News & Reviews

The Virginia Opera production of A Streetcar Named Desire gave a new perspective on a classic American play, then movie and now an opera (1998). Director Sam Helfrich has said “I discovered that the music had the ability to cleverly reveal aspects of each character...

“Who wants real? I know I don’t want it. I want magic!” are lines of dialogue many know. In the past, these lines from Tennessee Williams’ legendary 1948 Pulitzer Prize winning “A Streetcar Named Desire” have been spoken, and not associated with music or singing. That...

Does it conjure up images of long dead classical composers like Mozart and Verdi; centuries old tales filled with plot twists involving Valkyries and sprites; divas belting out songs in German or Italian? The Virginia Opera is boldly trying to change those perceptions...

A trunk. A sofa. A dinette set. In the mind of stage director Sam Helfrich, these items represent the three main characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a 1998 opera composed by André Previn and based on Tennessee Williams’ classic 1947 play. The Virginia Opera...

Stage director Sam Helfrich promises that the Virginia Opera Association production of A Streetcar Named Desire, composer André Previn’s treatment of Tennessee Williams’ famous and famously quoted play, will give audiences an “an incredible actress“ in the role of...

One hundred or more years ago, when audiences saw a Puccini opera, it might have been a premiere. The Puccini and Verdi works we're so accustomed to seeing in opera houses today once were new works, and they often generated a lot of controversy. That opportunity has...

In an expansion of its usual four-opera lineup, Virginia Opera will present five operas and one operatically inclined Broadway musical in its 2013-14 Richmond season. Four of the operas — “Falstaff,” “The Magic Flute,” “Ariadne auf Naxos” and “Carmen” — will be...

Virginia Opera continues its exploration of premieres and American works in its 2013-2014 season announcement. Subscriptions are now on sale. The company will open its 39th year in September with Verdi's "Falstaff," a work never before mounted in Hampton Roads. The...

The Virginia Opera has announced its 2013-14 season, which will showcase an impressive slate of notable directors, conductors and singers. "A lot of these people have come to us because Robin has brought them to our attention," said Russell Allen, president and CEO of...

The Virginia Opera Company is making its debut at Virginia Beach's Sandler Center with a real surprise - a brilliant, inventive new staging of "Camelot." Brilliant? Who would have suspected it? Putting the moxie in the medieval is not likely, particularly for such a...