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 garnered a higher caliber of singers, directors and designers for 2013-14. But the real story lies in her restless spirit as to what remains to be done. “I came in at a very propitious time, because the company had just moved into a new performing arts space, and on July 5^th (2012) we moved into this new Opera Center,” says the energetic Philadelphia native, who led companies in New Jersey and Kentucky to success before coming to the Lyric last year. “So it was a whole new platform on which to build what I hope will be a truly great regional opera company. It’s been a really good one, but I’d like to see us be really great.”

Deborah’s push for fresh energy includes a fistful of new and nationally-known directors and designers for 2013-14. “I have unbridled aspirations for the company,” she says, “and I’d like our programs to be distinguished and known nationally.” Productions this year include the company premiere of Bellini’s The Capulets and The Montagues with Joyce DiDonato and Nicole Cabell, staged by Kevin Newbury, and a co-production with San Francisco Opera of The Magic Flute designed by artist Jun Kaneko. Deborah’s first year has been a “getting to know you” period as she acquaints herself with the Lyric’s board, staff and patrons. Her goal, she says, is to fully represent the 400-year history of opera while always striving for “the perfect production.” “You’re never going to hit it, but you keep reaching.” During a recent chat at the Opera Center she spoke about the company, Kansas City, opera in our lives and culture, and her dreams for the promising company whose reins she has so gamely taken up.

Paul: What has been involved in getting oriented to this new situation (new life, new community, new company)?

Deborah: Most of that is still a work in progress. My house in Louisville has finally been sold. I love the (Country Club) Plaza as a place to live, because when you’re in the theater eight nights in a row until 11:30 p.m., it’s really nice to be close. But that’s still a work in progress too. As for the company, it’s interesting, because we had a senior staff meeting this morning and we were talking about some of the process we are going through here – in terms of creating goals, organizational aims. And we could not help but reflect on how much change there has been here in one year.

How about more specifically, in terms of getting oriented to the KC arts scene itself – and to the company, the board?

It takes a long time to get to know people. So just over this summer I am trying to meet one-on-one with a lot of Board members – people I perhaps served in committee meetings with or had conversations with before, but haven’t got to know. I’ve had a good time and a lot of conversations with Board members: It gives me time to let them know my vision and what I see for the company and how we move forward, and to share some of my hopes and dreams for what we could become.

The Lyric has a new Board chair as of this July, Kenneth Hager. What’s he like?

He’s very thoughtful. He’s very interested in opera: He has two children who are working their way into having careers in this field. He has a son who was recently on the national tour of Beauty and the Beast, and he has a daughter and son-in-law who spend a lot of time on the East Coast auditioning for opera companies. So he has a great connection to opera, and I think that’s what sparked his interest in the company in the first place.

What has changed this year, in terms of how the Lyric fits into the whole arts scene in KC?

You know I came in at a very propitious time, because the company had just moved into a new performing arts space, and I came on July 1^st (2012) and on July 5^th we moved into this new Opera Center. So that was a whole new platform on which to build what I hope will be a truly great regional opera company. It’s been a really good one, but I’d like to see us be really great. … I’d like our programs to be distinguished and known nationally.

Over the year we’ve gotten to know this Opera Center, and we’ve gotten to know what kinds of activities we can put together for the future. … And just as it takes time to build relationships with your Board members, it’s taken time for the staff to adjust to a new leader, after a previous tenure of some 25 years. We have a different corporate culture. I have a different personality, a different style, and we’re having different conversations.

Plus it all happened at once: physical transformation of the Opera Center, new personnel, a new theater – a sort of triple whammy. What’s different about your managerial style, if you could characterize that?

I truly have so much enthusiasm and passion and love for opera, and I have unbridled aspirations for the company. I think that the company has really grown, and I look to compare ourselves with other regional opera companies of our level – and those above us! Because … I would be happy if someone said we overachieve in this company. … We’re doing a couple of things that have not necessarily been done before: I’m pushing for us to plan on a three-year basis, and I’m pushing to complete casting much earlier. If we look at the brochure for this year (2013-14), what you see is almost the entire, complete casting. That’s a little different. It’s a faster time-table, and I hope that in this upcoming season our audience will be cognizant of a consistently high level of casting. Because we were on a faster turntable, we were able to go after all kinds of artists – not just singers but directors and designers who are distinguished in the field. It’s sort of supply and demand: There are “x” number of singers that everyone wants to hire. The earlier you ask, the more likely you are of getting them. … Relative to prior seasons we cast earlier, so we were able to get people that we wanted. And I’m going to lead the charge to continue to do that, so that we are casting already for 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Another thing that struck me about the season – obviously there are some great singers on the roster, Joyce DiDonato and Kelly Kaduce and others – but also that the directors are new. With the exception of Linda Brovsky, if I’m not mistaken, all are here for the first time. Tell us a little about the directors, and about the productions.

Well I inherited the wonderful reality of Joyce DiDonato, who had been asked several years ago what she wanted to do – and (Capulets and Montagues) is the show that she chose. This is an interesting show because it’s probably not on anybody’s Top 10 list: It’s a beautiful show but it just doesn’t have that sort of familiarity. And when I realized we were doing it I said okay, we are going to build a production that is worthy of Joyce. We are going to surround her by artists at her level, and we are going to make this the finest Capulets and Montagues we can make. And we are doing it.

Kevin (Newbury) is probably one of the hottest directors around, and … luckily he was still available. He’s young, singers like him, and this is an interesting piece. It’s a bel canto piece, it’s not heavily theatrical. It’s not Romeo and Juliet, it’s not the Shakespeare. It’s a small sliver of it: There’s no balcony scene. It’s the kind of piece that really needs some conceptual thinking. And knowing Kevin’s work I thought he was the best one for the job.

So then we go on The Magic Flute. This was a production that was led by San Francisco Opera, and we came on as a co-producer while it was still in the works. I actually went and saw the production in San Francisco and signed the contract right around the time of its first performance. … Of course I know Jun Kaneko’s work, and (director) Harry Silverstein was the originator of the work with Jun in San Francisco, so that’s why we went with him.

With Boheme we were not out to do anything controversial or concept-heavy. Linda is a great director.  … She and I have in many ways grown up in the business together, and I have great respect for her. And for Fledermaus … I worked with Tomer Zvulun first when I was with Kentucky Opera, when he was an assistant director. He’s always been highly creative, he’s working all over the country, and he’s recently become the General Director of Atlanta Opera. He has a fresh set of eyes.

What about the season coming up would you say reflects your artistic values?

I think the casting is a reflection of my artistic values. When I talk about casting I’m also talking about choices of directors and designers. … But if have had the most beautiful scenery in the world, and you don’t have the cast that can deliver the musical goods, you’ve got nothing. A beautiful physical environment for an opera is what you want, because it helps tell the story, but at the end of the day this is a musical art form, and it has to be sung exquisitely. So the casting to me is very, very important.

I would probably say that the first half of the season represents the kind of potential that we have here. … Both shows will be different from what our audiences have seen, different in a good way, but the last two shows also represent what will forever be part of our texture – that is, some traditional operas beautifully sung and staged. You have to make a decision when you build a production what’s the best way to tell the story. I’m not a fan of Bohème on Mars.

I could do Mars. Anything new, really.  

That’s just the point. If you’ve seen Bohème 20 times, you probably have a thirst for something unusual. But I think that when you do what we do here, you have to be careful. Both Ward and I have been in this business for a long time, and our desire to see something in a new way may not be reflective of our audience’s desire to see something in a new way. And that’s who we serve, ultimately.

And with a piece that well-known you have to figure in the “first-timers” factor. It’s a very big factor. Those audience members deserve to see something that looks like an opera, for their first time out.

Right. You know it’s interesting: There are people who were concerned about the Kaneko Magic Flute, having not seen any of it, thinking that the artistic concept will overwhelm the show. And before I saw I had a similar concern, but that’s not the case. (The visuals) just act like regular scenery, it’s just very colorful and beautiful and whimsical.

A lot of people have looked at this season and said, Wow, Bohème is the most recent opera on the schedule, and it was written in ’96 – but 1896. What do you say to the naysayers who ask, Hey, didn’t something happen in opera in the 20^th century, not to mention the 21^st?

Well I’d say, you’d better stick around for the next year, because we’re going to have something from the 21^st century. You know, one of my goals is to represent the more than 400 years of opera literature. I’d like to see us do more early music, more Baroque opera. … And of course 20^th and 21^st century opera. So … yes, it will be part of our organizational principles to include contemporary music going forward, but we’re doing it carefully.

A press release I received recently declared this past season a critical and financial success, with 92 percent of seats were filled – though I didn’t know how that compared to previous seasons.

Since the company moved to the Kauffman it increased its level of attendees, and I think that we probably did a little better last season than the season before. Which is interesting, because frequently when you move into a new PAC there’s an initial flurry of activity and then you start to see a dropoff. So we’re doing better than a lot of our opera peers who have moved to new halls. And I do think we have exceptional partnerships with the Kauffman Foundation and the Kauffman Center. That’s an unabashed plug: Not many of our peers have that gift. It’s a great partnership.

We’re looking to do a good blend of exciting works that are … worthy of our audience. Big works. Take a big Verdi work that maybe isn’t done that much, say, but it’s a great work. So what we have to do is try to find other partners to do it with, and that takes time. So (to summarize) we’re looking at (1) more co-productions, (2) new productions of classic works, (3) recently premiered works … subsequent productions of recently premiered works. And the next chapter (4) is being a co-commissioner on a brand-new work.

We’re also starting to incorporate works that represent different styles, different voices. I can’t tell you when the last time this company did a Spanish opera – an opera written in Spanish. And I can’t tell you when this company did an opera written in Czech.

I’ve been plugging that for years. Janáček.

Thank you! Well, you have found a happy home. So we’re pushing the walls down, opening things up, and that’s where we’re going.

What are some areas of newer opera that excite you, that you’re passionate about? What do you look for in a successful new opera?

To me opera is a lyrical art form, and I tend to prefer tonal music. I prefer … for the lyricism to be foremost to telling the story – for there to be a depth throughout the score. I really want the music to be an integral part of what’s happening, not incidental to a story that’s unfolding. I think that we’re all looking for a “voice.” When I say “we” I mean people who are looking to commission, to find a new piece. We’ve really run the gamut from, say 1950, on: You had a lot of atonal academic music, and then you’ve got music that doesn’t seem central to the story. It’s almost like “scored” music, like film music. It’s not organic to the work. What I’m looking for is a great story that lets music tell the story.

Last year at this time we talked about the place of opera not only in the arts but in the arts scene in Kansas City. Have you been able to bring to the Lyric Opera some of the elements of success that you brought to the companies you ran in Kentucky and New Jersey?

Well as I said, this has been a year of everybody getting to know each other. But I am tremendously excited about the potential. When I went to the UMKC Conservatory press conference about the downtown facility, I was so pleased to hear a conversation about artistic excellence! And I was also pleased to read Michael Kaiser’s blog post in The Huffington Post about Kansas City. … Because I do believe that there is an environment here and an ecology that is really poised to make this city excel as an arts center. I think that the table’s been set, and we have the proper food, and we have to challenge each other to be as good as we can be.

Why do you think opera has done so well – regionally, nationally, worldwide really – at a time when other types of classical music have struggled?

People who go to the opera are passionate about opera, because the stimulation is so intense, across different disciplines. And there’s so much to get excited about. It’s our job to become better marketers. You know, if you hate opera you hate opera, you’re not going to come. Our question is, do you look like other people who love opera? And if you do, would you be willing to come in and give it a try? So it’s our job to figure out how to get ahold of them, and then give them a product that is relevant to them today. In whatever way that may be.  

How do you reach out to those folks, especially young people, for whom the iPhone is their whole world? “Why do I need live music, when I have any number of platforms with which I can experience music, opera even?”

Well opera sounds different and it looks different if it’s live. And there’s also some sort of communal experience that you get sitting next to people in a theater, for a live performance.

But how do you convince a 21-year-old of that?

What we’re doing is rebuilding our website and putting in mobile platforms and working with an intern from UMKC to start doing films and videography that we can post in electronic media. People can come and sample what we’re doing. So we’re using the tools that our future audience is going to use to communicate with them. We still have to have a great product. But we are going where they are going.

I love my job because I get to produce opera. I get to do artistic work but I also get to use the other part of my brain. You get up every morning and you do this because you’re always looking for the opportunity to create the perfect production. The next one, you’re going to hit it. Well, this one wasn’t quite right, the next one. It’s the constant reaching that’s the artist part of me – reaching to make it right. You’re never going to hit it, but you keep reaching.

Season tickets for the Lyric’s 2013-14 season are available at 816-471-7344 or at kcopera.org.

Reach the author at phorsley@sbcglobal.net or on Facebook (paul.horsley.501).