Artiste: The Washington Chorus

Torrential downpours and the croaking of consumptive frogs fail to dampen spirits at Wolf Trap's National Symphony Orchestra concert featuring pianist Seong-Jin Cho, JoAnn Falletta and a massive community chorus.

In program notes, Christoph Eschenbach, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra, calls Parsifal “the culmination of Wagner’s work”. For his orchestra’s recent celebration of Wagner’s bicentennial at the Kennedy Center, Eschenbach programmed a concert performance of Act III of the composer’s final opera: the culmination of the culmination, one could say.

When death takes away everyone you ever loved, acting cool and staying amiable might not be the easiest things to do. You start having thoughts you never dared think before. You start questioning the unquestionable. Chances are you will turn into an agnostic. Giuseppe Verdi did.