News & Reviews

HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY TO THE VIRGINIA OPERA'S HARRISON OPER HOUSE! Click on the Photo below and check out more from our archive of before and after photos of the Harrison Operas House renovation that started in 1992-1993.

By Terry Ponick Fairfax, VA, October 8, 2015 – This past weekend’s production at GMU’s Center for the Arts was loaded with fun, frolic, and the famous “Can-Can” as the entire cast goes to Hell.   It's party time in hell in Virginia Opera's production of "Orpheus...

By Clarke Bustard Special correspondent Richmond, VA, October 11, 2015 – Dying is easy, comedy is hard. So goes the comedian’s adage. Dying comically? That’s really hard. What was dying had to well and truly expire before Virginia Opera’s production of Jacques...

By Bruce Ebert Richmond, VA, October 11, 2015 – Sometimes the houseguest singing in the shower can be really, really good - someone you would pay to see. Meredith Lustig in costume for “Orpheus in the Underworld”. Credit: Lucid Frame Productions for Virginia Opera....

By April Phillips Virginian-Pilot correspondent Virginia, September 25, 2015 – Sex sells, but does it sell opera tickets? “Orpheus in the Underworld,” the Virginia Opera’s season-opening production, scandalized critics and audiences when it opened in Paris in 1858....

By Sam Hall Fairfax, VA, October 4, 2015 – I was expecting to be entertained by the Virginia Opera’s rendition of Jacques Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, directed by Sam Helfrich, which played at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts last night, but I...

By Paul A. Sayegh Virginian-Pilot correspondent Norfolk, VA, September 30, 2015 – Virginia Opera kicked off its season in high style with French composer Jacques Offenbach’s rowdy 1858 operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld,” given in an English translation by Jeremy...

By David Siegel VA, October 1-7, 2015 – Have no fears of flying off into Offenbach’s delicious musical parody of the legend of Orpheus pursuing his wife Eurydice into the Underworld. Be swept away with light, sparkling opera music and terrific voices as well as some...

By David Nicholson Contact Reporter - dbnicholson@dailypress.com VA, September 24, 2015, 8:45 PM – In the mid-1800s, Wagner, Verdi and other opera composers were writing a lot of serious stuff. Along came Jacques Offenbach who decided that he mostly wanted to have...

By Robert Battey Freelance Writer Fairfax, VA, October 4, 2015 – The Virginia Opera, the Richmond-based company, opened its George Mason University season on Saturday with a superb production of Jacques Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld.” Of the four or five...