Classical Music Agenda
Friday, DCist went to the symphony, and we told you about the National Symphony's first concert and the schedule for the rest of their 75th anniversary season. September is also the time when our minds start to turn to thoughts of opera in Washington. Wouldn't it be great if there were some way to hear an opera and at the same time help suffering people?
OPERA THIS WEEK:
>> This Wednesday (September 14 at 7 p.m.), you could do just that by attending the dress rehearsal of Washington National Opera's new production of I Vespri Siciliani by masterful Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (shown here). If you want to attend this event, you don't need a ticket, but donations (suggested as $100 per seat but not limited to that amount, of course) will be collected for the American Red Cross's efforts directed toward Hurricane Katrina relief. WNO director and opera superstar Plácido Domingo will conduct a cast headed by soprano Maria Guleghina, a high-octane Ukrainian soprano whom opera blogger Sieglinde's Diaries dubbed the Oceanliner and the Sonic Boom, during her appearance as Abigaille in last season's Nabucco at the Met. For more information on attending the dress rehearsal, call (202) 295-2420, on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. This DCist will be attending the opera's fabulous premiere performance this Saturday (September 17 at 7 p.m.), and we will give you our impression. As of today, no performance is sold out, which hopefully means that there will be lots of tickets made available to members of Generation O, the reduced-price ticket program for students and young professionals, ages 18 to 35. We've said this before, but go sign up, people: opera does not have to be as expensive as you think.
>> A little local company called Opera Bel Cantanti will present four staged and complete performances of Donizetti's comic opera La Fille du Régiment over the next couple weeks. This highly entertaining work makes or breaks tenors, as it did for a young Luciano Pavarotti before he became a superstar, because of Tonio's famous aria "Ah! Mes Amis," with its incredible series of high C's. Performances this week are on Friday (September 16 at 7:30 p.m.) in North Bethesda United Methodist Church (10100 Old Georgetown Rd.) and Sunday (September 18 at 7:30 p.m.) at Christ Lutheran Church (8011 Old Georgetown Rd.), both in Bethesda. Tickets: $30 (students, $20).
ALSO WORTH NOTING:
>> It's a big year for anniversaries, and the U.S. Army Chorus is celebrating its 50th with a big concert on Wednesday (September 14 at 7:30 p.m.), in the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. It's a free concert, but you must request a ticket at the Kennedy Center box office (unclaimed seats will go to the general public 15 minutes before the concert). The all-male chorus will perform pieces in a "wide range of styles including pop, Broadway, folk, and classical music."
>> On Friday (September 16 at 8 p.m.) cellist David Finckel (of the world-famous Emerson Quartet) and his wife, pianist Wu Han (whom we heard together in a marvelous concert last May at the Library of Congress), will give a recital at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park. The program, called The Unfolding of Music, follows the course of music history by exploring the work of five composers: Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy and Britten. Tickets: $30 (students, $7). The artists will present an informal conversation-lecture, free and open to the public, earlier in the afternoon at 2 p.m.
>> We like Britten and everything, but he died in 1976, and sometimes this DCist likes to listen to music by 21st-century composers who are, you know, still alive. This Sunday (September 18 at 4:30 p.m.) is the first concert of the wonderful Contemporary Music Forum at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. This installment features newer pieces by Jeffrey Mumford, Adam Silverman, and Eric Moe, as well as George Perle's Critical Moments (for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion), from 1996, a piece we would really like to hear live. George Perle is a Pulitzer Prize winner, a serial composer (a relic in this era of pseudotonality), and he has celebrated his 90th birthday this year. Tickets: $20 (members, $15). Also, I can end with the two best words in the English language with which to advertise a concert: reception follows.