News & Reviews

HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY VIRGINA OPERA HARRISON OPERA HOUSE Visit our Facebook link below to see our before and after photos of how far the Harrison Opera House has come since 1992-1993 till now!

By Terry Ponick FAIRFAX CITY, Virginia, February 19, 2015 – With sets and a pair of cast members shared with the Portland Opera for its 2013 production, the Virginia Opera presented their take on Richard Strauss’ classic one-act opera shocker “Salome” this weekend...

By Grace Jean Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” dropped anchor Friday evening at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts, where the Virginia Opera gave a clever and reverently detailed production of the British duo’s fourth opera. Mezzo-soprano Margaret...

By Anne Midgette Among opera companies, putting on musicals is all the rage. There are, the companies assure us, plenty of artistic reasons to do it: Musicals are the contemporary equivalent of opera, or musicals are a historical successor to opera that opera houses...

By John Shulson Verdi’s “La Traviata” ranks among the top 10 most done and seen operas in the repertoire. Based on “The Lady of the Camellias” by Alexandre Dumas, “Traviata" is the typical tale of the power and pain of love. Violetta is the high society courtesan who...

By Roy Proctor | Special correspondent Virginia Opera’s new take on the world’s most-often produced opera is vocally and instrumentally sumptuous, to be sure, but Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the Carpenter Theatre opens with a visual stunner that will take your breath...

By Rich Griset Preview: Virginia Opera’s “La Traviata” explores a timeless story of forbidden love. Lucid Frame Productions Cecilia Lopez as Violetta and Rolando Sanz as Alfredo in “La Traviata,” based on a play adapted from a novel by Alexandre Dumas the younger. The...

By Terry Ponick With astonishing performances by Cecilia Violetta López and Malcolm MacKenzie, Virginia Opera's current production of Verdi's tuneful, tragic masterpiece is a genuine three-hankie surprise. Young soprano Cecilia Violetta López astonishes as Violetta in...

By Joan Reinthaler The Virginia Opera has a fine “La Traviata” on its hands. Verdi’s sad but sumptuous opera opened Saturday for two performances at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts. And while soprano Cecilia Violetta Lopez’s Violetta may have carried the...

By David Siegel Be smitten with Violetta, the brave woman who learns that “love can be inspired by a passing glance,” but happiness is not such an easy journey. This is the grand sweep of Verdi’s “La Traviata,” the world’s most performed opera, coming to the Center...