2025-26 season will mark a return to pre-pandemic days for Lyric Opera of Kansas City
For the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the 2025-26 season finally will mark a full recovery from the pandemic.
“This is the year we’re moving back to four full productions,” Lyric Opera general director and CEO Deborah Sandler Kemper said.
Not only that, but “Porgy and Bess” will make its Lyric Opera premiere after it was canceled in November 2020 because of COVID-19. Also on tap for its 68th season, which the opera announced Friday, March 7, are “Cinderella,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Of Mice and Men.”
After its schedule was decimated by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the opera offered three productions and a semi-staged concert each of the past three seasons. “Since COVID ... we have all been dealing with financial stress, and we had to be mindful of our resources and we had to make our programming appropriate to those resources,” Sandler Kemper said.
The four full productions of 2025-26 will cover the spectrum from comedy (“Cinderella”) to tragedy (“Madama Butterfly”) followed by two American works to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
“We try to balance what we produce so that we offer a good blend,” Sandler Kemper said. “We have to figure out what is a good mixture of pieces that the audience will enjoy, that we believe we can do well, that we can afford and that we haven’t done in the last couple of years.”
“Porgy and Bess,” which portrays the struggles of the Black residents of Catfish Row, South Carolina, has been controversial since it premiered in 1935. Many call it “The Great American Opera,” but critics say it perpetuates degrading stereotypes and point out that the most-performed opera about the Black experience was created by an all-white team (George and Ira Gershwin and Dubose Heyward).
The Gershwin estate requires that the cast consist of all Black performers, and Sandler Kemper said educational programs will complement the performances of “Porgy and Bess.”
“We’re going to be doing a lot of talking about it,” she said.
This will be the Lyric Opera’s 11th production of the Italian masterpiece “Madama Butterfly,” one of the world’s most-performed operas, dating from 1960 to 2018.
The Lyric Opera last staged “Cinderella” — Giacomo Rossini’s version of the fairytale, not Rodgers and Hammerstein’s — in 2004.
“It’s a brand-new production that we are designing and building from scratch with new costumes,” Sandler Kemper said. “I think it will take its place around North America. Other companies will want to use it. It’s going to be a fantastically fun production.”
“Of Mice and Men,” co-produced by the Houston Grand Opera and Florida State University, also will be a new production.
Lyric Opera of Kansas City 2025-26 season
Where: All performances will be in Muriel Kauffman Theatre at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Tickets: Subscription renewal packets will be mailed in early April; individual tickets will go on sale in mid-July.
Information: kcopera.org
“Cinderella”
When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 27 and Oct. 3, 2 p.m. Oct. 5
What: This dramatic comedy version of the classic fairytale tells the love story of the downtrodden Cenerentola and the disguised Prince Ramiro.
“Madama Butterfly”
When: 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14-15, 2 p.m. Nov. 16
What: Giacomo Puccini’s tragic tale of a Japanese girl who falls in love with American naval officer has moved audiences since premiering at La Scala in 1904.
“Porgy and Bess”
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 and March 6, 2 p.m. March 8
What: Featuring “Summertime” and “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” George Gershwin’s masterpiece offers a fusion of opera, jazz and Broadway music.
“Of Mice and Men”
When: 7:30 p.m. May 1-2, 2 p.m. May 3, 2026
What: Based on John Steinbeck’s novella, this 1970 opera from composer and librettist Carlisle Floyd follows the Depression-era struggles of migrant farm workers seeking the American dream.
