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Leaving Luther’s Tavern

It was a wild ride, near the end of an epically and somewhat foolishly busy summer. I didn’t quite escape unscathed, as my fatigue caught up with me this week and laid me low with a nasty fever. There will be tough accounting to be done over the next weeks and months, and I’m not

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The Many Tale(nt)s of E.T.A. Hoffmann: Tonight!

As we did research for this season’s Tales of Hoffmann for this season, I was repeatedly amazed and inspired by the real-life hero of Offenbach’s opera. I kicked the challenge over to WTOC coach/pianist Jeremy Frank and a quartet of singers, and tonight they’ll present a free talk and concert that includes vocal music written

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The Next Generation: #2

In the wake of Instant Opera, we hosted another event especially for the youngest opera lovers among us. This morning’s Behind the Curtain (Family Day at Wolf Trap Opera) was a rousing success, thanks to the efforts and unspeakable goodwill shown by the 30 artists and staff members who showed up before 10am to take

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The Next Generation: #1

The last few weeks of our season included two opportunities to engage budding opera fans. First, the Instant Opera residency at the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts: The kids choose characters, locations and actions, and the cast takes it from there, mixing original language aria excerpts with improvised English

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The Path to the Tales

I’ve been remiss in not shouting from the Blogging Rooftops how thrilled we are to be working from Schott’s Kaye/Keck edition for our Tales of Hoffmann. Producing this opera is like being presented with a wealth of confusing riches, not all of which can (or should) be piled into one evening at the theatre. Musicologists

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Hoffmann Is Here

Such empty promises. In spite of such good intentions. I would have loved nothing more than to take you along with me on the ride that is Hoffmann at The Barns. But, as too often happens, it came down to managing the week or writing about it. I chose to try to keep the train

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Ready… Set…

Our fearless quintet of artists tackles their craziest challenge of the summer (writing and performing their own opera on the spot…) in front of the toughest audience imaginable (hundreds of kids and parents). Outdoors. To get ready, they hosted a trial run last weekend, in front of about 25 of their colleagues. This is what

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SitzWandelProbe

We’ve wrestled this fantastical, sprawling opera into 3 beautifully tight hours. But you’d never know it from the look of our directing intern’s score. :) SitzWandelProbe tonight. Some standing, little sitting, a fair amount of wandering, and some jaw-dropping singing. Welcome to The Barns, E.T.A. Hoffmann.  

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