Today, just a little throwback to last week’s Carmina Burana performance at the Filene Center. In the midst of a dramatic and rare summer nor’easter, the National Symphony Orchestra, a mass community choir of 250 singers, conductor JoAnn Falletta, and three amazing WTO alumni hit it out of the park. Thanks to Brian Mulligan, Nicholas Phan and
Read MorePosts Tagged: alumni
Fun with the Met Headshot Wall
We spent some of our spare time at the Met scouring the lower level headshot wall for photos of singers who spent a summer or two with Wolf Trap Opera. See the composite above for some of the results! L-R, row by row: Ailyn Perez, Nathan Gunn, Lawrence Brownlee, Michelle DeYoung, Denyce Graves, Eric Cutler, Kate
Read MoreFrom Monteverdi to the Met
It’s New York Audition Week, which means my brain is just a little too full for writing… Instead, I offer these lovely photographic souvenirs of the Anna Bolena we saw last night at the Met, featuring a jaw-dropping performance by our own Jamie Barton as Jane Seymour. (WTO fans will remember her beautiful performance of Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno
Read MoreTrappers in Chicago
Yesterday afternoon’s opera performances in the windy city included Lawrence Brownlee’s Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in La cenerentola. We are proud to call Larry a Trapper, and I’m beside myself with excitement about sharing the recital stage with him in a few months. A few weeks ago, he was featured on the Fatherly website. If you’ve ever wondered
Read MoreTrappers on Fleet Street
Above, clockwise from upper left: Brian Mulligan as Sweeney Todd, Elizabeth Futral as the Beggar Woman, Heidi Stober as Johanna, Stephanie Blythe as Mrs Lovett, and Matthew Grills as Toby. Photos courtesy San Francisco Opera. What a pleasure it was to see these 5 former WTO singers on stage at San Francisco Opera on Tuesday
Read MoreOur West Coast Family
Above: In the LA Opera audition room with Stephanie Rhodes (guest panelist), Joshua Winograde (LA Opera) and Jeremy Frank (pianist) Opera is a Big Thing, but the opera industry is a surprisingly small network of interconnected families. We’re in Los Angeles this week, and every time we come here, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion feels more and
Read MoreHeld & DeYoung take SF
A brief shout-out to two WTOC alumni who made some fearsome waves with the San Francisco Symphony this week: Alan Held and Michelle DeYoung in Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.
Read MoreAny Place I Hang My Hat…
I will never truly understand how people in our business make peace with their lives on the road. Had I not been fortunate enough to make a career staying essentially in one place, I’d probably be doing something else right now. This week, our friend and colleague Louisa (a.k.a. Little Miss Bossy, a wonderful director
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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