News & Reviews

For over a hundred years, Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” has been an opera in search of a mate. Too short to stand alone(though some companies have economically tried to do just that), it is frequently paired with another Italian work, “Cavalleria Rusticana.” For...

Last May, a visually stylish, strongly cast production of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" filled the stage of the Lyric Opera House. If only seats in the theater had been filled, too. October 1, 2016 The paltry attendance for that Lyric Opera Baltimore presentation made...

Virginia Opera is committed to bringing new works to Hampton Roads, as well as satisfying fans who love the classics. This season’s opening production shows how that works. Kurt Weill’s “The Seven Deadly Sins” fulfills the mission of Virginia Opera’s “First of Firsts”...

Virginia Opera opens its 25th season at the Center for the Arts with a fascinating double bill not previously seen in Northern Virginia. By David Siegel The double-bill includes Kurt Weill’s satire about unfettered capitalism “The Seven Deadly Sins.” It is a work...

Opera fans have something to celebrate, as Virginia Opera will open its 2016-17 season the weekend of Oct. 8-9, by presenting a landmark double-bill at GMU’s Center for the Arts, with the satirical ballet, “The Seven Deadly Sins” and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s masterpiece,...

With its formal dress, foreign languages and shouts of bravo, attending the opera can seem a bit daunting to the outsider. But it doesn’t have to be. If your closest brush with the art form is Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in “What’s Opera, Doc?” here’s a quick, dirty and...

If you've been hesitant to give Lyric Opera Baltimore any attention (and from the empty seats Friday night, I'd say that means a whole lot of you), the company's season-ending presentation of Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" ought to win you over. It's a very respectable...

The Baltimore Sun When it comes to tragedy, it's still hard to beat the one about "a pair of star-crossed lovers" named Romeo and Juliet, who defy their feuding families and are denied happiness by a dreadful series of circumstances. If there's anything that can...

DC Metro Theatre Arts How should we deal with the storms of life? Should we go through life content and yet oblivious to the suffering of ourselves and others? Or, do we allow ourselves psychic disturbance over the plight of the world? Should we play the role of...

Communities Digital News The Virginia Opera’s wonderful, grand opera-era production of French composer Charles Gounod’s somewhat neglected 1867 classic, “Roméo et Juliette,” ended its statewide run at Richmond’s Carpenter Center this past weekend. Based, with...