboard at 573-751-2000:

Senator Kurt Schaefer, Senator Jim Lembke, Senator David Pearce

Thank you for your support!

Future Lyric Opera Stage Takes Shape

If you haven’t been to  downtown Kansas City in awhile, you probably haven’t seen the progress being made in the construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (the future home of Lyric Opera performances).  Thanks to a video by WDAF Fox 4′s Rob Low, you can see the progress being made on the Kauffman Center, both inside and out.  Rob is led around the construction site by Jane Chu, the Kauffman Center Executive Director, as she speaks about the facility as it takes shape.

The Kauffman Center promises to be a world-class arts facility that will improve the patron experience of attending a production.  As we get closer to the day we can perform in the Kauffman Center, we want to remind our patrons that their loyalty to the Company will be rewareded with access and priority seating to the Kauffman Center.  You can see some of the ways we can do that on the video.

Watch the video by Fox4′s Rob Low