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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

The Lyric Opera of Kansas City opens it season in grand fashion. Literally. Puccini’s Turandot is a Grand Opera in the broad sense, boasting the Lyric’s largest cast and orchestra in its history. Would you expect anything less from the company’s inaugural performance on the 5,000-square-foot Muriel Kauffman stage of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts? Starring as the titular Chinese princess, the premiere American Lise Lindstrom is joined by native Kansan Sam Ramey (in his Kansas City stage debut), Arnold Rawls, and up-and-coming Cuban-American Elizabeth Caballero in the lavish production directed by Garnett Bruce. Turandot tells the story of a wronged Chinese princess, who has sentenced all her suitors to death upon their failure to answer her riddles, and the nameless prince who seeks her heart. Side note: Please pronounce the final “T,” to impress your friends with your encyclopedic operatic knowledge, regardless of what Maestro Toscanini may have said. Puccini’s unfinished masterpiece runs October 1–9, and many sections are already sold out, so hurry to get your tickets. In my opinion, Turandot will be the Kansas City artistic event of this fall season.

After all that grandeur, the Lyric scales back with Mozart’s light-hearted comedy Così fan tutte, November 5–13. When two fiancées each give their betrothed 24 hours to prove unyielding devotion, hijinks, disguises, and chicanery abound in this delightful Mozart-Da Ponte collaboration. Kristine McIntyre returns after last season’s successful Norma to direct Amanda Hall, Matthew Plenk, Marie Lenormand, and David Won as the four lovers.

If the Lyric’s offering of Mozart-Da Ponte wasn’t enough, the UMKC Conservatory opens Le nozze di Figaro the following week, which runs November 17–20. Le nozze continues the crazy day-of-events from Beaumarchais’ Il barbiere di Siviglia (yes, Rossini would later also write a opera on the same subject) in the court of Count Almaviva.

On November 17–21, the University of Kansas School of Music presents John Gay's ballad opera, The Beggar's Opera. This watershed work from 1728 satirizes Italian opera conventions with bawdy British wit. The opportunities to hear this pliece live are few and far between so this will be worth the short drive to Lawrence.

Kansas City Metro Opera performs Franz Lehár’s Merry Widow November 11–13. Lehár’s comedic operetta is full of great dance music, including the famous "Merry Widow Waltz," and memorable melodies all weaving through the story of the fictional Ponteverdo citizenry’s desire to marry off a rich widow in order to keep her money for local use. These performances are concertized.

The Flaherty-Ahrens joint Seussical and all its zaniness will transform the Coterie Theatre’s stage into the magical realms of Dr. Seuss. Using Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches the Egg as its basis, this show will be a delight for all ages. Seussical runs November 1–December 31.

Paul Mesner Puppets also transports a beloved piece of children’s literature to a musical setting with Allison Gregory and Steven Dietz’s adaptation of P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go. Mesner’s talented team will perform November 2–27.

Kid shows aren’t your cup of tea? How about some blood and guts courtesy of the Egads! Theatre Company’s re-upped production of Evil Dead the Musical? Sit in the Splatterzone and be regaled and horrified by Ash and company’s antics October 7–November 5.

The Lied Center of Kansas presents In the Mood: A 1940s Musical Review on October 26. With big band favorites and ballades galore, this production is currently touring Australia and New Zealand.

Enjoy the music of the ‘50s and ‘60s more than that of the big band era? American Heartland Theatre has you covered with Richard Bean’s Marvelous Wonderettes, running November 4–December 24. AHT’s season opens with Nobody Lonesome for Me, a “play with music” about Hank Williams. The show runs September 9–October 23 and stars Matthew Brumlow.

Quality Hill Playhouse’s excellent run continues with Noël and Gertie, September 23–October 23. Noël Coward’s music and lyrics are among the best in the repertory, and with Melinda MacDonald and Robert Gibby Brand, both veterans of the musical theatre scene, this production, devised by Sheridan Morley, will most likely be “De-lovely.”

Musical Theater Heritage does not have a fall production, but Musical Mondays are still happening on September 12 and November 14. Hosted by Tim Scott, these impromptu gatherings bring some of the finest musical theater talents together to belt out some tunes.

Top Photo: Lise Lindstrom (Photo by John Fitzgerald for Kentucky Opera)

By Lee Hartman

Editor-in-Chief; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Lee Hartman holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (D.M.A., M.M.) and the University of Delaware (B.M.). At the University of Delaware, he received a Dean's Scholar position enabling him to pursue an individually designed academic program combining music education and composition. At the University of Missouri-Kansas City he served for three years as the Assistant Director to Musica Nova, the conservatory's new music ensemble, while teaching a variety of composition classes.

In 2007 he was invited to both the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland and the Sichuan Conservatory in Chengdu, China to give lectures and master classes in composition. In the summer of 2009, Hartman served as an orchestra manager for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Aspen Opera Theater Center for various performances. He serves on the National Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc. as Submissions Coordinator. His primary composition instructors include James Mobberley, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Paul Rudy, John Beall, and Jennifer Margaret Barker. He currently teaches music theory at the University of Central Missouri and general music classes at Park University having previously taught at UD (2007–08) and UMKC (2006–07).

His compositions can be found at http://www.leehartmanmusic.com