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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The Kansas City Lyric Opera Guild has been sponsoring lectures and multimedia presentations for years, to help introduce opera to anyone willing to listen. One of its most popular series of presentations was a multi-session “course” on the history of opera.

To help celebrate the opening of the new Kauffman Center, the Lyric Opera Guild is bringing back this popular course. The series, When the Fat Lady Sings: A History of Opera, is an updated version of the course containing a number of video and audio excerpts from the greatest performances of the greatest operas throughout the history of the genre.

Do you want to know what Baroque opera was?  About the castrati?  The difference between aria and recitative?  What bel canto means? What the operatic revolutions of Verdi and Wagner were all about? What verismo was? What has happened to opera in recent years, and what the latest developments are?  Then these classes are for you!

The class sessions are:

♫         Thursday, September 22, 7:00 p.m. From the Camerata through Mozart.

♫         Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m. Bel Canto Opera: Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti.

♫         Thursday, October 6, 7:00 p.m. The King of 19th Century Italian Opera: Verdi.

♫         Thursday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. Wagner and the Rest of the Romantics.

♫         Thursday, October 20, 7:00 p.m.  From Verismo to the 21st Century.

All sessions are in the Brookside Room at the Kauffman Foundation, 4801 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, Missouri, and are free to all. Dress is strictly casual.

Your presenter is Don Dagenais, a longtime Lyric Opera Guild preview speaker and KCMetropolis.org columnist. 

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.