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SUMMIT
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E5
Special Post-Show Talk Back Featuring composer Joby Talbot, librettist Gene Scheer, and real-life Everest survivor, Dr. Beck Weathers.
November 11, 2017 | Immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performance
Muriel Kauffman Theater, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, KCMO, 64108)Meet the creators of Everest, composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer, and be inspired by our honored guest, Dr. Beck Weathers, real-life survivor of the events depicted in this opera, who will talk about his extraordinary survival and the invaluable lessons he learned in facing death and living to tell about it.
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E4
Book Club Discussion of Into Thin Air, November 5 | Everest Documentary Screening, November 8Sunday, November 5th | 2:00 p.m.
Michael and Ginger Frost Production Arts Building (712 E 18th St, KCMO, 64108)Read along with the Opera Book Club:
Perhaps the most famous book about the events depicted in the opera is Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Get all the insights the movie versions couldn’t include by reading this riveting account from one who was there.
Want to share your thoughts on the book in preparation for the opera? Join a “pop up” book discussion on Sunday, November 5.
RSVP to Kaite Stover, Director of Readers’ Services for the Kansas City Public Library, kaitestover@kclibrary.org.
Looking for more books relevant to the opera? Check out the Lyric Opera Book Club for recommendations.
Wednesday, November 8th | 7:00 p.m.
Kansas City Public Library, Central Branch Film Vault (14 West 10th Street, KCMO, 64105)Join us for a screening of the documentary produced for IMAX, EVEREST, at the Central Library Film Vault. This expedition, led by David Breashears and Ed Viesturs, included Jamling Tenzing Norgay, song of Tenzing Norgay, who reached the summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary for the first time in 1953. The IMAX expedition not only summited themselves, but also helped to rescue survivors from the teams attempting the climb just ahead of them when the 1996 blizzard hit and disaster struck.
RSVP to Kaite Stover, Director of Readers’ Services for the Kansas City Public Library, kaitestover@kclibrary.org.
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E3
Opera Singers go RoKC Climbing? Yes, they do. And you can, too!Friday, October 27th | 5:30 p.m.
RoKC Climbing Gym (1501 Howell Street, North Kansas City, MO 64116)Join baritone and climbing enthusiast Craig Verm (Doug Hansen in the opera Everest) for a rock climbing adventure.
Already a member of RoKC? Great! Come on in. New to all this? Let the adventure begin by signing up for the One Day Pass for $15. Rent gear right there – Harness: $3.00, Shoes: $5.00 and Chalk/Chalk Bag: $2.00. Following orientation, the gym is yours to explore. Or just come watch! That’s pretty amazing, too.
6:30 Gather in the event room to meet Craig Verm and hear about the opera, Everest and his real life climbing experiences. Snacks and sodas/water provided for a $5 cover charge. Snacks and beer (max of 2) for $10.
After meeting Craig, return to climbing (No climbing allowed after alcohol) or hang out and chat. Event ends at 8:30.
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E2
Meet the Conductor and Librettist of Everest.Thursday, October 26th | 7:00 p.m.
Michael & Ginger Frost Production Arts Building (712 E 18th St, KCMO, 64108)Nicole Paiement, Conductor of Everest, will take us through the score, and Gene Scheer, Librettist, will talk about the making of the opera.
This event is free.
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E1
Join the Lyric Opera Guild for a series of discussions around the upcoming production of Everest.Remounting Everest:
The Vital Importance of a Second PerformanceMonday, October 23rd | 7:00 p.m.
Kauffman Foundation (4801 Rockhill Rd., KCMO, 64110)The life of any new opera is not unlike that of a person climbing a mountain. Once a piece has achieved the mountaintop experience of a premiere, it can fall into the crevasse of lack of attention and never be heard of again. A remount of the premiere production or a second production (with a different design) is the imperative next step if a new piece is to continue its ascent into the operatic repertoire. Join Everest librettist Gene Scheer and set designer R. Keith Brumley as they discuss the importance of the second staging, and the Lyric’s history of support of new works including Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest, Jake Heggie’s End of the Affair and now Joby Talbot and Gene Scheer’s Everest.
Everest:
Where the Earth Goes No FurtherMonday, October 30th | 7:00 p.m.
Kauffman Foundation (4801 Rockhill Rd., KCMO, 64110)Kansas City native Jim Martin will be our guest speaker to discuss the challenges of high altitude mountaineering. His views are based upon 45 years of climbing experience in the Himalaya of Nepal, the Andes of Peru, the Cascades and Rocky Mountains, Yosemite, and many foreign countries. Jim is still an active climber and a member of the American Alpine Club, the Kansas City Climbing Community, and the RoKC climbing gym. He will discuss what it is like to participate in high altitude mountaineering expeditions, climbing on alpine ice, snow climbing, and rock climbing. In particular, he will discuss the state of mind of mountain climbers, and what happens to a climber’s mindset in high low-oxygen altitudes. Come discover what is involved in mountain climbing and gain some insights into climbing as part of your preparation for the Lyric Opera presentation of Everest.
Scaling the Mountain:
Opera and Contemporary American SocietyMonday, November 6th | 7:00 p.m.
Kauffman Foundation (4801 Rockhill Rd., KCMO, 64110)Mark Twain expressed a common lament of the American operagoer when he opined, “I have attended operas, whenever I could not help it, for fourteen years now; I am sure I know of no agony comparable to the listening to an unfamiliar opera.” To assuage this feeling, American opera houses have long leaned toward presenting classic European opera, but there has been a groundswell of support for new American opera over the past two decades. Join UMKC musicology professor Andrew Granade for an exploration of trends in recent operatic composition and production, from “CNN operas” like Everest, to operas in and from the movies, to mobile operas staged in cars and abandoned buildings across Los Angeles.
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BASECAMP
Meet Anthropologist, Author and Explorer, Wade DavisFriday, October 20th | 6:00 p.m. Reception | 6:30 p.m. Discussion
Kansas City Public Library, Central Branch (14 West 10th Street, KCMO, 64105)Discover the connection between our 2015 production of Silent Night and Everest as Wade Davis talks about his book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest. Into the Silence is the definitive story of the British adventurers who survived the trenches of World War I and went on to risk their lives climbing Everest. Davis, an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, was awarded the 2012 Samuel Johnson Prize, the most prestigious aware for literary nonfiction in the English language, for this book.