The Brightness of Light
The difference between a letter and a love letter is the reader.
Friday, September 27, 2024
Sunday, September 29, 2024

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Featuring Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry.

Composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts and based on letters between Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, this innovative new work is a love letter of its own. Like any creative endeavor, marriage is a collaborative work in progress—a journey in which the end isn’t always what we imagined when we started. Against projections of O’Keeffe’s floral figments, the letters paint the shifting shape of love over decades. Alongside Stieglitz’s candid compositions, we sense the fleeting fragility of the moment and our desperation to make it last a little longer. Painting in layers, Puts’s song cycle gives each letter new life, connecting contrasting ways of seeing the world. From the deserts of New Mexico to city streetscapes to roads less traveled in between, we see complementary visions for what life and art could be.

Note: This is a semi-staged concert with projections; the second half will consist of Broadway hits specially selected by Ms. Fleming and Mr. Gilfry for Lyric Opera audiences

CONDUCTORRobert Moody
COMPOSERKevin Puts
PROJECTION DESIGNWendall K. Harrington
PROJECTION AND SUBTITLE PROGRAMMINGPaul Vershbow
Understand every word:Performed in English with English translations projected above the stage.

VIEW THE DIGITAL PROGRAM BOOK

 

Principal Cast

Renée Fleming

Soprano

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Rod Gilfry

Baritone

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Creative Team

Robert Moody

Conductor

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Wendall K. Harrington

Projection Designer

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Selena Gonzalez-Lopez

Lighting Designer

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Paul Vershbow

Projection Programmer and Design Realizer

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John Story

Sound Designer

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Photos of the Show

The Brightness of Light photos by Lawrence K. Ho for LA Opera.

Show Art

Download Show Poster

 

Season Sponsors

With public support from the State of Missouri and the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Additional sponsorship for The Brightness of Light:

This project is supported, in part, by the City of Kansas City, Missouri Neighborhood Tourist Development Fund.