“Human beings will go to any length necessary to find and connect with each other.” —Eric Whitacre, in a 2011 TED Talk Even anti-maskers, I suppose, are dimly aware of the heightened r…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:08PMYou’d have to be dead not to enjoy a recital of the caliber given this past Sunday in the Phillips Collection Music Room by members of the current class of Washington National Opera’s Ca…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:30PMIn my 20s, I lamented that despite being well-schooled in American literature, I’d ended up a failure at knowing much of our nation’s poetry by heart. But when I set out to entertain mys…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 11:28AMThe Washington National Opera’s current production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni confirms two important ideas. The first is that while opera is most effective when it entertains, its intrinsi…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:36PMThanks in part to the bold addition of a missing tenor aria, Opera Lafayette’s elegant production of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore (1805), last night at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhowe…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:38PMEven though being a classical music reviewer often feels like a gig too good to be true, I don’t recall ever forgetting my purpose for attending a performance. There’s a first for everyt…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:24PMWhile much of the city is abuzz with romantic romping this Valentine’s Day weekend, the New Orchestra of Washington will concern itself with the transformative power of love and loss when …
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:37PMNature, nuance, or its lack thereof, were central themes when the National Symphony Orchestra welcomed fledgling conductor Gemma New, pianist Yefim Bronfman, and the young composer Salina Fi…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:20PMHere’s a thought: Older virtuosi are boring. That’s not original to me, but to an audience member who offered his views during a concert intermission recently. We were at the Phillips Co…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 04:50PM“It’s a ridiculous thing to sing at the top of your lungs about your vulnerability,” American composer Laura Kaminsky observed to this year’s Washington National Opera’s American O…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:27PM“I want us to be in contention for a Helen Hayes Award,” IN Series artistic director Timothy Nelson told me last fall over coffee near his office in the Shaw neighborhood. We were discus…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:18PMThere has been plenty of backlash during this administration against what some critics have called “the cult” of RBG, aka, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Some are critical of…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:10PMIf singing along to the Hallelujah Chorus or Hark, the Herald Angels Sing are requisite to bolstering your holiday spirit, then Songs of the Season: Christmas with Choral Arts at the Kennedy…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:38PMHow history will judge us for this administration’s treatment of Central American migrant children, I often wonder. And yet, our record of abuse against “Other” is not partisan, but ha…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:23PMA frustration of many classical and contemporary music critics is that we hear a new work that seems to have great promise for being added to the canon, and then poof! It disappears, never t…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:15PMNow that this summer’s drama surrounding the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s financial woes has quieted, at least for now, we can focus on the significant contributions our home state orc…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 07:54PMAttending Cantus’s Alone Together at the Kennedy Center made me realize that meaningful interaction relies as much upon solitude and mystery as it does connection and revelation. The vocal…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:53PM“I realized the thing I missed most in my process was people,” American composer Libby Larsen told me recently. She was speaking about her commissioned work “YOU,” which the vocal en…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:06PMNow into his second year leading IN Series, the itinerant company based at the Source Theater, artistic director Timothy Nelson has not been shy about challenging opera’s status quo. “…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:24AMThe opening night performance of Washington National Opera’s production of Wolfgang A. Mozart’s The Magic Flute was perfectly pleasing, even if the show as written is just too long. Trad…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:59PMThe crowd cheered. We were on the Kennedy Center jitney to the Foggy Bottom Metro stop. I had just read aloud a text from my husband that said Howie Kendrick had hit a two-run homer to put…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:20PMSpektral Quartet’s Looking Skyward offers audiences opportunity to trust their instincts when approaching new music There was a time when I needed the cash, so I substitute taught high sch…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 03:03PMIf this summer’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra labor dispute underscored that remonstrating over the sustainability of American symphony orchestras is pointless if we don’t clarify whethe…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 05:05PMThe National Symphony Orchestra’s third season opener signaled a distinctively bright and cohesive sound is developing under Maestro Gianandrea Noseda. Noseda explained to the crowd that h…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:26PMTwo of the world’s biggest voices blended beautifully Thursday night on the Main Stage at the Kennedy Center’s REACH Opening Festival, demonstrating the power of song to unify and inspir…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:18PMIt’s been 54 years since Cabaret first opened on Broadway, but this season is the first time the Olney Theatre Center has staged the show. I have always loved this Kander and Ebb masterpie…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 10:45PMTraveling through the south of France one glorious September, regardless of where my companion and I found ourselves, it seemed that at one point in the afternoon, there would be a classical…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 02:15PMAlthough I review the arts, most of my career has been spent as a health sciences writer. The combination means that although statistics might drive the bulk of what I write, my mind instinc…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 08:04AMNow that National Symphony Orchestra music director Gianandrea Noseda has nearly completed two full seasons – and has signed on to stay through 2025 – a clearer picture of the possibilit…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 12:40PMFrom the nexus of divas, dollars, and diplomats at this year’s Washington National Opera Gala, there arose a thrilling truth: The finely frocked foreigners in attendance might question Ame…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 09:01AMThe Washington National Opera’s (WNO) fine opening night performance of Puccini’s Tosca provided an opportunity for catharsis and reflection, two things our overwrought city needs right…
SOURCE: DC Metro Theater Arts at 01:26PM