This summer, a number of things brought me back to Robert Pirsig’s classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I had read it the first time as as college student in 1975, and it was (as it should be) a completely different experience 37 years later. So, because it’s what speaks to me in
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The Inspector Hits the Interwebs!
Our live recording of the 2011 premiere of The Inspector was available for purchase this past summer at Wolf Trap. And now…. it’s available online at Amazon.com and iTunes! The recording is a fabulous audio snapshot of the excitement and energy that filled The Barns during the premiere, captured here in NPR Classical’s review: “I
Read MoreHere We Go Again
The next two months are audition season, and they are the nerdiest time of the year here at the blog, with plenty of aria trivia and industry advice. New content kicks off next week, but to get you started, a random sampling of some previous audition posts to help you get your head in the
Read MoreThe Fruits of Incongruity
I’ve always found that putting two dissimilar things side by side clarifies both of them. And looking back, I realize that most of the good ideas I’ve ever had come from tension between things that appear to war with one another. Since I believe that incongruous juxtaposition is one of the best ways to inspire
Read MoreApproaching Deadlines & Sketch Comedy
Well, two separate things (with any luck…), but ones that could co-exist nicely in your weekend. First, the application deadline for auditions in New York, San Francisco & Seattle is this Sunday. Fair warning; our website server is pretty robust, but it can get cranky around 11:55pm Eastern Time on Sunday. So if you’re thinking
Read MoreStravinsky, the Musical Chameleon
It was a nerdy Friday night, with a wonderful collection of opera geeks in the Lecture Hall at the Center for Education. WTOC coach/pianist Jeremy Frank and four Studio Artists treated us to a whirlwind tour through Stravinsky’s musical styles. Our Fine Tuning series kicked off last year with a companion concert to our Tales of Hoffman production, “The Tale(nt)s
Read MoreThe Youngest Young Artists
Many things happening so quickly in this last week of the 2012 season: A morning with children and their families at The Barns – exploring all the many things it takes to make an opera… We built Baba Beards, learned how to conduct, collected fabric swatches, wrote supertitles and saw the short opera Tom’s Four
Read MoreA Failure of Objectivity
If I had a personal blog, this might be the kind of post I’d write. Nothing awfully revealing, as I’m essentially a private person; but more than I’m accustomed to sharing professionally. I do try to cultivate some objectivity about our company and its product, but I think that I’ve lost this particular battle. Rake’s Progress is
Read MoreFreude!
Last night, Ryan, Jason, Maggie & Corinne joined forces with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chorus for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. It was a magical evening in the outdoors – one that reminded me of my love/hate (or, in this case, shall we say “Freude/Bösen”) relationship with our beautiful outdoor venue. Die Freude On
Read MoreGimmick?
I hate blog posts that begin with an apology, but here ’tis: I dearly love the chance to speak my mind in this forum and to tell you things about our little opera company that you couldn’t learn from an official website or a brochure. So I hate the way I am neglecting this little
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