The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore) is much more than an intoxicating revival. Stephen Lawless strips The Elixir of Love of any sugar-coated decor and cartoonish exaggeration and transforms it into an over-the-top comedy, refreshing, thought-provoking and profound in its insights about the maturation of human love.
Moby-Dick
Massive. Emotionally wrenching. Magnificent. On Saturday night, at the east coast premiere of Moby-Dick, the Washington National Opera audience sighted the breaching of a great American opera.
Rehearsing Moby-Dick. We visit the whaler’s “ropes rehearsal”
When you want to understand a new theatrical work in a challenging form like opera, with its many moveable parts, it’s not enough to plop down for a single performance. Ideally, you should attend a rehearsal. This is where you can best witness innovative directions new opera is taking and most especially see opera get […]
Free opera in the Outfield at National Stadium Sept 29
On September 29, our beloved Washington Nationals will be in Miami, carrying the hearts of every true Washingtonian with them as they nail down the Eastern Division title. For the rest of our bodies, there will be the fifth annual Opera in the Outfield: a simulcast of the Washington National Opera’s performance of Don Giovanni […]
Werther
Werther, the final production of Washington National Opera’s 2011-2012 season, features some wonderful music in Jules Massenet’s lyrical score. It is beautifully supported by the strong dynamics of the orchestra under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume and the tempered singing of the cast. However, I am still trying to figure out how certain layers of […]
Nabucco
Verdi’s first major operatic hit, Nabucco, opened this weekend at the Kennedy Center in a sumptuous new Washington National Opera production by American director and designer Thaddeus Strassberger. The visual spectacle of the first two acts carried both story and directorial concept, evoking Biblical spectacles painted on great canvases, in static yet strikingly heroic composition.
Washington National Opera to offer six productions in 2012-2013
Donizetti. Mozart. Humperdinck. Puccini. Bellini. And Kern. The Washington National Opera’s 2012 – 2013 season will certainly give due reverence to the great composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But next year’s slate of productions will include a more recent piece, too.
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened last night at Washington National Opera, is not your daddy’s Lucia. If you had come to pay homage to Donizetti’s original impulse and bask in its early romanticism, complete with Scottish mists and moors, you were in for a shock.
Tosca free at Nationals Park this Thursday
Looking to stretch your family entertainment dollar during yet another period of economic uncertainty? Well, here’s some good news. The Washington National Opera is coming to your rescue with its fourth annual installment of “Opera in the Outfield” this Thursday evening at Washington Nationals Park. This year’s operatic offering is Giacomo Puccini’s romantic thriller, Tosca. […]
Tosca
Opening night of the Washington National Opera celebrated both a new leader at the helm and a new partnership with The Kennedy Center. Like a marriage ceremony, there is now a commitment on both sides to make this relationship work and contribute to the thriving of both parties. Showing up Saturday night were Washington’s well-heeled […]
Take us out to the opera
You’d really like to go to the opera, but you’ve always thought it was too expensive, right? Well, here’s your big chance to try out this wonderful, over-the-top art form for free. The Washington National Opera (WNO) is holding its third annual “Opera in the Outfield” production Sunday, September 19, at 2 p.m. in—where else—Washington […]
Hamlet (Washington National Opera)
The Washington National Opera debuted its first-ever production of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet … this fitfully intriguing version of the opera boasts some things to love, some things to dislike, and perhaps the most over-the-top “mad scene” in the history of opera.