opera

Octavia Butler's novel Parable of the Sower — depicting a dystopian U.S. in 2024 — was published 30 years ago. Toshi Reagon's new musical retelling explores the web of past, present and future.

Whether you've been listening to opera for years or have never heard of 'The Marriage of Figaro,' here's your guide to the Kansas City organizations reinventing and sharing opera in creative ways.

The celebrated singer, who led an illustrious, jet-setting career, broke the color barrier as the first Black artist to perform at Germany's Bayreuth Festival.

A Jean-Philippe Rameau opera, left unfinished at time of his death and recently completed by a musicologist, gets its premiere 280 years later, with extravagant costumes.

Opera Ebony was formed when opportunities for Black singers were few and far between. The company celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, but may not survive its 81-year-old founder.

With their "Voices of the Met" concert, Kansas City's Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance will feature singers with local ties, who regularly perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. MAPAA Co-founder Jesse Henkensiefken and Met soprano Lindsay Ohse speak with Classical KC's Christy L'Esperance about this musical reunion. We'll hear works by Jules Massenet, Sergei Taneyev, Jacques Offenbach and even a little Mozart on ukulele.

The five-time Grammy winner has mounted two operas at the Metropolitan Opera, which until 2021 had never staged a work by a Black composer. Hear him discuss the future of opera with Lara Downes.

It can be daunting for children approaching a classical concert or opera for the first time. Lyric Opera of Kansas City's newest production — 'Listen, Wilhemina!' — aims to make kids feel at home in the audience.

Terence Blanchard made history last season when his opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones was the first work by a Black composer staged by the Metropolitan Opera. And the Met has asked for more.

The composer of Breaking the Waves speaks candidly about equity in her field, the importance of role models and the unglamorous side of writing music every day.

The PROTOTYPE festival, now in its 10th year, presents new operas and music-theater works in smaller settings. "We were trying to create a black box opera movement," says co-founder Beth Morrison.

After a century, a collection of Japanese antiques has made its way from Kansas City back to a Christian girl’s school in Yokohama, Japan. Plus: Kansas native and opera star Joyce DiDonato is up for her fourth Grammy Award.