By Paul Horsley Mozart’s The Magic Flute is so full of opportunities for visual display that an opera company would be lax not to take advantage of them. But hiring a real-live artist to design an opera presents problems, too: If the scenic and costume designs are too overwhelming you don’t even need the opera. […]

By Paul Horsley In 2008 the world-renowned trumpeter and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis determined to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church with an ambitious mass for choir, soloists and jazz orchestra. Abyssinian 200: a Celebration was a hit, and on October 19th the Grammy-winning performer, author, classical celebrity, ambassador of peace […]

By Paul Horsley What a delight it was to see the Dance Theatre of Harlem back on the local stage, in its first appearance on the Harriman-Jewell Series, or in Kansas City for that matter, since April of 2001. After experiencing an eight-year hiatus, the performing company returned to the stage last season, and it […]

By Paul Horsley Deborah Voigt is at an enviable point in her life where she can make career choices on the basis of what she wants to do. “I’m very lucky in that I’ve sort of already done the dream roles,” says the Illinois-born soprano, who recently captured the world’s heart in the Metropolitan Opera’s […]

By Paul Horsley Violinist Stefan Jackiw’s official bio and press clippings read pretty much like those of any young musician these days. He is “one of his generation’s most significant artists” who possesses “talent that’s off the scale” (Washington Post) with playing that is “striking for its intelligence and sensitivity” (Boston Globe). Like their biographies, […]

By Paul Horsley One of the challenges of the Kauffman Center these days is for the resident companies to prove that the brilliant successes of the first two seasons were not a fluke. The Kansas City Ballet’s first 2013-2014 program that opened October 11th augurs well for the company’s attempts at constant renewal: Its generous […]

By Paul Horsley Jodie Gates has danced, choreographed, staged ballets, created festivals, served as mentor for young dancers. But few things excite the California native more than creating new choreography, not only for its invitation to creative expression but for its potential for passing on the huge amount of knowledge she’s gained over a 30-year […]

By Paul Horsley The operatic version of the Romeo and Juliet legend that Bellini and his librettist Felice Romani created from Italian sources predating Shakespeare is at least as action-packed as the bard’s telling, perhaps even more so. The Lyric Opera has devoted considerable resources to its production of this gripping bel canto opera, The […]

By Paul Horsley Always look both ways before crossing, because sometimes the car that hits you comes from the place you least expect. The season-opening productions by the KC Actors Theatre and the KC Rep offered meaty subjects and impressive performances, but the show that I’ll most remember is the Unicorn Theatre’s Venus in Fur, […]

By Paul Horsley Not every child prodigy makes it through adolescence to emerge as an extraordinary adult artist. One such musician to arrive recently at the “other side” is pianist Ji-Yong, who is quietly gaining attention as a brilliant pianist on the rise who has been willing to take some alternative roads toward his goal. […]

By Paul Horsley Opera is such a collaborative art form that it cannot succeed unless music, acting, stage direction and design all work together to form a sort of magical fusion. The Lyric Opera has built an exceptional production of Bellini’s The Capulets and the Montagues for its season opener, with a team headlined by […]

By Paul Horsley Eugene O’Neill’s dark-hued Long Day’s Journey into Night is a classic whose infrequency on the stage belies its importance in theater history. The great Irish American playwright created what has become a sort of prototype for the modern chronicle of the “dysfunctional family.” This week the Kansas City Actors Theatre follows up […]

A Conversation with Angela Lee Gieras Angela Lee Gieras is a financial whiz whose fundraising savvy is driven by a lifelong passion for theater, so she was in many ways the ideal choice for the Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s new executive director post. The Florida native, who as development director for the Florida Theatre in […]

By Paul Horsley Part of the fun of watching William Inge’s Picnic just a stone’s throw from its setting, the small-town Kansas milieu in which the playwright was raised, is that its characters and themes seem so familiar. “Alan’s not like most boys, he doesn’t wanta do anything he’d be sorry for,” says Madge of […]

By Paul Horsley To be sure, one could start by looking at the sheer empirical data on Deborah Sandler’s first season as general director and CEO of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City: 92 percent of Kauffman Center seats filled, critical acclaim, a fiscal year ending in the black, an earlier casting schedule that has […]

British playwrights have figured heavily into the Kansas City Actors Theatre seasons of late, so this year the nine-year-old company found material for its late-summer shows closer to home. KCAT’s “A Classic American Summer” features two landmark plays by our own countrymen – one by a Kansan with a flair for the iconoclastic and the […]

BOLD NEW DANCE: In an era of change, Carney steps in as Kansas City Ballet’s new leader By Paul Horsley It must be an exciting time to be Devon Carney. After a long career that included distinguished stints as principal dancer for Boston Ballet and as associate artistic director at Cincinnati Ballet, the 53-year-old dancer/choreographer […]

  If you want to build a dance festival from scratch, the key is collaboration. When veteran Kansas City Ballet dancers Logan Pachciarz and Anthony Krutzkamp determined to create an off-season dance performance, their goals were twofold: to provide work for dancers and choreographers from various companies during the lean summer months, and to present […]

Summer in Kansas City used to be a pretty sleepy affair for classical music, theater and dance, but no longer. The Summer Solstice is not even upon us yet, and we’ve already had the Symphony in the Flint Hills, the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers, the MET’s Ragtime, the Starlight’s Catch Me if You Can, and […]

NO LIMITS   –    Stern on the Kansas City Symphony: We’re just getting started! One of the exciting things about living in Kansas City through the last decade has been the chance to see the Kansas City Symphony claim its place in the community as a world-class institution alongside the Nelson-Atkins and Kemper Museums, the […]

The stars came out on May 12th, as the Kansas City Ballet bid farewell to its longtime artistic director, William Whitener. He departs this June 30th after 17 years at the company’s helm. A reception was held in the Kauffman Center’s Brandmeyer Hall after the Ballet’s season finale: Among the several hundred attendees were board […]