Lyric Opera of Kansas City announces next season, starting with superstar Renée Fleming

The Lyric Opera of Kansas City has a history of hiring some of America’s finest singers to star in its productions, but it has really outdone itself with its just-announced 2024-25 season.

In September, the season will open with none other than superstar diva Renée Fleming in “The Brightness of Light.” And that’s just the start to what promises to be an exciting year of performances that should please opera traditionalists as well as those looking for something off the beaten path.

The season also includes Rossini’s effervescent “The Barber of Seville,” a mariachi opera and Puccini’s “Turandot,” based on a 12th century Persian tale and set in a mythical China.

“We try to do great work that represents a balancing and blend of different styles of opera, and we always try to connect with the community as much as we can,” said Deborah Sandler Kemper, general director and CEO of the Lyric Opera.

The season opener is quite a coup for Kemper and the Lyric. Fleming is a megastar with appeal that goes well beyond the world of opera. For example, she sang the national anthem at the 2014 Super Bowl, the first opera singer to do so.

For her Lyric Opera debut, Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry will perform “The Brightness of Light,” a setting of letters between the painter Georgia O’Keefe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

“The Brightness of Light” was written by Kevin Puts, a buzzy composer whose opera “Silent Night,” about the unofficial World War I Christmas truce, was performed by the Lyric in 2015. He also composed last year’s Metropolitan Opera sensation “The Hours,” starring Fleming, Kelli O’Hara and our own Joyce DiDonato.

“‘The Brightness of Light’ is a very exciting project about two iconic figures,” Kemper said. “Kevin was commissioned to write the piece for Renée Fleming, both being graduates of Eastman (School of Music), where it was originally performed. It’s not actually an opera. It’s a song cycle with projections.”

“The Brightness of Light” is only half of the program. The second half will be songs specially chosen by Fleming and Gilfry.

“They may include Broadway tunes, they may include arias,” Kemper said. “It hasn’t been definitively decided, but there may be favorite arias from operas that both of them have performed during their distinguished careers.”

The second opera of the season is probably better known to non-opera goers in its Looney Tunes leporine version, “The Rabbit of Seville.”

“‘Barber’ is the one where people have heard the music but just didn’t realize it was from an opera,” Kemper said. “We haven’t done it for a long time, but whenever we do, it’s just a good time. People who have maybe seen ‘Barber’ with us in the past will be seeing a completely new production. We’re casting it right now. We have engaged a Rosina, who is very young and has great potential, and I think she will wow our audiences.”

The third opera of the season expands the boundaries of opera. “Cruzar la cara de la luna” (“To Cross the Face of the Moon”) by José “Pepe” Martínez might be the first Lyric Opera production that is not accompanied by the Kansas City Symphony.

“It’s an interesting piece in that the orchestra is a mariachi band,” Sandler said. ”They are on stage, and they sing and act, as well. It’ll be a little unusual. We’ll get to see the fantastic instruments that they play, and the group that we’re using is a very well-known mariachi band from California called Mariachi los Camperos.”

Written in 2010 by Martinez, the guiding force of Mariachi Vargas, probably the most well-known Mexican mariachi band in the world, “Cruzar la cara de la luna” is a heart-tugging work that tells of a Mexican man who leaves his country to work in America, but has to leave his wife and son behind.

“The story is about the bracero movement, which began in 1942 and went to 1964, which allowed Mexican immigrants to work in the United States to fill agricultural jobs,” Kemper said. “It’s been fabulously popular, and really speaks to our Kansas City region because of the long history that we have with the Mexican community, which first began with the Santa Fe Trail in the 19th century.”

The season will conclude with an opera that is the epitome of opulence, “Turandot.” Set in Peking’s Forbidden City, Puccini’s opera is the story of Princess Turandot, who requires her suitors to solve three riddles. If they answer incorrectly, they are executed.

“It was the Lyric’s first opera presentation to open the Kauffman Center,” Kemper said. “We’re restoring it, and we’re very anxious to bring it back and make it better than ever.”

Kemper says that the pandemic is still casting its long shadow on the world of opera. Audiences have not fully returned to theaters, and inflation is straining budgets. She says that tough decisions had to be made, so next season the Lyric is going to a new schedule in which each opera is performed over one weekend instead of performances stretched over eight days.

““It’s a real struggle to keep things going,” Kemper said. “We’re moving to a different schedule so that we can be as efficient as possible with our resources, to provide a similar level of opera to what we have in the past, but be smart in terms of our resources. We try to be innovative and creative and give people opportunities to share the thrill of opera.”

Lyric Opera’s 2024-25 season

All performances are at the Muriel Kauffman Theatre, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets and more information, 816-471-7344 or kcopera.org.

▪ Kevin Puts’ “The Brightness of Light.” 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and 2 p.m. Sept. 29.

▪ Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.” 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15 and 16, 2 p.m. Nov. 17.

▪ José “Pepe” Martínez’s “Cruzar la cara de la luna.” 7:30 p.m. March 7 and 8, 2 p.m. March 9, 2025.

▪ Giacomo Puccini’s “Turandot.” 7:30 p.m. May 2 and 3, 2 p.m. May 4.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.