Posts Categorized: WTOC History

I wouldn’t want you to think that all of the music in the August 24 Greatest Hits alumni concert is serious and dramatic. Operetta fans will be pleased to know that Emily Pulley and Robert Orth will channel Rosalinde and Eisenstein from Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. If you need a little buffo in your summer,

Oren is one of the new guard on our alumni concert, as his WTOC summers hailed from the early 2000’s. His Wolf Trap roles included Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Ariodate in Xerxes (at left), Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Frank Maurrant in Street Scene. As memorable as his stage appearances were,

Denyce and I both got our starts at Wolf Trap in the late 80’s, and she would occasionally come to my studio to coach privately when she was preparing roles and living in the DC area over the subsequent several years. Oddly enough, I remember her mother coming along occasionally, quietly and repeatedly supporting her

Alan has probably stayed in touch more than most alums from the first two decades. He and I worked at Washington Opera together post-Wolf Trap, and he returned for a recital with me at The Barns in 2006. He is already here in the DC area, rehearsing Scarpia for the Washington National Opera’s Tosca (which

Bob has the honor of single-handedly representing the first decade of the WTOC on our upcoming alumni concert. And I can think of no one more capable:)* We had the amazing good fortune to collaborate with Bob earlier this year when he created the role of Mayor Fazzobaldi in Wolf Trap’s newly commissioned opera, The

(a.k.a. Beautiful Singing in the Great Outdoors). The August 24 Greatest Hits concert will contain some full-blooded verismo and grand opera, but it will also offer elegance and nuance. Lawrence Brownlee will sail the High C’s with Tonio’s aria from La fille du regiment, Tracy Dahl will spin out Bellini’s “Ah non credea”, Stephanie Blythe

Eric has been in the opera world news a lot this year, what with his recent Doctor in Wozzeck at Santa Fe, and his Alberich at the Met this spring. He’s wedging in our concert between Santa Fe and a Tanglewood concert with the BSO, and DC-area audiences will get a chance to hear him

Emily and I spent a good deal of time together at WTOC, as I seem to have been assigned to play most of the shows in which she sang. There were Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, First Lady in The Magic Flute (that’s a lot of Mozart!) and, most memorably

Every summer, the WTOC presents emerging professional singers, typically in their mid-late 20’s and early 30’s. There are many joys in this, but it means that we don’t often traffic in what some of our alumni call “Big Boy/Big Girl” rep. (Yeah, I’m talking about you, Ms. Goerke, who ditched us to go sing freakin’