The Washington National Opera is set to open the 2019-20 season with Verdi’s “Otello.” The season will open with Russell Thomas in the title role, a work he recently performed to great acclaimed at the Canadian Opera Company. He is joined by Leah Crocetto in the role of Desdemona. They both reunite after an acclaimed “Don Carlo” which OperaWire called, {…}
(Credit: Jonathon Tichler) The REACH has announced its “inclusive, multi-genre, multidisciplinary” 2019 Opening Festival, which marks its first-ever expansion to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For the purpose of this article, we focus on opera-related events. The Festival’s “Opening Day” will “illustrate the breadth of experience that the REACH is designed to foster,” according to the {…}
The Washington National Opera has announced the roster of emerging artists engaged for the 18th season of its Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. The company announced that this season, 11 singers and two pianists/coaches will participate. They are tenor Joshua Blue, mezzo-soprano Amanda Bottoms, baritone Joshua Conyers, soprano Marlen Nahhas, soprano Alexandra Nowakowski, bass William Meinert, baritone Samson McCrady, pianist Thomas Morris, tenor Matthew Pearce, {…}
You’ll likely notice that when you come to check out these top five picks from NORTH AMERICA, you’ll usually find just shows in the U.S. But this week, we have made a few selections truly do encapsulate North America. Pandora – FAWN Chamber Creative, Canada FAWN Chamber Creative will world premiere this opera-ballet by David James Brock and and such {…}
You have an opera about baseball. Two Spanish operas, including one about Mexico’s greatest artist. Then there’s a timely Britten work followed by a singer making her way back onstage after a grueling battle with cancer. These are the top five operas to see this weekend (in alphabetical order by company). The Rape of Lucretia – Boston Lyric Opera Britten’s {…}
This weekend we will shine a spotlight on a mix of repertory staples and some rarer works. Here are our weekend choices in alphabetical order by company. Silent Night – Arizona Opera The Kevin Puts-Mark Campbell collaboration continues to make the rounds around the country, making it essential viewing. This weekend, audiences can check out the final performances of Arizona {…}
Initial casting for Washington National Opera’s 2019 WNO Gala has been announced. The event will take place on Saturday, May 18, 2019, and will celebrate local entrepreneur John J. Pohanka “for his outstanding contributions to the organization” over nearly 30 years on the Board of Trustees, according to the press release. Evan Rogister will lead “the WNO Orchestra and an {…}
The Washington National Opera is set to present Gounod’s “Faust”this March. The work will star tenor Marcelo Puente in the title role. Puente makes his WNO debut alongside Erin Wall, who brings her acclaimed Marguerite to the company. American bass Raymond Aceto, who local audiences first saw in 2016’s Ring Cycle, takes on the role of Méphistophélès and Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins {…}
The Washington National Opera is set to present Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” for the first time in 30 years. The company will revive Robert Carsen’s classic production, originally created for the Metropolitan Opera. In the lead roles, the company has lined up two Bolshoi Opera singers. In the title role, baritone Igor Golovatenko will make his American and WNO debut and {…}
Yes, it’s that time of the year where we wax poetic about transformative experiences we have had over the course of the last 300 or so days. Sometimes we curate these experiences as rankings to fuel some individual emotions, and at other moments we simply do what we are doing with this piece – let a few different people chip {…}
Washington National Opera is set to open its seventh season of the American Opera Initiative (AOI) with four world premieres from Jan. 11–13, 2019 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. This season, the AOI Festival will present the world premiere of “Taking Up Serpents,” a new hour-long work by composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Jerre Dye, as well as “75 {…}