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Join Us Onstage – Casting Call on April 22

Interested in seeing the Filene Center from the other side of the footlights? Come on out and audition to be an extra (a “super”) in Wolf Trap Opera’s production of La bohème or American Ballet Theatre’s performances of Romeo and Juliet! We’re holding a casting call on Friday, April 22: details are here.  

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Ghosts Beyond The Barns

There was only one thing wrong with last summer’s production of The Ghosts of Versailles. Only 1,300 people got to see it. We were blessedly sold out in our jewel box theatre (The Barns at Wolf Trap), and there was a beautifully enthusiastic response from the local fan base and from colleagues who traveled to Virginia (as well

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Summer 2016: The Coffeehouse Chat

Official Call To Action: Tickets on sale tomorrow morning (Saturday, March 19) at 10 am!!! Start here. Now I shall take off my official promotional General Director hat. And even though I can’t actually sit down with all of you at Vienna’s lovely Caffè Amouri, I’m going to grab a cup of tea (and invite you to do the same:)) and give

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Summer 2016, Here We Come…

Today, March 3, I finally get to tell you all about the operatic goodness that will be WTO’s 2016 Season! I’ve been wanting to bring back Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia ever since I started producing at The Barns, and this is the year. A perfect cast of 8 returning artists in a thought-provoking, compelling and beautiful new

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Calling All Artists: Survey on career, health, and well-being

I’m blowing the cobwebs off the blog on this Leap Day to pass a request from Opera America and the Mellon Foundation. They’re conducting an important survey and would love to hear from you if you are a professional performing artist currently working and living in the U.S. See below for complete info. (Lots more

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Save the Dates!

Ghosts of Versailles cast and crew 2015

Planning your summer opera travel? Even though our full season won’t be announced until late winter, I am happy to share our performance dates for your consideration as you make plans for 2016: PRODUCTIONS Opera at The Barns June 10, 12, 15 & 18 July 15, 17, 20 & 23 Opera at the Filene Center August 5 with the National Symphony

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We Are All in This Together

This is on the mind of a lot of singers right now.  There have been follow-ups, flame wars and responses, all of which I will let you google on your own. And there have been discussions aplenty, on both social media and in hallways. I tread here very cautiously, and I have written and rewritten

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Punchable and Lovable

This article caught my attention. He speaks the truth. “This is why I love singers and all things singing. They may be the most wonderful engaging and inspiring people, they may be egotistical and in a couple of notable cases we all probably agree on, rather punchable. But fundamentally, they are heroes. I couldn’t do

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Audition Rep: The Triage Game

As you might have deduced from my weeks-long silence (how does that happen?!?), we are finished with the audition tour and hip-deep in the process of repertoire selection and casting. Since I am now in the necessarily “silent phase” of my process, I offer the following post, drafted during our fall auditions but never published. Jack of all

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A New Approach to Fundraising

A New Approach to Fundraising

With everlasting thanks to our baritone friend Will Liverman, the creative genius behind this mashup of two of his worlds. As he says, “I just think that opera companies could raise more money if they held offerings like some of these black churches. And I’m also convinced that gospel originates from Mozart operas.” Offered, for

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