News & Reviews

The Virginia Opera scored a home run Saturday evening when it brought back Mozart's always-popular "The Marriage of Figaro." Acknowledged as one of opera's supreme masterpieces, "Figaro" is the ultimate ensemble work. While any of the characters can steal the show, it...

In Mozart's comic opera "The Marriage of Figaro," the title character and his betrothed, Susanna, go to great lengths to remove obstacles to their love. By contrast, when bass-baritone Matthew Burns and soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird first played those roles together...

The Mozart opera that runs just four performances at the Harrison Opera House really shouldn’t be called The Marriage of Figaro, stage director Lillian Groag points out. “Figaro’s Wedding Day” would be a better translation of Le nozze di Figaro. The full name of the...

The word "genius" gets tossed around a lot in the music world, but most agree that Wolfgang A. Mozart deserves the accolade. Conductor Steven Smith and stage director Lillian Groag, who are collaborating on Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," have no trouble citing...

“I think ‘Streetcar’ is an opera already, except that it doesn’t have music,” composer André Previn once said in sizing up Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Virginia Opera’s powerhouse production of Previn’s three-hour 1998 opera, “A Streetcar Named...

"Hey Stelllaaa! Hey Stelllaaa!"  Marlon Brando's bellow in the film of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most memorable moments in cinema history. Drunk and soaked, Brando's Stanley Kowalski is a brutish animal calling for his mate, and Stella doesn't...

Virginia Opera’s third installment in their 2013 American series, A Streetcar Named Desire, an opera in three acts premiered at George Mason University’s Center for the Arts on Friday, March 1, 2013 at 8:00 pm. Originally written in 1947 by American playwright Thomas...

"This is one of those rare productions in which the cast, director, conductor, and designers are all deeply committed to the story and were pretty much on the same page from day one." Virginia Opera’s production of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the...

The Virginia Opera once again takes a daring move, bringing its company and Fairfax County premiere production of André Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” to George Mason University’s Center for the Arts tomorrow, March 1, 2013 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 3, 2013 at...

Virginia Opera's production of Andre Previn's "A Streetcar Named Desire" arrives at George Mason University's Center for the Arts this week. This third installment in the company's American opera cycle is based on Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in...