Highlighting uncommon instruments in Lyric Opera’s upcoming season
In the world of opera, the musical feature that most audiences pay attention to is, without question, the sheer force of vocal talent present on stage. These incredible voices are the stories that touch lives and pull heartstrings, and they are bolstered by the talented orchestras that frame the musical setting. With over four hundred years of repertoire and musical development to back up modern-day settings, it’s safe to say that most opera goers understand the makeup of the symphony orchestra—strings, winds, brass, and some percussion sitting in the back somewhere. But today, we’re going to explore the unique and rare instruments that composers add to the orchestra, whether for texture, feature, or creating sound that stands out above the expected tone. And this season with Lyric Opera, there are four incredible operas to demonstrate the impact of instrumentation in the theater.
ROSSINI’S CINDERELLA
First, as a baseline for orchestra instrumentation, let’s consider Rossini’s Cinderella (La Cenerentola), which first premiered in 1817. The opera is very classically orchestrated, with Rossini’s writing heavily influenced by Mozart, resulting in a distinctly “classical” style. By the early 1800’s, Ludwig van Beethoven had expanded and solidified the “modern orchestra” through his symphonic writing, establishing the general size and structure still seen today by ensembles like the Kansas City Symphony. In Cinderella, Rossini combined this orchestral framework with his own influences to create music that is both impressive and elegant. The instrumentation is largely standard for the period, with full and prominent wind and string sections. but the brass and percussion sections are noticeably light, featuring only one trombone and no tuba in the brass, and only timpani in the percussion section. There aren’t any specific stand-out instruments added to this opera, but it does serve as a fairly solid framework for what is typically present when one thinks of a symphony orchestra from the 1800’s.
PUCCINI’S MADAME BUTTERFLY
Moving to the second opera in the season, Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, there is a much more diverse and expanded orchestra. Giacomo Puccini’s innovative use of a range of uncommon instruments reflects both the setting of the opera, as well as the psychological depth of the characters on stage. There are moments within his later works, from La bohème to Turandot, where the orchestra doesn’t merely support the drama, but becomes a character itself. The instruments that Puccini employs within Madame Butterfly are as follows: Japanese gong, 4 Japanese Bells, tam-tam, keyboard glockenspiel, and a suite of onstage instruments, including various bells, chimes, bird whistles, a tam-tam, a bass tam-tam, and a viola d’amore. The viola d’amore is a particularly rare sight in nineteenth- and twentieth-century opera, as it is a Baroque-era string instrument that is much more delicate than a modern viola or violin. Puccini used this instrument very sparingly, and in Madame Butterfly, it is written to be played off-stage during the Humming Chorus, lending a delicate and ethereal texture to one of the opera’s most emotionally charged moments when available to be used.
THE GERSHWINS®’ PORGY AND BESS
To ring in the 250th year of our nation, Lyric Opera is finally bringing The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess to the Kauffman Center. This opera nearly made it’s Lyric debut back in 2020 before the pandemic occurred. Now, as the stage is set for the jazziest opera the Lyric has ever put into production, let’s just point out the obvious instruments that were added to the orchestra: there’s a banjo, a guitar, a drum set; basically, an entire folk band in the pit with a full orchestra playing jazz music to back them up. On top of that, there are saxophones in the winds section, there’s a celesta, a widely expanded percussion section with keyboards and accessories (including a whip), and many members of the orchestra utilize accessories such as mutes to create even more range of tones within the music. The Gershwins blended the influences of famous folk song composers, New York jazz, and European traditional opera to create a fusion of music that suited his story perfectly. Was this particularly unusual for the 1930’s? No, not necessarily, as folk music was well established at the time, jazz was on the rise, and blending styles had been experimented with in many ways over the history of musical development. But that didn’t stop the Gershwins and the Heywards from using the best of these styles and the unique voices listed above to make Porgy and Bess an essential American opera.
CARLISLE FLOYD’S OF MICE AND MEN
To round out Lyric Opera’s 2025–2026 Season, and continuing the celebration of America’s 250th year, Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men is returning to Kansas City, featuring a new collaborative production with the Lyric, Houston Grand Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Florida State University. Originally premiered in 1970 by the Seattle Opera, Floyd’s rendition of Steinbeck’s classic novella stands out not only for its emotional realism, but also for its evocative setting and orchestration. If the harmonica played on-stage wasn’t enough to set the scene, Floyd’s particular choices of percussion and winds demonstrate clearly the gritty nature of the Great Depression and the 1930’s frontier. Each of these are not simply used ornamentally, but with purpose and focus, underlining the emotional landscape of the story and reinforcing character moments and themes. The particularly unique instruments Floyd uses to accomplish these goals are: piano, celesta, alto flute, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, harmonica (on-stage), vibraphone, field drum, whip, wood blocks, and tom-toms. Once again, there are a lot of textural percussion instruments used to underline these themes of the “hard road” back in the day.
Each production in Lyric Opera’s 2025–2026 season offers a distinct musical and theatrical perspective. Together, they showcase nearly two centuries of orchestral and musical development, with each score featuring unique and rare instrumentation that set them apart. Audiences can look forward to a variety of unique sounds and experiences that are not typically heard in traditional performances. This season is an ideal opportunity to experience how uncommon instruments help bring these sincere human stories to life on stage.
About the author:
Mason McBride has worked in marketing for over two years and currently serves as Manager of Digital Communications at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He earned a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of Oklahoma in 2021 and has been studying and performing large ensemble music for more than a decade. Mason remains an active performer in the Kansas City metro area and is the Principal Percussionist with the Kansas City Civic Orchestra.
