La Traviata

Annapolis Opera celebrated its 35th anniversary last week with a program of arias from many of the productions it has presented over the years. In 1972, Martha Wright, the company's first president, decided with a small group that Annapolis should have its own opera company. She returned for "Bravo 35" on Oct. 27 to accept the good wishes and proclamations of the city of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. Congratulations, wine-sipping and hors d'oeuvres-sampling preceded the main event at the Unitarian Universalist Church, a concert featuring four fine singers who are audience favorites and rising young stars, all under the direction of Annapolis Opera artistic director Ronald J. Gretz.

The Annapolis Chorale's 2006-2007 season will feature works not previously presented along with familiar favorites, Music Director J. Ernest Green has announced. With more than 300 members, the Annapolis Chorale consists of a 180-voice chorus, the in-house Annapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Youth Chorus and a group of fine soloists. Subscriptions are available for the chorale's 34th season, which opens Oct. 7 with a Cole Porter program that will display the singers' ability to capture every nuance of the composer's lyrics and melodies.

'La Traviata'Enter the glittering world of the Paris demimonde and listen to the story of the consumptive Violetta, a courtesan who gives up the man she truly loves for the sake of his family, when the Baltimore Opera Company presents Verdi's "La Traviata" Saturday through Nov. 21 at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave. Performances are 8:15 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 19; 3 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 21; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and next Thursday. Tickets are $25-$112. Call 410-727-6000.BSO spotlights Russian artistsRussian natives Dmitri Kitaenko (guest conductor, pictured)

Three years ago, a Druid priestess and her Roman lover walked willingly and melodically into a blazing pyre as the curtain fell on a performance of Bellini's "Norma" at the Lyric Opera House . Those epic characters were not the only ones being consumed. The Baltimore Opera Company, which gave that masterpiece an effective staging, soon went up in smoke, too, the victim of debt and disillusionment. A Chapter 11 filing in December 2008 was followed in early 2009 by a decision to liquidate.

When the Baltimore Opera Company opens its new season this fall, it will mark a half century of music. "We are delighted to bring to our city this spectacular season for our 50th anniversary and know that both seasoned opera-lovers and newcomers will love what they see and hear," says Michael Harrison, the general director of the opera company. As usual, the season will have a definite international flair reflected in the casts, directors and conductors. The new season features five grand opera productions in the Lyric Opera House.

A heady lineup of musical happenings in Philadelphia and New York last weekend exerted an irresistible pull and offered a welcome reminder of the good old-fashioned attribute known as star quality. With Renee Fleming, you've got that quality in abundance, as demonstrated by her first appearance as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, probably the most talked about event so far this season in New York. She was to have sung the role there a few years ago but changed her mind, feeling unready.

An unusually heavy load of prosperous-looking males detrained at various Baltimore railroad stations on April 9 and 10 in the year 1899.They were men who puffed cigars, traded jokes and assembled their luggage on the train platforms. In the crowds at receptions to meet the well-dressed visitors were local journalists -- sturdy, broad-faced Max Ways, a popular editor at the Baltimore Herald, who that year was breaking in a cub reporter, H. L. Mencken; several Abells, owners of The Baltimore Sun; budding correspondent Frank Kent, who later would earn laurels as one ** of the country's most astute political analysts and as the unchallenged dean of the Maryland press corps; and Gen. Felix Agnus, chief of the Baltimore American.

It's easy to condescend to the kind of concert that Jose Carreras gave Thursday night at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. A superstar tenor gives an amplified concert in an outdoor setting, singing a potpourri of operatic arias and pop tunes; an orchestra is thrown together to accompany him; and he's joined by an "accompanying artist" -- usually a singer, but sometimes an instrumentalist, of the sort you never want to hear again.This was not a concert this listener looked forward to, but he's delighted to report his expectations were quashed.

Baritone Jason Stearns has mastered the demands of being in demand. During a 2 1/2 -week break from rehearsals of Wagner's Lohengrin at the Leipzig Opera House in Germany, he returned to his Eastport home to fulfill concert commitments at the German Embassy in Washington and at the Chesapeake Arts Center. The day after he sang in the second concert of the Performing Arts of Linthicum's 25th anniversary, Stearns flew to Leipzig for final rehearsals of the opera, which opens Nov. 18. Stearns arrived in the United States shortly after the Sept.

Asterisks in the program booklet best explained the Washington Opera's new production of Verdi's "La Traviata." An asterisk beside a name denotes a debut with the company. All the major players -- the romantic leads on stage, the conductor and the production team -- were making debuts for its opening, Thursday night.Ensemble counts for much in opera. Good timing relies on familiarity. So even a small company can succeed handsomely when all the parts flow smoothly. For this "Traviata," the debutants knew their own roles but seemed oblivious to one another.