DIVA

By far and away the one thing that has taken up the majority of my time (and a bit of my sanity) has been this latest opera, "The Merry Widow" in Kansas City. Now, mind you, I'm just a chorus member. But staging took 3 weeks in the rehearsal hall. About a week per act. And then the final week was spent polishing the show on the stage.

And for some reason, I get the impression from folks who I talk with that they put the Lyric Opera of Kansas City on par with small town local theatre production. And bless those small town theatre houses (they're where I got my start), putting it mildly, they pale in comparison to what the Lyric Opera puts on.

I suppose that since it's not the Met in New York or the Lyric in Chicago, or some other huge city opera like Dallas, Huston, or L.A. that most folks would dismiss Kansas City as small town. And for the opera snobs out there who are used to the "A" house productions, they might rightly so.

Just like there are "A" list celebrities, there are "A" list opera companies (mentioned above.) And in fact, opera houses openly admit their status on this list. "A" houses are those with HUGE budgets and who can get in the biggest name singers. "B" houses have smaller budgets, but can pack a punch. "C" houses are much closer to the small town stuff you're thinking.

Kansas City is a B house with a $4 million budget, owns it's own theatre, (the fabulous 1927 Lyric Theatre in Kansas city) with a professional in-house chorus (yup, I get paid pretty well. It has to be worth my while to drive a hour), uses the KC symphony in the pit, is a union house (I have to pay those damn union dues to AGMA) and occasionally gets big names in.
The average principal singer at the Lyric gets around $6000 PER PERFORMANCE. So that means that the leading lady in this show is making around $30,000 for a months work. New York Met pays around $20,000 PER PERFORMANCE.

So there. Not small town opera.

Here's a couple pics from the production. You can see me in a white suit in the picture of the lady in the blue dress. I'm fuzzy, but I'm there. Behind her to her right.

And here's the review in the KC paper.