Washington National Opera

Time was when American opera companies considered musicals as suspect artifacts from another planet, hardly worthy of serious attention -- not even on a par with the operettas those companies would occasionally stage when they needed a box office lift. Bit by bit, thinking has changed at a lot of places, and a welcome thing, too. Washington National Opera has enthusiastically embraced this broader view, offering an inspired staging of the path-breaking 1927 musical "Show Boat," a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (where it debuted last year)

The 2013-2014 opera season at the Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric will have a lot in common with the 2012-2013 season -- staged works by Verdi and Puccini produced by Lyric Opera Baltimore, with a concert in between. There is something substantially more adventurous in terms of repertoire for next season, courtesy of the Peabody Opera Theatre, which will present Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites. " That masterpiece was last performed at the Lyric in 1984 by the old Baltimore Opera Company.

For most people, the attractions of Christmas do not include the possibility of children roasting over an open fire. But that has not kept Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" from becoming a favorite opera at Christmastide. Based on a vivid tale by the Brothers Grimm and first performed Dec. 23, 1893, Humperdinck's most famous opera does, of course, feature lots of talk and images of sweets, notably gingerbread. So it's easy to make a seasonal tie-in, which is what Washington National Opera did over the weekend with a revival of its 2007 family-friendly production.

Time was when American opera companies considered musicals as suspect artifacts from another planet, hardly worthy of serious attention -- not even on a par with the operettas those companies would occasionally stage when they needed a box office lift. Bit by bit, thinking has changed at a lot of places, and a welcome thing, too. Washington National Opera has enthusiastically embraced this broader view, offering an inspired staging of the path-breaking 1927 musical "Show Boat," a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago (where it debuted last year)

The 2013-2014 opera season at the Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric will have a lot in common with the 2012-2013 season -- staged works by Verdi and Puccini produced by Lyric Opera Baltimore, with a concert in between. There is something substantially more adventurous in terms of repertoire for next season, courtesy of the Peabody Opera Theatre, which will present Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites. " That masterpiece was last performed at the Lyric in 1984 by the old Baltimore Opera Company.

Washington National Opera announced yesterday a remarkably ambitious and enticing lineup for 2006-2007 that includes the North American premiere of Sophie's Choice by eminent British-born composer Nicholas Maw, conducted by Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's soon-to-be music director. Sophie's Choice, based on the William Styron novel that inspired an acclaimed film, was premiered by London's Royal Opera in 2002. This powerful story about one woman's wrenching experience in the Holocaust was recently staged in Berlin and Vienna, Austria.

Verdi's "A Masked Ball" makes an appropriately grand choice for Washington National Opera's season opener. It's a big-gesture work with terrific sweep, yet one with many a subtle musical and dramatic detail. The composer was forced by government censors to turn the opera's plot about the assassination of Sweden's King Gustavus III into an unlikely scenario set in Colonial Boston. But like some other companies these days, WNO restores the original Swedish setting. Although Salvatore Licitra doesn't always use his sizable tenor gracefully, his singing as Gustavus has a certain visceral appeal.

Washington National Opera's 52nd season will include such favorites as Mozart's Don Giovanni and Puccini's La Boheme, along with the local premiere of a major contemporary opera and Placido Domingo's first U.S. appearance in a Handel work. Missing from the 2007-2008 lineup, announced yesterday at the Library of Congress, is Wagner's Siegfried, the third installment in the company's new staging of Wagner's Ring. But Domingo, the famed tenor and occasional conductor who is also the company's general director, said yesterday, "We are going to finish the Ring as we promised.

Although a substantial success for several decades after its 1868 premiere, the grand opera version of "Hamlet" by Ambroise Thomas fell into neglect, even in the composer's home country of France. To paraphrase one of Hamlet's lines from the Shakespeare original: How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seemed all the uses of this opera. But recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Thomas' "Hamlet" on both sides of the Atlantic. A couple of months ago, the piece returned to the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera after an absence of 113 years.

Verdi's "Falstaff," the astonishing product of a 79-year-old-composer, is getting a freshly conceptualized treatment from Washington National Opera. Some of the bare-bones physical material comes from a co-production with the Royal Opera and other opera companies, but director Christian R?th has devised something new out of it for this run of performances at the Kennedy Center, the WNO's first "Falstaff" in more than 25 years. Given the last moments of the work, with its hearty, "the whole world is a jest" message, it's easy to see where R?

It's easy to find opera lovers who dismiss the present state of the art in favor of some distant "golden age. " Actually, it has always been that way. Folks who now wax nostalgic about, say, the heyday of Leontyne Price and Franco Corelli would have run into people back then saying, "You think this is great? You should have heard Ponselle and Martinelli. " And, of course, in the indisputably grand era of Caruso, you just know someone in the audience would have been going on and on about how much better it was back when Jean de Reszke was in his prime.

The Kennedy Center plans to shake up the Foggy Bottom hood next season. As part of its 2013-2014 lineup, the center will showcase a global pop music phenomenon. Really? Shizzle, man. A week-long festival, "One Mic: Hip-Hop Culture Worldwide," will feature MCing, DJing, B-Boying and more. The National Symphony will even get in the act, performing with the rapper Nas. And you thought the Kennedy Center didn't have game. On a more traditional front, Washington's premiere culture palace will offer the International Theater Festival 2014, with such productions as “A Midsummer Night's Dream” by the Bristol Old Vic from England and South Africa's Handspring Puppet Company.

For most people, the attractions of Christmas do not include the possibility of children roasting over an open fire. But that has not kept Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" from becoming a favorite opera at Christmastide. Based on a vivid tale by the Brothers Grimm and first performed Dec. 23, 1893, Humperdinck's most famous opera does, of course, feature lots of talk and images of sweets, notably gingerbread. So it's easy to make a seasonal tie-in, which is what Washington National Opera did over the weekend with a revival of its 2007 family-friendly production.

If opera had somehow become so unfashionable, so unthinkable that no one dared create another one after 1779, we'd still be well off, for that would mean we'd still have an incredible work from that year — Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride" ("Iphigenia in Tauris"). This fusion of exquisite music and telling dramatic substance, based on ancient Greek tales involving the ill-fated family of Agamemnon, has in recent years been attracting fresh attention. Helping to fuel the attention is the fact that tenor Placido Domingo added the role of Oreste from "Iphigenie" to his unprecedentedly extensive repertoire.

Placido Domingo, as usual, is in full multitask mode as he wraps up his 15-year tenure as general director of Washington National Opera. The famed Spanish tenor has seven more performances to sing as Oreste in the company's first-ever production of Gluck's "Iphigenie en Tauride," which opened last Friday. He'll also switch gears to conduct five performances of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale," which opens this Friday. At 70, Domingo could be pursuing an enviable, pampered life of leisure, but that's a thoroughly alien concept to him. Besides, he gives every indication of thriving on packed schedules like the one he has this month in Washington.

Rome wasn't built in a day, so Washington has given Italy five months. La Dolce D.C. is a celebration of all things Italian with arts, architecture, culture and food, running March through July. Honoring the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy, La Dolce gives visitors and locals a taste of international culture through exhibitions, performances, fashion, music and of course delectable Italian meals. Whether you're stopping by for a day or planning a romantic getaway, there's an itinerary for everybody.

There was romance among the rutabagas yesterday at the downtown Whole Foods Market, passion among the persimmons. Jesus Daniel Hernandez was stationed in one corner of the produce section in the Harbor East store at 1010 Fleet St., wearing the black apron used to designate employees of the grocery chain. He hefted a ripe avocado in his palm, and wistfully eyed lissome Jennifer Waters as she stood by the oranges. Waters rubbed her thumb meditatively over one of the sunny globes, then flicked her eyes quickly in Hernandez's direction.

Folks who like their operas packed with action tend to dismiss Samson et Dalila as a souped-up oratorio. Truth be told, it is a souped-up oratorio. But put a little faith and a lot of talent behind it, and the requirements for music/theater are easily met. The score, which contains some of Camille Saint-Saens' most beguiling and enduring tunes, certainly provides a potent starting point. Dalila gets the ultimate in seductive arias, Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix (to gauge its potency and indestructibility, check out Mae West's performance sometime)

Verdi's "A Masked Ball" makes an appropriately grand choice for Washington National Opera's season opener. It's a big-gesture work with terrific sweep, yet one with many a subtle musical and dramatic detail. The composer was forced by government censors to turn the opera's plot about the assassination of Sweden's King Gustavus III into an unlikely scenario set in Colonial Boston. But like some other companies these days, WNO restores the original Swedish setting. Although Salvatore Licitra doesn't always use his sizable tenor gracefully, his singing as Gustavus has a certain visceral appeal.

Although a substantial success for several decades after its 1868 premiere, the grand opera version of "Hamlet" by Ambroise Thomas fell into neglect, even in the composer's home country of France. To paraphrase one of Hamlet's lines from the Shakespeare original: How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seemed all the uses of this opera. But recent years have seen a resurgence of interest in Thomas' "Hamlet" on both sides of the Atlantic. A couple of months ago, the piece returned to the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera after an absence of 113 years.