Nearly 50 music students from Central Methodist University had the opportunity to attend a live opera performance at the Lyric Opera in Kansas City on March 4.
The trip was underwritten by CMU alumnus Earl Bates (CMU Class of ’61) and his wife, Sunny, of Bigfork, Mont. The students boarded a charter bus and rode to Kansas City, stopping first at the Frost Production Building, the Lyric rehearsal facility, where they toured the scene shop and costume and prop storage areas.
They were gratified to be able to meet the opera composer, Jake Heggie, who composed the opera Dead Man Walking from the book of the same name. They were able to ask him a plethora of questions about the opera and took photographs with him.
Before the opera itself, the group went to the Grünauer Authentic Austrian Cuisine restaurant. At the Lyric, they attended a pre-performance talk before watching the opera about a nun who tries to help a murderer and rapist find peace by confessing his crimes to himself and others before his execution.
This is the second year the Bateses have sponsored a trip to see a live professional opera production for members of the Swinney Conservatory of Music.
