Tagged: Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Changes are happening at Kansas City’s Lyric Opera. Its general director, Evan Luskin, is retiring next month after 26 years with the company. 

During Luskin's tenure, the Lyric launched a capital campaign for a new Opera Center, including set and costume production, rehearsal space, and administration; the annual budget nearly quadrupled; and opera is now performed in its original languages.  He oversaw the company's transition to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

It’s difficult today to imagine a time when the United States and China didn’t have trade relations or communicate at all. But, in 1972, President Richard Nixon’s visit to China, a once-demonized Communist regime, was heralded as “the week that changed the world.”

If you hear the word opera and think of a stuffy art form - with horned helmets and a large singing lady - think again. A new opera, co-commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, is based on Lois Lowry’s The Giver - a popular but controversial novel about a dystopian society.

Turning a Novel into an Opera