Sept. 21-29: Grammy-winning conductor Michael Christie debuts with Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Grammy-winning Conductor Michael Christie

Makes Lyric Opera of Kansas City Debut Leading Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio

Saturday, September 21, 2019 | 7:30 PM
Wednesday, September 25, 2019 | 7:30 PM
Friday, September 27, 2019 | 7:30 PM
Sunday, September 29, 2019 | 2:00 PM

Muriel Kauffman Theatre | Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts | 1601 Broadway Blvd | Kansas City, MO

 Tickets ($35 – $195): www.kcopera.org

“Conductor Michael Christie melds fire and ice.” – Star Tribune

 www.michaelchristieonline.com

Kansas City, MO — Grammy-winning conductor Michael Christie makes his debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City leading Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway Blvd) with performances on September 21, 25, 27, and 29, 2019. Of Michael Christie’s recent mainstage debut leading Lyric Opera of Chicago’s acclaimed production of Verdi’s LaTraviata, the Chicago Tribune wrote that Christie, “drew poetic commentary from the Lyric Opera Orchestra,” while the Chicago Sun-Timesreported, “He encouraged the singers to indulge in their rattled characters’ most intimate reflections without losing grip of the music’s exciting forward motion.”

Initially designed as a comedic Turkish opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio is a work full of emotional depth, and the first of Mozart’s great masterpieces. The opera returns in a new-to-Kansas City production, set in 1930s Hollywood with a stellar cast. “I’m thrilled to be working with colleagues new and old on this unique take on Mozart’s intensely emotional The Abduction from the Seraglio. I’ve attended many performances in Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s opera house and know all will enjoy the vocal and instrumental splendor.”

The great screwball comedies such as It Happened One Night owe much to Mozart and his librettist Gottlieb Stephanie. While the feisty heroines Konstanze and Blonde endure forced labor in the Pasha’s swanky nightclub, their heros Belmonte and Pedrillo hatch an elaborate plan to rescue them. Hilarity ensues, including intricate ruses and misplaced affection. The quartet is captured during escape and sentenced to death – but the Pasha surprises everyone in the heartwarming finale.

The cast stars Kathryn Lewek as Konstanze; Rachele Gilmore as Blonde; Ben Bliss as Belmonte; Matt Boehler as Osmin; and Joseph Leppek (Lyric Opera Resident Artist) as Pedrillo.

Joining conductor Michael Christie on the creative team is director Alison Moritz; set designer Steven C. Kemp; costume designer Mary Traylor; lighting designer Anshuman Bhatia; wig & makeup designer David Zimmerman; and chorus master Piotr Wisniewski. 

About Michael Christie: Grammy award-winning conductor Michael Christie is a thoughtfully innovative conductor, equally at home in the symphonic and opera worlds, who is focused on making the audience experience at his performances entertaining, enlightening, and enriching. He is the newly appointed Music Director of the New West Symphony, serving the greater Los Angeles area in Thousand Oaks and Oxnard, California. The New York Times reports, “Michael Christie is a director open to adventure and challenge,” and the Cincinnati Enquirerdeclares, “If Michael Christie represents the future of music in this country, the future looks promising indeed.” 

Christie won a 2019 Grammy Award (Best Opera Recording) for the world premiere recording of Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobswith The Santa Fe Opera (PENTATONE). In 2017, he led the world premiere performances at The Santa Fe Opera, “with suave assurance” (San Francisco Chronicle), with “precision and pizzazz” (Santa Fe New Mexican), and “preside[d] over an expertly executed performance” (The Financial Times). 

Christie was featured in Opera News in August 2012 as one of 25 people believed to “break out and become major forces in the field in the coming decade.” At Minnesota Opera, Christie led 24 productions over eight years, six seasons as its first-ever Music Director (2012-2018). 2019-2020 is Christie’s first full season as Music Director of the New West Symphony, and he will lead operas with Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Deeply committed to bringing new works to life, Michael Christie has championed commissions by leading and emerging composers alike, including Mark Adamo, Mason Bates, Michael Daugherty, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Grey, Daron Hagen, Huang Ruo, Matthew Hindson, Marjan Mozetich, Stephen Paulus, Kevin Puts, and more. In 2018, he led the world premiere of An American Soldier, a two-act opera by Huang Ruo, with Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The New York Times reported, “Both the subtle colorings and pummeling intensity came through in the compelling performance the conductor Michael Christie drew from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.”

Christie’s conducting career, spanning more than 20 years, has included serving as Music Director of the Phoenix Symphony (2005-2013) and Brooklyn Philharmonic (2005-2010), and as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Orchestra (2001-2004) in Australia, as well as guest appearances leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Symphonies of Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Oregon, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Santa Rosa. Christie’s many European engagements have included leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Orchestre National de Lille, Swedish and Netherlands Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, NDR Hannover Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. In addition, Christie enjoys a strong profile in Australia, where he has conducted the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, Opera Queensland, and the Western Australian Symphony in Perth.

Michael Christie first came to international attention in 1995 when he was awarded a special prize for “Outstanding Potential” at the First International Sibelius Conductors’ Competition in Helsinki. Following the competition, he was invited to become an apprentice conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he subsequently worked with Daniel Barenboim as well as at the Berlin State Opera during the 1996-1997 season. Christie graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music with a bachelor's degree in trumpet performance. Christie lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Alexis, a physician, and their two children. 

For more information, visit www.michaelchristieonline.com. 

About Lyric Opera of Kansas City: Located in the heart of Kansas City’s Crossroads community, Lyric Opera creates transformational opera experiences through our performances and through our outreach and education initiatives. We also aim to develop talent, repertoire, programs and productions that bring the best of Lyric Opera of Kansas City to the world.

Founded in 1958, the Lyric Opera brings high quality live operatic performances to the people of the Kansas City area and five-state region at the state-of-the-art Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Repertoire choices encompass original language performances of standard repertory as well as contemporary and American operas, including a 2015 production of the Pulitzer-prize winning Silent Night.  The Company seeks to mount productions that enrich the community it serves, as well as reflect the highest artistic standards of the profession. Lyric Opera offers innovative programs designed to further music and arts education both in schools and in the community. These programs as well as its innovative productions of classic and contemporary operas make Lyric Opera of Kansas City indispensable to the community.