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Nine Months Later: WNO Completes Three Rousing Cycles of Wagner's Ring Cycle

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After a lot of international travel and a hiatus from attending many performances, I finally got back into the Kennedy Center for Washington National Opera's production of  Der Ring des Nibelungen , the company's (and city's) first full cycle. I was happy to be able to attend this momentous event, and found the performances, direction, and overall concept gripping. I attended Cycle II. As I've said it similar situations before, this review will necessarily be briefer on each topic than some of my reviews, but hopefully will cover ground across the cycle and provide an overall perspective. Der Ring des Nibelungen Director:  Francesca Zambello Conductor:  Philippe Auguin Set Designer:  Michael Yeargan Costume Designer:  Catherine Zuber Lighting Designer:  Mark McCullough Projection Designers:  S. Katy Tucker and Jan Hartley Movement Director:  Denni Sayers Key *WNO debut ‡ Current Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist ± Former Domingo-Cafritz Youn...
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Opera On Two Continents

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Over the past two weeks I had the wonderful opportunity to return to Vienna, where I studied in 2011 and posted many of the reviews on this blog. While I was there, I attended three more operas at the Wiener Staatsoper, bringing my standing room total there to 29 operas (and one Volksoper opera - for 30 standing room operas in Vienna): Puccini's La boheme , Massenet's Werther , and Strauss' Elektra . All three were excellent, particularly the latter two. Upon my return to the United States last week, I immediately was at a performance of the revised version of Philip Glass' Appomattox . This performance was also quite interesting for me, as it is the second Glass opera I have seen and very different from his Satyagraha  in London. As a bonus: a quick review of a concert by The Tenors (formerly The Canadian Tenors) performing one man down. Reviews will be shorter than a standard review, but the performances raised a few interesting points I want to record. Vienna ...
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Location: Arlington, VA 22201, USA
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