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The combination of a strong, spirited cast and a first-rate orchestral performance led by Daniele Callegari rendered the opera a moving experience in spite of drab staging and latent, unexplored tensions.

A strong new Traviata from Washington National Opera with the welcome house debut of Venera Gimadieva as a fabulous Violetta.

The team of soloists, the chorus and the orchestra, under the baton of Philippe Auguin, powerfully conveyed the spectacular qualities of Verdi's Don Carlo.

Francesca Zambello’s engaging Aida opened the season at Washington National Opera, eventually getting into its stride. 

Kaneko's vivid designs grace this charming Butterfly. 

American composer Jake Heggie's early opera performed by Washington National Opera was one of those rare experiences of an opera full of raw power and wrenching emotion with superb performers that one is not likely to forget soon.

Washington National Opera continues its cycle of social justice operas.

Robert Longbottom's take on Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment captures the spirit of bel canto in Washington DC. 

With the many glories of the score and the easy butts of class and marital comedy, it is hard not to be pleased by a Figaro performance, although tonight’s did not sparkle as much as it might have. 

Tonight’s Götterdämmerung brought the cycle to a fitting – and wholly American – conclusion. 

Zambello's Ring for the WNO continues to engage and impress. 

Zambello's Die Walküre engages and excites in this promising Ring cycle. 

Das Rheingold stages flawed American Ambitions in the first Ring Cycle in Washington DC. 

Emotionally-engaged performance of Weill's Apartheid Opera. 

A righteous, politically-relevant but musically questionable world premiere of Philip Glass' revised Appomattox.

WNO integrate dance and song to capture the soul of Carmen for the opening of their 60th anniversary season. 

A visually striking production of Rossini's La Cenerentola for Washington National Opera.

A pleasing performance from WNO of The Flying Dutchman, with Eric Owens brooding magnificently over the whole. 

A safe performance of Poulenc's extraordinary opera in Washington, lacking in pity and terror.

During Verdi’s bicentenary month and year, it’s fitting that Opera Philadelphia kicked off its 2013/14 season with the work that Verdi himself considers as having launched his own career – Nabucco. Written at a time when Italy longed to be free of foreign rule, Verdi’s name and the expression “Viva Verdi” became synonymous with Italian nationalism and unification.

The arrival of Show Boat at the Washington National Opera this month, after stops in Chicago and Houston, has provoked a certain amount of consternation in operatic circles.

The title role of Bellini’s Norma is one of the most challenging roles in the female repertory. It has been called the most profound portrayal of womanhood in all of opera. It demands a dramatic coloratura soprano with immense vocal power, rare agility, a wide dynamic range, a broad palette of vocal coloration, and instinctive theatricality.

On Saturday night the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts was packed with ardent opera lovers who came to the Washington National Opera to enjoy one of Puccini’s most heartbreaking love stories, Manon Lescaut.

On Wednesday night the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts was more crowded than a shopping mall during the holiday season. Apparently, nothing could keep DC opera lovers from getting to the Washington National Opera - not even the notorious peak hour traffic.It comes as no surprise that Mozart’s Don Giovanni, known to some as "the greatest opera ever written" is on most opera fans’ must-see lists.

Ladies and gentlemen of Washington DC and the nearby lands!If last fall you did not get a chance to journey to New York for the Met’s season-opening production of Anna Bolena – do not fret! Last Saturday the Washington National Opera opened its new season with a production of Anna Bolena (a little too bloody for a season opening if you ask me, but maybe that’s what attracts most people to opera th

When I heard that Washington National Opera’s upcoming production of Jules Massenet’s romantic and beautifully tragic opera Werther would be set in the 20th century, I was intrigued.

When I saw a three-tiered theater set-up on the Kennedy Center Opera House stage, consisting of boxes decorated with blue velvet, gold and exquisite paintings, I have to admit that even having seen various different stagings of Verdi’s Nabucco before, I was intrigued.

I hear that both you and your friend are getting married to wealthy and pretty ladies from Washington DC?My heartiest congratulations, gentlemen! As my early wedding gift, allow me to offer you some marriage wisdom: when your beloved betray you, remember to forgive them and keep living happily ever after.Don’t believe in betrayal? Well, then, allow me to prove my point.

On Thursday night the DC opera fans gathered at the Washington National Opera for the opening night of David Alden’s production of Donizetti’s timeless tale of love and horror, Lucia di Lammermoor. It soon became obvious that the production presented to us was not the most conservative one.

Even though, unlike most American opera lovers, I am not a big fan of Puccini’s music, Tosca has a very special place in my heart. Set to the most heartbreaking and overwhelmingly beautiful music, this story of a classical love triangle ending in the three deaths never gets too old or too boring.

Having marked his 15th anniversary as the WNO’s artistic director earlier this month, Placido Domingo makes his final appearance as the company leader in the role of Oreste in Emilio Sagi’s production of Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride.The part is a fine choice for the artist.

If you believe that true happiness can be found in music, I have a recipe for you to follow. Take a funny story of disguise, sham and mock marriage and set it to great music. Add a quartet of bel canto stars (a lyric tenor, a coloratura soprano, a baritone and a bass) and dress them in spectacular 17th century costumes. Add pantomime artists, masked dancers and a chorus.

For over a century, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly has been one of the most famous and widely staged operas in the world. The secret of this undying popularity lies in the complex and contradictive nature of the main heroine. Audiences always look for new vocal and dramatic interpretations of the character and keep their expectations high for the leading soprano.