It’s a hot, sunny Monday in June, and I’m sitting in air-conditioned comfort at The Barns, watching the Journey to Reims cast prepare for tomorrow night’s Opera Learner’s Permit performance. Bliss. If you know any teens or tweens who might enjoy a custom-designed evening of comic opera, call (text?) them right now to tell them
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Wolf Trap Alum Jamie Barton is Singer of the World!
Exciting news reached us this afternoon: WTOC alumna Jamie Barton (2009) has just won the 2013 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition! She also took home the Song Prize and appeared to win the hearts of everyone (including the BBC Orchestra, who surprised her with a rendition of the theme from Doctor Who during her
Read MoreBuon Compleanno, Viaggio!
Last night’s invited dress rehearsal was the 188th birthday of this crazy and beautiful opera (premiered on June 19, 1825 in Paris.) The occasion was marked by comedy, intrigue, beautiful sets and costumes, hundreds of thousands of 16th notes, and birthday cake. Today is the day before opening night – a blessed and much-needed company
Read MoreEmbarrassment of Riches
Ensemble casts are an amazing thing. They don’t occur naturally or frequently in this opera jet age, rife with double- and triple-cast productions and box office stars flying in at the last minute. This cast of 17 soloists and 11 supporting singers in Rossini’s Journey to Reims is a rare and wonderful phenomenon. All the
Read MoreInitiation Rite: Death By Aria
The Studio Artists are here, and all is right with the world. Our Studio program is only in its 7th season, but I really can’t remember a time without it. These generous and talented undergraduates and beginning graduate students amp up the already significant vitality and energy around here. (And that’s saying something, for a
Read MoreWhere It All Begins
This post was born at the intersection of two things at which I do not excel. First, I am terrible at keeping up with trade magazines. They pile up on my desk and mock me, and every few months I give in and take them home and dig through them. Second, I too infrequently boast
Read MoreVerdi for a Song
It’s a little random, I admit, seeing photos from Boheme with music from Traviata. But lawn tickets to Traviata are on sale this Memorial Day weekend for only $10, and if you’ve never seen an Operascape production at the Filene Center, spending 30 seconds with the clip below might whet your appetite. If you read this blog, you are probably more likely
Read MoreProducing: The Invisible Art
My Dear Blog, I miss you. It would be hubris to believe that you miss me, with all of the other fantastical things going on out there in the internet. But ’tis true that I am poorer without you. My recent silence is almost unprecedented, and it’s past time to break it. The perennial dilemma is
Read MoreYes, Let the Kid Study Music
My two children grew up with two musician parents. They became who they are through music, theatre and art, and they are carving out their adult lives in completely different arenas. Relieved? You bet I am. But had they chosen to live the artist’s life, I would’ve said the same thing I say to anyone
Read MoreRant: In Defense of the Creative Life
Thanks to my colleague Lee Anne for pointing me to this article – Seven Rules for Managing Creative-But-Difficult People – in the Harvard Business Review. It’s not long; linking through should only cost you a minute or two. (And if you have more time, don’t forget to read the hundreds of comments…) What the What???
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