Kansas City Lyric Opera Guild

Welcome to the Guild:
The Guild is a social and networking group of men and women who attend the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and enjoy the camaraderie of others who share their interest in Opera. If you love opera, are new to opera, want to know more about opera - particularly those performed by the Lyric Opera - then the Guild is the place for you.

Throughout the year we entertain ourselves and others by getting up close and personal with the artists and, for the out-of-town artists, helping them become acquainted with Kansas City. We also take trips together, share opera stories, learn about current events in the world of opera and generally support the Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

We also have a junior division, The Bohemians, for young professionals age 21 to 40. They have their own special events to enliven their opera experiences.

Once a member you will be welcomed to the private Guild Room before each performance and during intermission for conversation with Guild members and light refreshments. You will also enjoy the many Guild events, mostly free. Two of the most popular are the cast rehearsal suppers and the cast luncheons. These provide members the opportunity to interact with the cast of each opera. Too, our outreach programs include providing in-depth information about each opera at afternoon or evening meetings. And lastly, we continuously seek to help the Company, both financially and through our trips and the opera boutique.

The Guild will enhance your opera experience, so if you believe the Guild is for you, join us. Return a completed Membership Form or for more information contact Virginia Long at vlong2@kc.rr.com. Click here for the membership form.

Guild Membership Levels:
$50 Individual
$75 Family
$125 Donor
$250 Patron
$500 Super Patron

Guild Fundraising:
The Guild sponsors frequent trips to other cities and nations to give opera fans access to the best of opera and musical performances around the world. For more information on Guild Trips click here for the latest trip information.

The Guild operates the Guild Boutique at all Lyric Opera performances. The Boutique offers a wide variety of opera themed gifts and is staffed by members of the Lyric Opera Guild.

Guild Outreach Programs:
The Guild-sponsored free Opera Previews are presented by the Lyric Opera Guild beginning one hour before curtain in the theatre. The previews are entertaining and offer a wealth of background about the composer, context and history of the opera.

The Guild sponsors At Ease with Opera, an award-winning program featuring speakers who appear at local venues in four series of presentations a year. The programs often revolve around a particular upcoming production, but may also deal with a general topic in the field of opera. For information about future programs, visit our events calendar page.

The Guild sponsors Lyrical Notes, a quarterly newsletter which also serves as Company newsletter.

The Guild sponsors a hospitality program for visiting artists.

The Guild has created an opera book and video lending library containing dozens of titles, available at no cost to Guild members.

The Guild sponsors a program to keep Guild members updated on advocacy efforts on both the state and national levels. The Lyric Opera Guild is a member of, and has several of its members serving on the board of directors of, an international opera volunteers association called Opera Volunteers International. For information about this organization and the services it provides to opera volunteers everywhere, please click here.

Guild Members Don Dagenais and Morton Creditor wrote Fifty Years of Lyric Opera: A Great First Act to commemorate Company's 50th Anniversary Season in 2007-2008. Request a copy by contacting us.

The Guild sponsors a Speakers Bureau, available for group programs throughout the year. Entertaining programs with musical excerpts are tailored to the individual organization, and can address individual operas the Lyric Opera is performing, an overview of opera or overview of the Company or the upcoming season. Contact us to book a Speakers Bureau presentation.

Guild Trips

2011-2012 Guild Trips
The major opera companies have now published their schedules for next season, and your Trips Committee has pored over them carefully to try to put together the very best selection of trips for you. We think all of them are winners! Here are the trips we plan to take...you will get further notification of them later, but we wanted you to be able to plan your calendar. View the 2011-2012 Lyric Opera Guild Trips schedule.

If you would like to receive Guild trips mailings, click here for the Guild's mailing on tours currently being booked.