Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s world-premiere cast recording of The Shining has an axe to grind

Photo by Ken Howard for Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Last year, Kansas City got a chance to witness the spectacle and scale of a new opera, based on Stephen King’s novel The Shining. Sharing a title with the book, the show adapts the directly from the 1977 horror novel, pulling narratives and character arcs that divert (at points sharply) from the 1980 Kubrick film.

While English language operas—and modern operas in general—have a difficult time finding footing with the medium’s traditional audience, this sprawling, epic tale of tortured psychological trauma and addiction/abuse cycles made a horrifying debut on stage at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

For those in attendance last year for the limited run of three shows, there was a surprise waiting right at the start of the show: an announcement that these performances were being recorded. Yes, the KC show was captured to serve as the official, original, worldwide debut cast recording of the opera—which had seen several productions since 2016.

Photo by Ken Howard for Minnesota Opera

Debut cast recordings of a show are, obviously, a huge deal. Most musicals and operas will only get one official release, and for Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s opera The Shining this will forever belong to a performance (and audience) in KC. We’ve yet to track down any other musical or opera to have its original cast recording captured in this region—making this release an impressive feather in our city’s cap on the international arts stage. Even for those who have never seen an opera, this is the kind of thing we should all have a chance to feel civic pride around.

Also marking the singular nature of this release, it’s wild to hear a full show recording for a new work taken from a live recording. Everything that made this final release was taken from the stage at Kauffman. The opening seconds of the album include the sound of a car’s engine chugging along, as the family vehicle on stage pulls up to the Overlook Hotel. It’s almost distractingly outside-of-the-box to have a show documented with all the sound effects and a live audience included, especially in the opera space. But again: this all serves to further cement this record’s place in KC history.

Photo by Ken Howard for Lyric Opera of Kansas City

The all-star cast included Edward Parks and Kelly Kaduce. Making his Lyric Opera of Kansas City debut, Gerard Schwarz, the internationally renowned (14 GRAMMY Awards and eight Emmy Awards) American conductor, conducted the Kansas City Symphony. Baritone Aubrey Allicock, baritone Malcolm MacKenzie, and tenor Roger Honeywell also made their Lyric Opera debuts.

The digital recording is available for streaming on Apple Music, Apple Classical, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music. Physical copies, in an elaborately designed clamshell with bonus content, are for sale in the Kauffman Center Box Office.

Later in the summer, check the pages of The Pitch for a bigger in-depth deep-dive into the making of the opera, the recording, and its legacy featuring interviews with those who made it happen. For now, check out the album streaming here.

Photo by Ken Howard for Minnesota Opera