Two weeks ago, we were telling you about the first opera in the Washington National Opera season. Last night, this DCist heard the second one, a gala production featuring the company's superstar music director, renowned tenor Plácido Domingo. The fact that he is singing in all three acts of this production, in alternation with working at the conductor's podium for the other production, I Vespri Siciliani, is remarkable for a musician of his age. As Tim Page put it in his review for the Post, "at the age of 64, Domingo continues to 'have it all'." Well, if not quite "all" in terms of vocal range and power, his magnetic power on the stage certainly continues to attract listeners worldwide. In fact, at intermission on the terrace of the Kennedy Center last night, we met a journalist who had travelled from Austria just to hear Domingo sing in this production. That's a serious opera lover.

This is officially the WNO's 50th Anniversary Season. Normally, this would have been a chance for a major opera company to make a big commission of a new opera. One of the most successful new operas in recent history, John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, was originally commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. However, commissions are expensive and often risky: in fact, Ghosts was not premiered until eight years after the 100th anniversary season it was intended to commemorate. Having just produced a not overwhelmingly successful new opera last season, Scott Wheeler's Democracy, WNO may be gun shy. Whatever the reasons, the company presented this production, Trilogy, as one of the major events to celebrate its golden anniversary. It's a sort of Frankenstein monster, single acts from three different operas stitched together to make an evening's worth of singing. If that image doesn't sound all that flattering, then you can tell that we were not all that excited by this before we went. In our opinion, this is the sort of gala affair appropriate for a summer lawn performance, not as an important part of an anniversary season. That being said, there is some radiant singing to be heard in this production, and it is worth your time, just to see Domingo on the stage, if for nothing else.

The first part of Trilogy is the second act of Umberto Giordano's Fedora, and it was supposed to be a vehicle for Domingo and another opera veteran, Mirella Freni, whom we loved in Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans. When La Freni had to withdraw, we were disappointed to learn that her replacement was Sylvie Valayre, the soprano in the second cast of Tosca last May. It's not a terrible opera, and we would have enjoyed Domingo and Freni together in it much more. In this act, there is a clever use of onstage piano, as a non-singing character, Lazinski (a terrible knockoff of the Chopin legend, played by Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist James Lesniak), gives a recital that forms the accompaniment for the singers. The big discovery of the act was powerhouse bass-baritone John Marcus Bindel, as tall and broad as his voice, as the villain, Gretch.

Far and away, though, the reason that you DCists should go see this production is the middle part, the tragic fourth act of Verdi's Otello, one of the most beautiful operas ever written. It's one of Domingo's signature roles, and we would much rather have seen a complete production of it than Trilogy. The best singer in this cast is the Desdemona, Barbara Frittoli, who showed perfect control in her high, supersoft singing. Bindel was back here, as one of the great villains of opera, the treacherous Iago, although he sang for only about 45 seconds. (All in all, Trilogy was a waste of a good singer in this case: we look forward to hearing Bindel again as Fasolt in the WNO production of Wagner's Das Rheingold in March.) We love Otello, but it did feel wrong to see only its tragic conclusion, especially between two such poor cousins on either side.

The final part of Trilogy, a bastardized version of the third act of Franz Lehár's operetta The Merry Widow, is hardly worth mentioning. Here, the guest star is not even an opera singer. In our opinion, featuring Broadway star Christiane Noll in this production, apparently in a bid to woo a larger public, seems like desperation on the part of WNO. The same is true of the bad jokes when the first two act's leading ladies return here, to sing a Mozart duet. Trilogy must have cost quite a lot for the name singers (although featuring so many of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program's singers was economically savvy). It may not be great art (except for that resplendent middle act), but for the chance to see Plácido Domingo, we would probably have sat through worse. We advise you to do the same, although Generation O tickets may be harder to find for this than for I Vespri Siciliani.

The remaining performances of Trilogy are matinees this Sunday and next Sunday (October 2 and 9, 2 p.m.) and this coming Thursday evening (October 6, 7:30 p.m.). There will be a short break for Washington National Opera until the final production of the fall, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, takes the stage on October 29.