It is an incredible honor to direct Puccini’s Madame Butterfly as my debut as Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Bringing this beloved masterpiece to life offers a profound opportunity to explore its breathtaking music, emotional depth, and complex cultural legacy. Yet, for all its beauty and sincerity, Madame Butterfly is not without controversy. Over time, … Read more
In Madama Butterfly, Puccini, already celebrated for La bohème and Tosca, achieved something even more refined: long, seamless arcs of sound where voice and orchestra fuse into a single emotional current. Famous for his search for a piece’s sonic color or tinta, Puccini studied Japanese melodies and sonorities, weaving them into his late-Romantic language with … Read more
An anonymous reviewer in 1820 compared the enthusiasm for Rossini to a contagion: “No matter how many times we have been forced to hear these masterpieces, feeling the greatest unwillingness in the world, we were never able to leave the theatre without feeling inflamed with this delicious sentiment that secretly takes possession of the heart.” … Read more
by Dr. William Everett MAKING IT HAPPEN The unique challenges of 2020 have made us think up new and affirming projects in the midst of tremendous uncertainties and unknowns. I was honored and delighted to be part of one of these, Opera in Eight Parts, produced under the auspices of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In planning and … Read more
by Dr. Martin Nedbal EXOTIC OR FAUX-EXOTIC? In the series “Opera in Eight Parts,” produced by Lyric Opera of Kansas City, I was asked to discuss nineteenth-century operatic nationalism and exoticism. There are many well-known operas associated with exoticism, the depiction of foreign, often non-Western places by European composers, and even more national works, in … Read more
by Dr. Alison DeSimone
Photographer Don Ipock captures the mad scene from Lucia di Lammermoor from the wings. Look for BONUS shots exclusively on our Instagram feed: @kcopera Lucia di Lammermoor is known for the showpiece aria “Il dolce suono,” popularly known as the “mad scene.” The entire opera builds up to this powerful scene in Act 3: Lucia falls for Edgardo … Read more
© 2025 Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Designed and Powered by The Venture Platform
