Metro Weekly

Opera

  • The Tiers Have Eyes

    By on September 20, 2006

    It's always a good sign when audience members exclaim both ''Hideous!'' and ''Wonderful!'' as the lights come up at intermission. It means something has stirred...

  • Italian Delight

    By on May 17, 2006

    Captivating: Borodina(Photo by Karin Cooper) Bubbly buoyancy brings the Washington National Opera season to a close in a nicely-conceived high-energy production of Rossini's L'Italiana in...

  • Titus on the Potomac

    By on May 10, 2006

    Take a beautiful sunset as seen from the Kennedy Center balcony, add a warm wind off the Potomac, throw in a glass of bubbly, and...

  • The Perfect Tonic

    By on April 5, 2006

    Like many of life's little luxuries, from a great glass of wine or a beautifully made suit, the Washington National Opera's production of Donizetti's L'Eisir...

  • Brass Ring

    By on March 29, 2006

    If you haven't yet tired of the rampant pandering to the American myth present in every daily experience from the selling of cars to the...

  • Powerhouse

    By on November 2, 2005

    You know the songs. You've heard the story. But nothing will prepare you for the astounding power of this full operatic production of Gershwin's modern...

  • Three's a Crowd

    By on September 28, 2005

    Never look a gift horse in the mouth, or so the saying goes. Oh, well. In celebration of the Washington National Opera's 50th anniversary and...

  • Vocal Prowess

    By on September 21, 2005

    A rarely-staged tale of political and emotional rebellion, I Vespri Siciliani should be an operatic tour de force. Verdi takes us to one emotional crescendo...

  • Lost in the Crowd

    By on May 25, 2005

    There are times, unfortunately, when an exceptional and beauteous piece of art nonetheless finds itself dismissed as not quite good enough, simply because it finds...

  • Tosca Tops the Charts

    By on May 11, 2005

    How do you calculate the tenor X-factor? Let's take Salvatore Licitra. We saw him already this season in the title role of Andrea Chenier, where...

  • Lacking Magic

    By on April 13, 2005

    My advice to anyone who joined the ticket-purchasing frenzy when they saw the words ''magic'' and ''flute'' in the same sentence as Washington National Opera...

  • Operatic Wonder

    By on March 30, 2005

    As we all know, Joan of Arc died hard and Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans is for a different sort of die-hard -- the operatic kind....

  • Opera Queen

    By on January 26, 2005

    ''I fell in love with opera when I was 13, when I first heard the voice of Maria Callas,'' says John Pascoe. ''I heard her...

  • Roots

    By on November 10, 2004

    You've heard about it, you've wondered about it, you may even have fantasized about it. But will it be tough on the backside? Come on,...

  • Troubled Trovatore

    By on November 3, 2004

    Those lucky enough to have seen the production of Verdi's Il Trovatore staged by the Washington National Opera in 2000 will recall a fully-conceived and...