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Day 59: Michelle DeYoung, Amneris

2015 Artist in Residence Michelle DeYoung is back this weekend, to continue her work with our young artists, host an artist panel discussion, and appear in Aida in Concert with the NSO. She’s going to be one busy lady… To whet your appetite for next Friday’s concert, drop in at about the 10:00 minute mark in this

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Day 58: Carl Tanner, Radamès

Our concert performance of Aida is just around the corner (next Friday), and we want you to get as excited as we are! The NSO and our guest artists (all former WTO young artists in the early phases of their careers) are going to bring the full power and beauty of Verdi to the Filene Center. Today,

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Day 57: Soprano Alexandra Loutsion in the Artist Spotlight

During the 2015 season, the blog will feature interviews with our Filene Young Artists. Today, as Butterfly rehearsals kick off, we hear from soprano Alexandra Loutsion, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly. Which experience(s) most influenced your decision to become a professional singer? What’s the earliest point in your life that you can identify in pointing you in this direction?

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Day 56: Tenor David Margulis in the Artist Spotlight

During the 2015 season, the blog will feature interviews with our Filene Young Artists. Today, we hear from tenor David Margulis, Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles and Goro in Madama Butterfly. Which experience(s) most influenced your decision to become a professional singer? What’s the earliest point in your life that you can identify in pointing you in this

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Day 55: Ampersand

The department referenced in my job title contains a powerful ampersand. As in “Wolf Trap Opera & Classical Programming.” What the “&” means this weekend is that between our Friday and Sunday Ghosts of Versailles performances, I had the privilege of working with the National Symphony Orchestra on a beautiful evening of Romantic music. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (once I get

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Day 54: And Then This Happened

Composer and librettist in the house. Rousing ovation. Tons of heart, soul and talent from the 73 people onstage and the many dozen more behind the scenes. It was a highly calculated and meticulously orchestrated leap of faith, and the rewards were more numerous that we could have imagined. Above, L-R: The Ghosts of Versailles stage director Louisa Muller,

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Day 53: Ghosts in the Post

In tomorrow’s print edition of The Washington Post, and available now online, an interview with The Ghosts of Versailles composer John Corigliano. Corigliano’s “The Ghosts of Versailles” took 12 years to write — it wasn’t even premiered until 1991, a full eight years after the centenary season — and it called for, in its original form, two

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Day 51: Vienna to Vienna

This afternoon, our Ghosts conductor Eric Melear was joined by his Vienna State Opera colleague Thomas Lausmann (a former Trapper himself) for a discussion on auditioning and working in Europe. (Above: Thomas joins the discussion via Facetime, from the other Vienna:)) The availability of entry-level career experiences in the U.S. has taken a nose dive in the last 6-8 years,

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Day 50: Meet Patti

Last February, we traveled to Los Angeles to see LA Opera’s Ghosts of Versailles. As you might imagine, our up-close-and-personal production at The Barns differs from the one we saw at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Both have their unique charms, but there’s one particular element of the LA Ghosts that we coveted… Knowing that if we were to

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