Opera section: Metro Weekly

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 ...[more]

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 ...[more]

The Glory and the Gloom

Washington National Opera bids farewell to its leader Placido Domingo with a somber and beautiful Iphigénie

Published on May 12, 2011, 12:58am

With Placido Domingo singing his last role as general director of the Washington National Opera, it's hard not to take the somber – at times downright mournful – mood of Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride to heart. Though he has lead the WNO for the last 15 years, one can't help but feel just the teeniest bit abandoned, especially in light of the WNO's financial woes and unevenness in recent seasons. It is even harder to not already miss a leader ...[more]

Big Bad Bass

Matt Boehler performs in Wolf Trap's latest opera commission, the political comedy 'The Inspector'

Published on April 21, 2011, 1:13am

Matt Boehler photographed at Wolf Trap by Todd Franson ''There's nothing more gay than opera!'' exclaims opera singer Matt Boehler. ''We have fabulous divas wearing fabulous things, shrieking and being dramatic!'' He's joking, of course. But then again, he has a point. As for his own involvement in the art form, the gay 34-year-old didn't expect to become an opera singer. ''I think all [opera] singers, especially here in America, take a circuitous route to get to opera because it's ...[more]

Iron Butterfly

The Washington National Opera's 'Madama Butterfly' is the production that tells us the WNO is still a major contender

Published on March 3, 2011, 3:38am

As one of the most well-known and accessible of operas, admitting a passion for Puccini's Madama Butterfly isn't likely to win you any brownie points with the opera elite. For although no one will argue with Puccini's genius, in the high-stakes game of operatic one-upmanship, ''passion'' is more often reserved for the work so obtuse it leaves everyone but the nose-whistling claimant wondering what they are missing. And yet, irrespective of its wide appeal, Butterfly is a piece that can ...[more]

Sound, but No Vision

Despite some satisfactory performances, Un Ballo's stark design elements hinder rather than enhance

Published on September 18, 2010, 4:13pm

An austere production, perhaps appropriate to tough economic times both at the Washington National Opera and at large, Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera is more about competence than magic. With sets that are ostentatiously spare, costumes consigned to a spectrum of grays, and the only concession to color a few scarlet cummerbunds and the glad rags of the soprano, this is anything but a feast for the eyes. Unfortunately, it is also not a feast for the heart, for although ...[more]

Ophelia Outing

As long as allergy season doesn't sideline Futral further, WNO's Hamlet is worth your while

Published on May 27, 2010, 12:34pm

It is perhaps especially true for opera that there is a reason that some are not often staged. In the case of Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, it is a matter of the music and of Shakespeare. Although there are moments of gratifying menace, winsome beauty, and some interesting articulations of a somber and contemplative Hamlet in this score, there is something about Thomas's style that leaves one feeling, despite the finalities, little sense of catharsis. Furthermore, by its very nature, this ...[more]

Marital Bliss

WNO's Figaro is sheer magic. It's like seeing the opera for the first time -- fresh, funny and sparkling with wit

Published on April 29, 2010, 3:42am

Truth be told, most comic operas are funnier in theory than in reality. The buffo, over-rouged in a teetering wig, capers about the stage and, in a collective gesture of goodwill (and the knowledge that we aren't going anywhere fast), we smile and murmur our amusement. Expectations are, after all, low: We are here for the music and the singing, not the composer's antique sense of humor. And then along comes the WNO's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro ...[more]

Looney Tunes

Even if you first heard it from Bugs, Rossini's The Barber of Seville shows there's plenty of spirited fun to be had in opera

Published on September 17, 2009, 12:00am

Those of you raised on Looney Tunes might find it impossible to listen to Figaro's aria ''Largo al factotum'' from Rossini's Barber of Seville without having a flashback to Bugs Bunny torturing Elmer Fudd to snippets of the same. The Barber of Seville And clearly the Washington National Opera saw no point in denying the inevitable when staging their season-opener of Barber, as they played the cartoon itself for the folks at Nationals Park waiting to watch the one-off simulcast ...[more]

Deliciously Dire

There's much to savor about WNO's impressively well-crafted, imaginative and accessible 'Siegfried'

Published on May 7, 2009, 12:00am

Chances are you will not be seeing the Siegfried that opened this past Saturday night since the performance began with general director Placido Domingo's announcement that tenor Par Lindskog, in recovery from serious bronchitis, would not be singing until later in the run. However, the show had to go on and in an innovative move, Lindskog acted and mimed his Siegfried while fellow tenor Scott MacAllister sang it. Thus began a very novel but ultimately wonderful evening of Wagner. This ...[more]

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