Leaving the Rehearsal Room… The team is completely assembled for the very first time, and the production designers (costume, scenic, projections, lighting, wigs, makeup) watch a run-through. It’s 4pm on a Tuesday, the singers are working through the opera in street clothes in a regular room. And you still cry when Violetta dies. Rehearsal ends,
Read MorePosts Categorized: 2013 Season
Places to Live, Wonders to Wander to
We traveled around the world twice, in a new and fascinating fashion. For the first time, we forsook the proscenium space of the Barns stage, and artists and audience alike took the trip from the floor of the theatre. As any performer who’s done theatre-in-the-round knows, it is both a gratifying and terrifying experience. Nothing
Read MoreThe Rossini Gestalt
In opera, the whole should always be more than the sum of its many parts. Rossini’s Journey to Reims has so many sparkling moving parts that if it were to be simply the sum of them, perhaps that would be more than enough. But sometimes you get luckier than you imagine. We have high hopes
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 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 MoreA Slice of a Life in Opera
This fine Monday morning, I point you to Unfinished No More – a recent blog post by bass-baritone Alan Held. If you’re curious about what a career in opera is like on the ground level, it’s a must-read. (And I mean you, voice students out there.) Alan and I started out together at Wolf Trap
Read MoreLife Cycle of an Opera
Permit me an analogy. Watching a show grow from a glimmer in our eyes during the audition tour to a fully fleshed-out world the next summer has to be one of the most exciting things I can think of. (And yes, I know I need to get out more, but all the same…) The life
Read MoreCome on Inside
I taught an intro-to-opera class here at Wolf Trap five years ago, and I was surprised and gratified by the enthusiastic response from my “students” (many of whom were as knowledgeable as I!) I’ve been asked frequently since then if I’d teach again, and I’ve hesitated. But, for better or worse, the wait is over…
Read MoreSummer 2013. Bring it on.
The puzzle is complete! We are now on the web (links below). Tickets will be available to Wolf Trap members on February 25 , and to the general public on March 16. (I never say much about this on the blog, but if you enjoy our performances and believe in our amazing young artists, membership
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