KCMETROPOLIS.org
Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Don Giovanni
Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 30 at 8:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 2 at 2:00 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-471-7344 or online at www.kcopera.org

The Lyric Opera continues its performances of Mozart's remarkable classic Don Giovanni this week on Wednesday and Friday evenings and concluding with a Sunday matinee. 

Long considered to be a pathbreaking work of the genre, Don Giovanni remains as popular with audiences as it is with musicologists and music historians.   The portrayals of the notorious womanizer Don Juan, along with his humorous sidekick Leporello and the Don's victims Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, are among the most memorable in all of opera.

Tip: Check out Brenda Harris in the role of Donna Anna if you want a preview of one of the Lyric Opera's works for next season.  She will be singing the title role in Bellini's Norma, never performed at the Lyric Opera, but due at the Lyric Theatre next November.

Read the preview on KCMetropolis here.



UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Ensemble
Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call  816-235-6222 or online at www.conservatory.umkc.edu

Joseph Parisi leads the UMKC Conservatory Wind Ensemble in its final concert of the season on Wednesday evening.  This ensemble, always one of the most pleasurable of the talented Conservatory student ensembles, will perform a variety of music for its season finale, including music of several rarely performed composers.

The most recognizable name on the program is Paul Hindemith, whose Symphony for Band in B-flat Major will be featured.  The Ensemble will also perform the world premiere of Eosphorus by former Conservatory student Derek Jenkins, and Finish Line by Cindy McTee, which was inspired by several paintings of Futurist artist Giacomo Balla, suggesting the transformation of landscape by the passage of a speeding automobile.

The program also includes Sinfonia Carolinian by Walter Hartley.



Kansas City Chamber Orchestra
Barber's Adagio for Strings and World Premiere
Thursday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Old Mission United Methodist Church
Shawnee Mission Parkway at Mission Road, Fairway, KS
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or line at www.kcchamberorchestra.org

One of the best-loved pieces of American orchestral music is the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber.  The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra is using it to headline its final concert of the season on Thursday night.  The piece began its life as the second movement of Barber's String Quartet No. 1 composed in 1936, but almost immediately became popular as a stand-alone orchestral number, thanks to the endorsement of conductor Arturo Toscanini who performed and then recorded it a couple of years later.  The number was also transcribed by the composer for an eight-voice choir as an Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). 

Adagio for Strings has been played on many occasions, including the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco, in honor of the victims of the September 11 attacks, the opening of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and most recently at the funeral for those who perished in the recent plane crash which took the lives of the Polish president and other leaders.

Also featured on the program is the world premiere of The Twelve Kisses, a work specially commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra from composer Forrest Pierce, a native of the American northwest and currently a member of the University of Kansas faculty.  His piece sets portions of the passionate Biblical love poem The Song of Solomon.  Kansas City Chorale soprano Sarah Tannehill is the featured soloist, and her lovely floating high tones should be a pleasure to hear.

The orchestra will also play Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony, one of the most accessible compositions of the late British master, which he wrote at the age of 20 and utilized as the launching pad for his international career.

Fine Arts Chorale
Ancient Voices
Friday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Mission Road Community of Christ Church
7842 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS
And
Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral
415 West 13^th Street, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.fineartschoralekc.org

The Fine Arts Chorale concludes its 37^th season, the 18^th under the director of artistic director and conductor Terri Teal, with a concert of works by contemporary composers "evoking the wisdom and words of the past and of spirit voices."

A portion of the concert features poetry and music inspired by Native Americans who, the concert program notes point out, "lived in harmony with the earth and environment long before the modern-day green movement." The repertoire includes Past Life Melodies by Sarah Hopkins, We Are the Stars by J. Granville Eakin III, Sky Loom by Kansas City composer Jean Belmont, and Chant of the Last Blackfoot by Debra Lynn.



Harriman Jewell Series
Moscow Festival Ballet in Coppelia
Saturday, May 1, at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12^th and Central Streets, Downtown Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 815-415-5025 or online at www.harriman-jewell.org

The Moscow Festival Ballet makes a return appearance on the Harriman Jewell Series this weekend, in a production of Delibes' classic ballet Coppelia, based upon one of the fanciful stories of the German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann.  The company has previous performed Cinderella and Don Quixote for the Harriman Jewell Series.

The Moscow Festival Ballet was founded in 1989 when Sergei Radchenko, a longtime principal dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet, founded a company which would bring together the highest classical elements of the great Bolshoi and Kirov Ballet companies in an independent new company within the framework of Russian classic ballet.

Attracting leading dancers from across the Russias, Radchenko has created new productions of timeless classics.  Coppelia is just such a classic.



Performing Arts Series at JCCC
Brentano String Quartet
Saturday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m.
Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center
12345 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS
For tickets call 913-469-4445, or online at www.jcc.edu/TheSeries

The Brentano String Quartet, which has often appeared in Kansas City with The Friends of Chamber Music, appears again in town this weekend, this time under the sponsorship of the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College.

Long a favorite of string quartet aficionados, the Brentano is known for its elegant performances of the quartet repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the modern.  The resident string quartet at Princeton University, the Brentano is made up of four graduates of the Juilliard School of Music, each an impressive musician in his or her own right: violinists Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, violist Misha Amory and cellist Nina Maria Lee.

For this concert, the Brentano String Quartet will be joined by clarinetist Charles Neidich to perform the Brahms Clarinet Quintet. The quartet will also perform Schubert's G Major Quartet.  A pre-concert lecture will be given at 7:00 p.m. by Dr. Paul Laird, musicologist at the University of Kansas.



NewEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Regenerations
Saturday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m.
All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church
4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri
For tickets call 816-235-6222, or online at www.tickets.cto.umkc.edu/

The music of UMKC Conservatory of Music professor James Mobberly has been featured in several concerts by local groups this spring, and the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble becomes the latest to do so this weekend.  On Saturday night the contemporary music group will dedicate a concert to Mobberly and "the music that inspired him." 

The centerpiece of the concert is Mobberley's intricate Two Studies in Perpetual Motion.  Also, the group will perform Roger Hannay's Oh, Friends! And Donald Erb's Three Poems, a composition for violin and piano.  The Requiem of Lansing McLoskey, winner of the first annual newEar Composers' Competition, will be performed, as will a work by Mobberley student Mike McFerron, Torrid Mix for piano and tape. featuring DJ Jazzy King and Master L.T.

A pre-concert informance will be held at 7:15 p.m. moderated by David McIntire with Mobberley, McFerron and McLoskey.

By Don Dagenais

City Classics Music and Dance Columnist; Classical Contributor

A lifelong classical music fan, Don Dagenais is a frequent preview speaker for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and has taught classical music and opera courses at several Kansas City venues. He has served on the boards of directors of a number of performing arts organizations including the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Lyric Opera Guild, UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, Opera Volunteers International, the Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony, Octarium, and the Friends of the Symphony.  He has been the past president of most of these organizations and is current the president of the Friends of the Symphony. 

Dagenais co-authored a history of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, published on the occasion of its 50th anniversary (2007) and has written books on the histories of both the Lyric Opera Guild and Opera Volunteers International, as well as an introductory book for opera novices (Your Passport to the Opera).  He has received several local and national awards for outstanding volunteer work for the arts, including a lifetime achievement award from The Coterie Theatre in 2000, the Kansas City Musical Club's annual award in 2001, a Partners in Excellence Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2002, a Bravo Award from Opera Volunteers International in 2004 and a community service award from the Daughter of the American Revolution in 2008 honoring him for his community service to the arts.

In addition to his music interests, Don is president of the board of directors for the Metropolitan Ensemble Theater and has served on the boards of The Coterie Theatre and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival, serving as president of each organization.  He publishes newsletters for seven arts organizations.  When not involved in the performing arts, Don is a senior real estate attorney with Lathrop & Gage LLP in Kansas City, Missouri, where he has practiced law since 1976 after graduating from the Cornell Law School.