Mark McCullough News

Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) announces 2017-18 Season including performances in NYC, national and international touring, and new community programming.

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2017-2018 season with a new production of Verdi's grand Egyptian epic Aida, September 9-23, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2017-2018 season with a new production of Verdi's grand Egyptian epic Aida, September 9-23, 2017, in the Kennedy Center Opera House.

The Glimmerglass Festival opened its 2017 season last night with The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess.  Due to popular demand, The Glimmerglass Festival has added a performance to the Festival schedule on Tuesday, August 15, at 8 p.m. in the Alice Busch Opera Theater.

The Glimmerglass Festival opened its 2017 season last night with The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. Due to popular demand, The Glimmerglass Festival has added a performance to the Festival schedule on Tuesday, August 15, at 8 p.m. in the Alice Busch Opera Theater.

The Glimmerglass Festival has released the details of its 2018 schedule. For a second year, the Festival's programming will explore themes of home and country.

DC is a topsy-turvy, satirical farce; or so it seems this morning. Happily, so is The School for Lies. At least The School for Lies is fiction and man, it felt good to laugh.

Tony Award-nominee David Ives and STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn, the team that created the award-winning French 'trilogy' of The Liar, The Heir Apparent and The Metromaniacs, will unite once more to present a newly revamped version of Ives' The School For Lies at the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW) from May 30-July 2, 2017.

Opera is for everyone-and so is Seattle Opera's 2017/18 season! There's a new bilingual performance for elementary-school students, new performance venues such as Georgetown Steam Plant, a new mainstage collaboration with ACT Theatre and Seattle Symphony leaders, and even an outdoor performance offered free of charge. Regardless of background or socioeconomic status, this season offers ways for a broad audience to be able to experience opera; it's an open invitation for the Pacific Northwest. 

Despite it's bombastic and highly visible ensemble of cheery papas, THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT is a showcase for its two stars, Oropesa and Brownlee.

San Francisco Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in a new production directed by Francesca Zambello and featuring designs by Los Angeles-based, contemporary visual artist RETNA(Marquis Duriel Lewis). A co-production with Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera and Minnesota Opera, this striking and bold vision for Verdi's enduring classic will feature soprano Leah Crocetto and tenor Brian Jagdein their role debuts as the lovers at the heart of the opera, the enslaved princess Aida and the Egyptian war hero Radames.

San Francisco Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in a new production directed by Francesca Zambello and featuring designs by Los Angeles-based, contemporary visual artist RETNA (Marquis Duriel Lewis). A co-production with Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera and Minnesota Opera, this striking and bold vision for Verdi's enduring classic will feature soprano Leah Crocetto and tenor Brian Jagde in their role debuts as the lovers at the heart of the opera, the enslaved princess Aida and the Egyptian war hero Radames. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is Amneris, the daughter of the king who desires Radames' love, baritone George Gagnidze portrays Aida's vengeful father, Amonasro, and bass Raymond Aceto is Ramfis. The international cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Company Music DirectorNicola Luisotti. Resident Conductor Jordi Bernàcer will conduct the final performance on December 6.Ian Robertson is Chorus Director.

Washington National Opera (WNO) continues its 2016–2017 season with a new production of Gaetano Donizetti's mashup of slapstick comedy and charming romance—The Daughter of the Regiment, November 12–20, 2016, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. The cast is led by superstar tenor Lawrence Brownlee as the hero Tonio and fast-rising soprano Lisette Oropesa, who starred as Susanna earlier this season in WNO's The Marriage of Figaro, as Marie. While the opera is best known for the vocal acrobatics required of its singers, the high-comedy antics of the non-singing role of The Duchess of Krakenthorp often steal the show. On opening night, November 12, 2016, the role of The Duchess will be performed by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her official Washington National Opera stage debut. The brand-new WNO production is directed by acclaimed Broadway director and choreographer Robert Longbottom, and the WNO Orchestra is led by rising conductor Christopher Allen, both in their WNO debuts.

San Francisco Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi's Aida in a new production directed by Francesca Zambello and featuring designs by Los Angeles-based, contemporary visual artist RETNA(Marquis Duriel Lewis). A co-production with Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera and Minnesota Opera, this striking and bold vision for Verdi's enduring classic will feature soprano Leah Crocetto and tenor Brian Jagde in their role debuts as the lovers at the heart of the opera, the enslaved princess Aida and the Egyptian war hero Radames. Mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk is Amneris, the daughter of the king who desires Radames' love, baritoneGeorge Gagnidze portrays Aida's vengeful father, Amonasro, and bass Raymond Aceto is Ramfis. The international cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Company Music Director Nicola Luisotti. Resident Conductor Jordi Bernacer will conduct the final performance on December 6. Ian Robertson is Chorus Director.

San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock today announced the casting and schedule for the Company's summer 2018 presentations of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). The four-opera cycle of Das Rheingold,Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung-widely considered the greatest and most ambitious work ever conceived for the lyric stage-will be presented in three complete cycles from June 12 through July 1, 2018. 

Legend has it there were five encores at the triumphant Viennese premiere of Mozart and da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro on May 1, 1786. By the same token, Washington National Opera's new production of the effervescent comic opera deserved just as many ovations. Now playing through Sunday, October 2 in the Kennedy Center Opera House, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO with Mozart's bubbly score and de Ponte's delicious libretto sparkles as bright as ever. The cast of first class singing-actors and the prime conducting skills of James Gaffigan are reason enough to take a seat for this masterpiece.

Washington National Opera (WNO) opens its 2016-2017 season with a new-to-Washington staging of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's masterpiece of romantic comedy-The Marriage of Figaro, September 22-October 2, 2016, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. One of opera's most enduring and beloved classics, The Marriage of Figaro tells an upstairs/downstairs story of love, lust, seduction, infidelity, and ultimately, forgiveness, all set to some of the most sublime and memorable music ever written.

The Glimmerglass Festival, which presents four mainstage productions of opera and musical theater as well as many events every summer, has released the details of its 2017 schedule.

Director Francesca Zambello's Gotterdammerung is truly awesome-in both the original and contemporary senses of the word.  The conclusion of a four-part epic, this six-hour installment depicts the final struggle for ownership of a magical ring whose owner might rule the world-but which also holds a dire curse for all who come into contact with it. Through unforgettable projections, beautifully-executed music and stunning vocal performances, this is a once-in-a-lifetime artistic event. 

Ten years of planning and $10 million in production costs couldn't prevent the Washington National Opera from pleasing all the gods in its ambitious staging of all four operas in Richard Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung.