A ‘Shining’ moment for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, nominated for first Grammy award
If the Lyric Opera of Kansas City wins a Grammy in a few months, someone might consider giving Stephen King a quick shoutout.
The organization’s world premiere recording of “The Shining,” an opera directly based on King’s 1977 horror novel of the same name, has been nominated for a 2025 Grammy for Best Opera Recording.
This is the first Grammy nomination for the opera. Nominations were announced Friday.
Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, a Kansas City native and multi-Grammy winner, is nominated in the same category.
The operatic adaptation of King’s book was recorded live during its Kansas City debut in March 2023 at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Audience members were told before the limited-run shows that the performances were being recorded as the official worldwide cast recording of the opera, a prestigious laurel for any opera company.
Written by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Mark Campbell, both Pulitzer Prize winners, the opera premiered in May 2016 as part of the Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative.
The opera hews closely to the book, the scary tale of the bedeviled Torrance family, the new caretakers of the fictional Overlook Hotel in Colorado. The main protagonist, young son Danny Torrance, sees evil spirits and introduces the world to the maniacal word “redrum” — murder spelled backwards.
The famous 1980 movie version of the book, directed by Stanley Kubrick, starred Jack Nicholson as tortured family patriarch Jack Torrance. The opera version has received critical acclaim.
“It’s a hell of a ride ... is it scary?’ It is ... Moravec has created a soundtrack to the chaos within Jack Torrance’s heart, and it’s truly terrifying,” one reviewer wrote after seeing the world premiere.
“…Basing an opera on a famous movie or book may boost familiarity and bring in audiences, but it also raises the stakes — what new insights does an operatic treatment bring to the project?” the Wall Street Journal wrote of its debut.
“The Shining ... elevates the tale from horror story to a human drama.”
The Lyric Opera’s production was directed by Eric Simonson (“Silent Night,” Lyric Opera, 2015). In his Lyric Opera debut, Grammy and Emmy winner Gerard Schwarz led the Kansas City Symphony and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Chorus.
The Grammy nomination names Schwarz, producer Blanton Alspaugh and soloists Tristan Hallett, Kelly Kaduce and Edward Parks.
Parks portrayed Jack Torrance, Kaduce was Wendy Torrance and Hallett was Danny Torrance.
The opera has a list of everyone involved in the production on its website, kcopera.org.
The recording was released on the Pentatone label. CDs are available from audio retailers and on the Pentatone website, pentatonemusic.com.
Digital versions are available from Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Spotify and IDAGIO.
DiDonato, Renée Fleming & Kelli O’Hara, along with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, are nominated in the Best Opera Recording category for “Puts: The Hours,” a production of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Like “The Shining,” “The Hours” opera is based on a novel, by Michael Cunningham, that inspired a psychological drama starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore.
The Grammys will be presented on Feb. 2.
For a full list of nominees, including Kansas City Chiefs superfan Taylor Swift, go to Grammy.com.
