For Opera Baltimore’s concluding opera of the season, the company chose to present Mozart’s The Impresario, creatively expanded and personalized, in celebration of the company’s 15th anniversary.  In outline, Mozart’s work is a one-act German singspiel that tells the story, in comedic fashion, of a competition between rival sopranos for a role in an opera company.  Artistic and General Director Julia Cooke had made the decision to involve and empower the singers she employed to help develop their roles and relationships.  OB’s singers used the opera’s plotline to tell their char ..read more

Stars can elevate their team to overcome all obstacles, and sometimes not, as we found out in Sunday afternoon’s NCAA women’s basketball championship final.  Shortly after the game, for those who made it to GW’s Lisner Auditorium, the remainder of the afternoon was enlivened by superstar soprano Ailyn Perez who upped the game of a Puccini opera still trying to find its way home.  She, along with an excellent cast overall, backed by Conductor Antony Walker and the Washington Concert Opera Orchestra and Chorus, made it an evening and an opera to remember. Ailyn Perez as Magda in WCO’s ..read more

First, let’s adjust expectations.  Yes, Songbird was presented by Washington National Opera, but it is not an opera.  Without knowing its history, I doubt you would think of it even as an operetta, though it is based on an operetta by an opera composer, the link that drew it into WNO’s fold.  It is an in-your-face, high energy Broadway musical by way of Bourbon Street, a comic adult fairy tale produced in vaudevillian style.  What it mostly is, is high entertainment, impressive in the quality, attention to detail, and professionalism shining from every aspect – composition ..read more

No one expected Casablanca to become the hit movie it became, but the combination of characters and their players in a love story shrouded by the backdrop of Nazi occupation during WWII achieved perfection: it hit all the right notes and touched our hearts.  I think a parallel can be drawn with composer Gaetano Donizetti and librettist Felice Romani’s bel canto opera L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love, 1832); a simple love story moving forward with comic mishaps propelled by gorgeous music and arias that touched the hearts of the first audiences to hear it; it became an instant hit and ..read more

I can’t decide.  Was this program music enriched by history or history enriched by music?  Attending an Opera Lafayette performance is not like opening a box of chocolates.  You always know what you are going to get, beautiful music associated with historical events in 17-19th century France with relevance today.  You can of course treat OL productions purely as musical events.  You go; you hear the beautiful music that OL has unearthed that you likely have not heard before, played authentically on period instruments by an outstanding group of musicians.  That is ..read more

They had me at the choral beginning.  Yet, I had qualms about attending Sanctuary Road.  It is a modern opera about slavery, and I suspected I was in for a gut-wrenching experience of man’s inhumanity to man.  Beyond the weight of the subject matter, how would this work as an opera?  On the upbeat, opera has never shied away from social issues, but has been a tool for addressing them.  Powerful social issues are the driving force for many of our most popular operas.  I once wrote in a post and I’ll stand by it, “Science helps us to control our world; the arts and ..read more

Good morning, composer and librettist teams.  Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to come up with 20-minute operas, complete with music, vocals, and storyline to be presented semi-staged, with Cafritz Young Artist singers accompanied by a chamber ensemble of musicians from the Washington National Opera in the Kennedy Center in one year.  You will receive mentoring from an established conductor, composer, and librettist, among others, and you will be given access to the resources of WNO.  This tape will self-destruct in 5-seconds.  Phfft!  Smoke appears. Each y ..read more

The enthusiastic and elongated standing ovation at the conclusion of the National Symphony Orchestra’s playing, under the direction of Maestro Gianandrea Noseda, “Ring without Words” offered compelling evidence that I was in a minority of one.  Further, I could find no solace in reviews of this work when performed by other orchestras.  Well, I tried to enjoy it, honest, I did. The National Symphony Orchestra led by Conductor Gianandrea Noseda. Photo by Scott Suchman; courtesy of the National Symphony Orchestra. For me, Wagnerian opera was an acquired taste, but once acquired it beca ..read more

I attended Shakespeare Opera Theatre’s performance of the opera, Hansel and Gretel, on Saturday afternoon, and it proved to be quite a pleasure as well as a rewarding arts experience.  I told my wife that next time we should bring some friends (be sure to read The Fan Experience section below). Engelbert Humperdinck (the composer, not the 1960s pop music singer who adopted his name to help the singer revitalize his career) was a talented, even gifted German composer.  He wrote six operas and many other well received musical compositions, but it is his opera Hansel and Gretel for whic ..read more

Washington Concert Opera presented the rarely performed Rossini opera, Ermione, Saturday evening in Lisner Auditorium on the GW campus.  With a cast headlined by Metropolitan Opera veterans Angela Meade, David Portillo, Lawrence Brownlee, and Ginger Costa-Jackson with Conductor Antony Walker, I was expecting a good show or maybe just an interesting evening; however, after Ms. Costa-Jackson sang Andromacha’s opening aria with such passion as a woman fearful for her son and crushed by the loss of her husband, all resistance to this opera vanished.  The other singers must have realized ..read more