I’m a data geek. I collect far too much of it. To me, an hour romping in survey results is like heaven. At the end of each season, our artists are encouraged to respond to a survey so that they can really tell us what they think about the summer that just ended. It’s anonymous,
Read MorePosts Categorized: Blog
Dividing Without Conquering
A great link popped up in my RSS feed over the weekend, rocking my world with the clashing of two of my favorite things: Freakonomics and Opera! In short, the writer is a believer in comparative advantage* in economics (and baseball:)) but has realized that its benefits do not extend to opera. He had just
Read MoreIt’s the Day of the Show, Y’all!
There’s a good number of show folk in my life who greet a performance day with the phrase above. Many days, I call up my Facebook feed and find someone with this wonderfully exuberant phrase as their status update. Yes, there are show days that are tough – fatigue, illness, nerves, other distractions. But much
Read MoreBad Boys of Summer & the Women Who Love Them
Summer 2012. Just the facts, with links to the Wolf Trap website for casting and other details: Operas at The Barns Don Giovanni June 29, July 1(m), 5 & 7 The Rake’s Progress August 3, 5(m) & 11 Concerts & Recitals From Bel Canto to Can Belto with Steven Blier July 15 at The Barns
Read MoreWTOC Name Dropping, Texas Style
I spent the week in Houston, in a bit of unplanned time on the piano bench, coaching some young singers. (The jury’s still out as to whether that was a good idea, but it’s behind me now, and I survived.) In these few minutes before I desperately try to catch up on all of my
Read MoreFor the Love of It
Here at Wolf Trap Opera in January, the volunteers outnumber the rest of us. How fortunate we are to have this small army of dedicated opera lovers! Last year, our four regular volunteers logged over 600 hours, and their time and talents have quickly become indispensable. John Feather‘s natural habitat is the media room of
Read MoreFriday the 13th. Seriously.
It’s been a long week. We’re saying bon voyage to a valuable member of our team. Since 2009, Ryan Taylor has been our Manager of Community Development, our summer marketing and development liaison, our 2012 season audition consultant, an invaluable colleague and a wonderful periodic addition to our small regular staff in the”off” season. He’s
Read MoreBoston Part 3: More Inspecting to Come!
Before I left Boston on Friday, I paid a quick visit to the office of Boston Lyric Opera. In a lovely bit of synchronicity, the city that is home to the studio that recorded and engineered our upcoming Inspector CD is the same place that will host that opera’s second production. The Inspector opens April
Read MoreBoston Part 2: Story
I had never been to Symphony Hall. Thursday night’s Boston Symphony Orchestra concert was a revelation on many levels, not the least of which is the almost unbelievable acoustics in that storied hall. We sat in the first balcony (I will never understand people who like to sit on orchestra level for almost anything…), and
Read MoreBoston Part 1: Community
We brag a lot about the alumni of the WTOC, and justly so. We played our part in helping them become the interesting people and accomplished artists they are. But in addition to hitching our wagon to their various stars, we love the way the former Trapper community allows us to connect almost anywhere. While
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