Announcing the 16 artists of the 2011 Wolf Trap Opera Studio! 2011 season performance information will be available on Monday, February 7. Jake Armstrong tenor Frederick Ballentine baritone Allegra De Vita mezzo-soprano Hunter Enoch baritone Calvin Griffin bass Jason Lee tenor Dustin Lucas tenor Amy Owens soprano Shea Owens baritone Stephen Pace baritone Jill Phillips
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WTOC 1979: Kiss Me Kate
My file on this show is pretty small, although it’s one of the 70’s-era productions that I’ve known about for a long time. The great soprano Evelyn Lear and the late great bass-baritone Thomas Stewart were (and Evelyn continues to be) friends and fans of the WTOC. They starred in this Kiss Me Kate in
Read MoreWTOC 1978: Duchess of Malfi
As we get ready for this spring’s premiere of The Inspector, it’s fascinating to look back at Wolf Trap’s first opera premiere – at the Filene Center in 1978. The file on this show is about three inches thick, largely with press clippings. It was quite the story, both onstage and off. It seems that
Read MoreWTOC 1978: The Gondoliers
This Gondoliers marked the third time that the Filene Center was graced by the presence of baritone Donald Gramm. Recent alumni of the WTOC training program (which was formally on hiatus in 1978) filled out the cast. Mr. Gramm returned for several more performances over the next few years, both with the WTOC on with
Read MoreWTOC 1978: The Hiatus
At a casual glance, Wolf Trap Opera seems to have continued its normal operations in 1978. There were two opera productions at the Filene Center: The Gondoliers and a world premiere of The Duchess of Malfi – a new opera by Stephen Douglas Burton. The 1970’s era general template was in place – guest artists
Read More1977 Wolf Trap Opera Company: Overview
The summer of 1977 was a busy one, and hardly homogeneous. It ranged from the American premiere of Busoni’s Doktor Faust to an exciting production of a 17th-century rarity (Cavalli’s L’egisto), and it also included concert performance of The Merry Widow and a four-performance run of Hansel and Gretel that played to full houses of
Read MoreWTOC 1977: L’egisto
Imagine my surprise when I realized that the 1977 Cavalli L’egisto was performed at the Filene Center amphitheatre. I had assumed, in working through these early years, that the “bigger” works would be on the big stage, and the chamber operas would be at Madeira School. I was wrong. L’egisto had two performances at Wolf
Read MoreWTOC 1977: The Merry Widow
Guest artists Anna Moffo and John Reardon starred in the single-performance concert version of Merry Widow at the Filene Center. They were joined by young artists Faith Esham (stepping in at the last minute for a sick colleague) and David Kuebler. (The rest of the Company was probably getting ready for their mid-August performances of
Read MoreWTOC 1977: Doktor Faust
The DC premiere of Busoni’s Doktor Faust was an ambitious undertaking for the 6-year-old Wolf Trap Opera Company. It was produced and directed by Frank Corsaro, conducted by Cal Stewart Kellogg, with sets and costumes by Zack Brown. My late colleague Randolph Mauldin was chorusmaster, and the inimitable Stephen Lord was a member of the
Read MoreWTOC 1977: The Medium & The Telephone
Gian Carlo Menotti was a palpable presence in the Washington DC opera scene in the 1970’s and 80’s. The Wolf Trap Company had previously produced his Saint of Bleecker Street (1973), and his Medium/Telephone double bill made its way to the Madeira School venue in 1977. The Washington Opera produced the double bill twice in
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