Mozart is about to invade my life again. Giovanni staff arrive next week, and singers arrive on the 29th. As I do research for my preshow talk (Inside the Opera with Kim Witman! Wildly exciting and scarily informative!), I’ve been reading librettist Lorenzo da Ponte’s Memoirs. How did I get to my 8th production of
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The Don Juan Mirror
This week’s Huffington Post blog is up: The Don Juan Mirror. I spent all of last week laid up with a respiratory flu and am having trouble getting my groove back… I promise to be back in this space next week with some actual new content!
Read MoreWTOC 1982: Cosi fan tutte, Lo speziale, L’histore du soldat, & Dr. Miracle!
The Opera Company moved into its new home at The Barns in the summer of 1982, with productions of Cosi fan tutte and a double bill of Haydn’s Lo speziale (seen at left) and Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat. They also mounted Bizet’s Dr. Miracle at the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods (photo below) and performed in a production
Read MoreWTOC 1981: The Marriage of Figaro
The 1981 season was a bit more conservative than the previous summer’s offerings. The Filene Center was host to two performances of Figaro, in a production rented from New York City Opera. Donald Gramm returned to the Company as a director, and Richard Woitach (who was to become instrumental in my own path to WTOC)
Read MoreWTC 1972: The Marriage of Figaro
Guest artists Phyllis Curtin, Norman Treigle and John Fiorito led a Figaro cast that included Wolf Trap Company young artists in supporting roles for two performances in September 1972. It was the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship with Figaro – the first of nine productions during the Company’s first 40 years. (Figaro is
Read MoreThey Grow Up So Fast
I’m a mother. Of two grown children. And although I work consciously to keep that part of my identity separate from my work, there is the inevitable overlap. I unfortunately have little patience for educators/administrators/mentors who take their roles to a maternal (or paternal) extreme, treating students and other younger people on their watch as
Read MoreThe Polls Have Closed
Each of our four Zaide audiences chose their own ending to Mozart’s unfinished opera. By the Numbers For the statisticians out there, overall voter turnout was 90%. And of the three available endings, audiences chose: ENLIGHTENMENT (simple, happy ending) won twice and received 35% of the total vote over all performances. FINALITY (tragic ending) won
Read MoreLife Can Be Cruel. Should Art Be?
Over the last week I’ve had more honest and provocative conversations with our patrons than I’ve had in years. Some are intrigued and others are outraged. Although I’d prefer to avoid the latter, it’s the flip side of the same coin as the excitement that’s been present in the theatre during Zaide. We debate the
Read More“Happy ending or sad? Status quo or unexpected plot twist?”
Anne Midgette previews Zaide in today’s Washington Post: Wolf Trap Lets Audience Choose the Ending to Mozart’s Unfinished Opera Zaide. Completely with amazing photo by WTOC conductor and Wolf Trap Opera Studio Manager Eric Melear! 4 shows, starting tomorrow night. Sunday 6/13 is sold out, but some tickets are available for tomorrow’s opening night, and
Read MoreMeditations on Zaide: Acceptance & Hope
“Remember, this is the curse of being alive: Every man has his own pain. Let us sing, let us laugh, for no one can change this.” The Slave Chorus in Zaide The Serenity Prayer was so much a part of coming of age in the 60’s and 70’s that it now runs the risk of
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