KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Civic Opera Theatre of Kansas City
Pagliacci and Friends: A 25-Year Retrospective
Friday, May 21 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, May 23 at 2 p.m.
Goppert Theatre, Avila College
119^th and Wornall, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.kccivicopera.org.

The Civic Opera Theatre is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, and to give its audiences a special treat, the company, directed by David Adams, is offering a concert performance of the one-act verismo classic I Pagliacci, coupled with a second-half concert featuring various Civic Opera singers performing a series of opera favorites.

Starring in I Pagliacci will be baritone Matthew Black as Tonio, the leader of the troupe of touring clowns. Tenor Adam Duncan portrays the victimized clown Canio, soprano Sarah Labarr is Canio's faithless wife Nedda, who is the "Columbine" of the play-within-a-play, baritone Joshua Lawlor plays Canio's rival Silvio, and tenor Aaron Barksdale-Burns is Beppe, the "Harlequine" in the play-within-a-play. Rick Truman will direct the performances and Jeremy Mims will conduct the Civic Opera orchestra.

In the second half concert of opera arias and scenes, the Pagliacci cast will be joined by Jan Duncan, a founding member of the Civic Opera Theater who was featured in many leading roles in productions of the Civic Opera during its early years and who sang in the recent The Wise Women. Other singers scheduled to appear are Phil Eatherton, Eleanor Hill, Joey DeSota, Alyssa Nance and other friends of the Civic Opera Theater. Watch for a few surprises along the way.



Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company
Spring Concert 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, May 22, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Spencer Theatre at UMKC Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.cto.umkc.org 

It's hard to believe that the Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company, founded by Leni Wylliams and Mary Pat Henry, will be celebrating its 20^th anniversary next year.  But so it is, and this spring for the finale of its 19^th season the company will present several dance works by a variety of choreographers.

On tap are Desire by Garry Abbott, the co-director of Deeply Rooted Productions in Chicago; To Each Her Own, choreographed by UMKC dance instructor Paula Weber; the multi-media works Moore in Time and Southern Exposure choreographed by Mary Pat Henry; and Chloe-Christina by Ruth Barr.

Perhaps the most interesting work by description is To Each Her Own, featuring the music of two startlingly different composers, the contemporary Arvo Pärt and the Baroque master Giovanni Pergolesi.  It is "a poignant work for four women depicting the similarities of the women and the distinct differences in their personalities as they choose their paths that are ever changing revealing each individual and what they are made of," by utilizing both dance and costuming.

Mary Pat Henry's work, Moore in Time, is "inspired by the renowned sculptures of Henry Moore. Set to the dramatic and riveting score of Tan Dun, the dancers become kinetic images of abstract shapes and inter-related formations. Always with an emotional connection to each other the dancers run, leap and hurl themselves through space in daring lifts and breathtaking partnering set against video images of Henry Moore."

The Barr work is inspired by Andrew Wyeth's painting Christina's World.

As always, the Wylliams-Henry company will be offering challenging interpretations to stretch the mind.



Kansas City Symphony
Bolero
Friday, May 21 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 22 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 23 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org

The Kansas City Symphony this weekend performs two classics of French Impressionistic composers, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, with the title work, Bolero, and Debussy's early and pathbreaking masterpiece, Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun). 

Bolero is a heady mix of intoxicating beats and whirlwind repetition, long criticized by some music critics for pandering to the popular (some would say erotic) audience taste.  The composer himself reputedly grew to dislike the piece with great intensity.  Nonetheless, it has remained an audience favorite and should draw in the crowds to the Lyric Theater this weekend.

The Debussy piece stands in a similar position in the composer's output.  Debussy himself was far more interested in later compositions where he explored the outer limits (at the time) of tonality, but his early romantic number, full of airy and light music but still reveling in unusual harmonies, remains one of his most popular compositions.

Notwithstanding those two headline pieces on the concert program, the remaining two numbers should offer far more interesting listening to most Symphony audience members.

Jennifer Higdon is one of today's leading composers of orchestral music, and her number The Singing Rooms, performed with the assistance of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus, should be one of the highlights of the concert season.  The compositions consists of a cycle of love songs for violin, chorus and orchestra on the poems of Higdon's fellow faculty member at the Curtis Institute of Music, Jeanne Minahan. A thoroughly interesting preview of this number, written by David Peironnet, who interviewed the creators, appears elsewhere in this issue of KC Metropolis.org. Jennifer Koh serves as the violin soloist.

Paul Hindemith's 1938 ballet, Nobilissima visione, was inspired by the famous Giotto frescoes in the church of Santa Croce in Florence, and depicts the life of St. Francis of Assisi. The numbers depict, among other scenes from the saint's life, his early career in the military, his later commitment to the church, and a finale, a Passacaglia, in which Francis receives the stigmata on Mount la Verna.



Simon Carrington Chamber Singers
Go Song of Mine
Saturday, May 29 at Noon
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
14^th and Broadway, Downtown Kansas City, MO
and
Saturday, May 29 at 8 p.m.
2415 Clinton Parkway, Lawrence, KS
Tickets available at the door, or call 816-214-9928 or online at www.simoncarringtonchambersingers.com


The Simon Carrington Chamber Singers kick off their second season with concerts in Kansas City and Lawrence on May 29. The group, which includes 24 choral artists from around the country, is led by artistic director Simon Carrington.

This year's performances, entitled Go Song of Mine, will feature the world premiere of Melissa Dunphy's choral work What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? The piece was the winner of the 2010 Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Composition Competition. It is based on testimony given to the Maine State Senate in support of the 2009 Marriage Equality Bill.

In addition to Dunphy's composition, the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers (SCCS) will present works by Tallis, Purcell, Elgar, MacMillan, Chilcott and The Who.

"Our program this year again consists of music linked in some way to my seven years at the University of Kansas during which time I had the privilege of making music with hosts of wonderful musicians including a number of singers in this ensemble," said Carrington. "The underlying theme is British music."

SCCS is a world class choral music ensemble based in Kansas City. The group was founded in 2008 with the goal of bringing together former Carrington students, now singers of high standing in their own right, who shared the desire to form an elite professional vocal chamber ensemble under his direction.

Prior to teaching choral music in the United States, Carrington was a co-founder and long time director of The King's Singers, an internationally acclaimed British vocal ensemble. He is a renowned choral conductor and clinician, who served as the director of choral activities at the University of Kansas, director of choral activities at the New England Conservatory, professor of choral conducting at Yale University and director of the Yale Schola Cantorum.

Kansas City Symphony
Celebration at the Station
Sunday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m.
(rain date, Monday, May 31, at 7:30 p.m.)
Outside Union Station (sit on north lawn by Liberty Memorial)
30 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO
Free admission.

On Memorial Day weekend the Kansas City Symphony always offers a free outdoor concert in front of Union Station on Pershing Road, with the audience invited to bring their blankets or lawn chairs and picnic dinners and camp out on the north lawn of Liberty memorial.  On a nice day this concert typically attracts over 20,000 people, so prepare to arrive a couple of hours early to snag a comfortable spot.  By all means bring a picnic dinner or purchase food from the vendors, sit down and enjoy a panoply of orchestral fireworks, including at the conclusion some fireworks of the real variety ("Kansas City's largest fireworks display") to light up the night sky.

The program for the concert has not been announced, but it usually consists of some patriotic songs, a few marches, and other popular numbers.  Some "warm up" acts will entertain the crowd before the start of the actual concert.  It will be good fun for the entire family.

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.