Opera section: Metro Weekly

Showy Boat

There's plenty to enjoy in the way the WNO's ''Show Boat'' treads the waters between opera and musicals

Published on May 9, 2013, 5:35am

In a second act scene in Show Boat, the character Magnolia auditions to be a singer at Chicago's popular Trocadero Club. Magnolia was a star on the Cotton Blossom, but of course a Mississippi riverboat celebrity is in a different league from a big city nightclub act -- just as a musical is a different animal from an opera. Or is it? {Angela Renee Simpson and the company of ''Show Boat'' (Photo by Scott Suchman)} You'd be forgiven for thinking ...[Read]

Who's That Girl?

WNO presents soprano-watcher's Norma, and a fine evening for anyone who likes their betrayals bel canto beautiful

Published on March 14, 2013, 8:10am

In the words of Jean Genet, ''Anyone who hasn't experienced the ecstasy of betrayal knows nothing about ecstasy at all.'' And anyone who likes their betrayal operatically ecstatic must seek out Bellini's Norma. For despite its backstory of Gallic druids versus their Roman occupiers, Norma is your ultimate destination for the agony and outrage of discovering that you have been replaced by a younger model (and not just any flibbertigibbet, but one under your own care and control). {Norma: Meade ...[Read]

Heart of Bling

When sung by a soprano of Racette's caliber, Manon a story not to be missed

Published on March 7, 2013, 2:47am

Feeling a tad lackluster in the set department, director/designer and costumer John Pascoe's interpretation of Puccini's Manon Lescaut seems to have lost some burnish since its WNO premiere in 2004. With Act 1's giant staircase, skewed mirrors and a lot of A.C. Moore-style foliage, the feel is more diorama than late 1770s French village, even if the aristocratic bust-atop-plinth delivers a pleasingly sinister vibe. Matters improve with the austerity of Act 2's grand boudoir and the surreal touches of Act ...[Read]

Cocksure

For those with patience, ''Don Giovanni'' is a chance to see how opera can make good theater as well as good listening

Published on September 27, 2012, 3:15am

Offering plenty of curb appeal in the form of wit, slapstick, a libidinous thundering bass, damsels in distress, sword fights and a reasonably gratifying comeuppance, it's no surprise that the Washington National Opera's revival of Mozart's Don Giovanni is this season's choice for ''Opera in the Outfield'' (on Saturday, Sept. 29, when the performance will be simulcast for free at Nationals Park). Though rather long for the newcomer – the kind where everyone gets their say a few times over ...[Read]

Queen for a Day

Donizetti's ''Anna Bolena'' delivers urgency, despair and beauty to the downfall of one of Henry VIII's most ill-fated wives

Published on September 20, 2012, 3:12am

Timed perfectly for the Tudor fever generated by author Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and its sequel, the Washington National Opera's season-opener of Donizetti's Anna Bolena delivers urgency, despair and much beauty to the downfall of one of Henry VIII's most ill-fated wives. In this semi-historical telling of the well-known tale, Anna (Anne Boleyn), unable to resist the chance to be queen, has rejected her betrothed, Riccardo (Lord Richard Percy), in order to marry Enrico (Henry VIII). Having produced only a ...[Read]

Beautiful Dreamers

As an opera of the heart, WNO's ''Werther'' delivers the passion, however overblown

Published on May 17, 2012, 3:48am

If opera is your music for heartbreak and plots be damned, then Massenet's gorgeously overwrought Werther is for you. This is boy meets already-engaged girl and gets thoroughly histrionic – nothing more, nothing less. Yet as a musical experience of impossible love, Massenet's score flows with a sweet poignancy and ominous portent that truly delivers. Of course, the simplicity of the narrative, based on the late 18th century novel by Goethe (which was so feverishly received it induced a rash ...[Read]

Biblical Proportions

However you come to it, WNO's biblical and period-political Nabucco is a potent operatic experience

Published on May 4, 2012, 1:44pm

With a busy narrative, a biblically minded libretto, and a director who assumes a cogent, educated audience, the Washington National Opera's Nabucco isn't for those who like their opera pre-chewed and delivered on a spoon. But for those who can roll with it, director Thaddeus Strassberger delivers a keenly paced drama and a seriously gratifying opportunity to savor some of Verdi's most instantly accessible and yet deeply beautiful music. Yes, you will want to read the program first so you ...[Read]

Review: Cosi fan tutte

While purists may sniff at WNO's modern staging of Cosi fan tutte, it's still a good whacking dose of fun, mildly irreverent Mozart

Published on March 1, 2012, 3:57am

When an opera is as much a staple in the repertoire as Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, it's hardly surprising when a director gets the urge to give it a goose. And why not? Though new takes on old favorites might not endure as artistic interpretations, when interspersed with more traditional offerings, they can bring much color and wit to the continuum. And with director Jonathan Miller's Cosi, re-set to ''yesterday afternoon in Washington, D.C.,'' with all that entails (cell-phones and ...[Read]

Victorian Nightmare

David Alden risks alienating those who prefer their operas romantic and bloodless, but delivers something worth the price

Published on November 17, 2011, 12:11am

A stylized Victorian nightmare with lashes of Sam Peckinpah realism and the odd sporran, David Alden's rendering of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor isn't for everyone. But, then again, why should it be? Opera is as organic as any living organism and, like anything that must thrive, it benefits from a widening of the gene pool. And so, even as Alden risks alienating those who prefer their operas romantic and bloodless, he arguably delivers something worth the price -- a deeper ...[Read]

Triumphant Tosca

WNO's 'Tosca' is everything a traditional production should be. In fact, it's everything any thoughtfully produced opera should be

Published on September 15, 2011, 1:54am

A perfect balance between elegant austerity and a swiftly-rendered, passionate tale of hearts, pure and not so pure, the Washington National Opera's Tosca is everything a traditional production should be. In fact, it's everything any thoughtfully directed and produced opera should be: a fully imagined world in which we are free to relish the music of the human heart. Like a classical painting viewed in the recesses of an old museum, this is a production that transports. Thanks to director ...[Read]

Recent Opera Articles