Washington National Opera has made another significant advance in catching up to the latest trends in opera houses around the world, by staging its first-ever opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). The new production of Iphigénie en Tauride, which opened on Friday night, turns out to be the best work in an otherwise downsized and somewhat ho-hum season -- not only because it is the company's first Gluck opera and such a beautiful work, but because of a superb cast that proves gripping both musically and dramatically, in a production that is intriguing, stark and far from ordinary. more ›

The symphony orchestra has been dying for at least a decade. To reach new audiences, the theory goes, orchestras must innovate, explore new repertoire, come outside the concert hall. This weekend's concerts from the National Symphony Orchestra are one example of how to do just that. more ›

For Washington listeners who love the human voice, the song recital series presented by Vocal Arts D.C. offers the most refined delights. Since its founding as the Vocal Arts Society of Washington twenty years ago, the organization's genial director, Gerald Perman, has presided over a series of triumphs: exquisite concerts of art songs and opera by the world's best singers, some of them already known and others given their Washington debuts. To celebrate, the group joined with Washington Performing Arts Society to host Joyce DiDonato for a praiseworthy concert in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall last night. more ›

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy's inauguration turned a generational tide in the United States, a watershed event being celebrated this month at the performing arts center named for him on the banks of the Potomac. Among those filled with hope for the future by the young president's election were artists, writers and, not least, classical musicians, who welcomed his words about the importance of the arts to the life of the country. more ›

'Twas the week before Christmas, and nothing is stirring in the concert hall. Check out our roundup of Christmas concerts for what is left this week. There are a few options for New Year's concerts and the first week of January noted below -- with that, the Classical Music Agenda will go on a much-deserved hiatus for a couple weeks. Happy New Year! more ›

Here's your chance to enjoy a holiday classic and do some good for the community at the same time. The National Symphony Orchestra is partnering with Capital Area Food Bank during its performances of Handel's this weekend (December 16 to 19). if you attend the performance — and even if you do not — you are encouraged to bring cans of food to the lobby of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall between Thursday and Sunday. We already tipped the NSO's performance as likely to be the most interesting one of a work that is performed way too much for its own good. Rinaldo Alessandrini, known for his fast-paced, hard-edged recordings with the Italian early music ensemble Concerto Italiano, will conduct, and he has four soloists of considerable promise. As reported before Thanksgiving, the Capital Area Food Bank has been hit by a double-whammy this year: the combination of much higher demand and far fewer donations. Give what you can! more ›

By this point in December, most of the music to be heard will be accompanied by jingling bells: see our holiday concert roundup for those concerts. A few other options are available, though. more ›

If you are looking for music laced with sugar plums and roasting chestnuts, see my roundup of holiday concerts from last Friday. For music not for the holidays, here are some picks for the rest of the week. more ›

Omnipresent Christmas music assaults one's ears throughout the month of December. If it does not push you over the edge, you may be the sort of person who actually wants to hear a Christmas concert at this time of the year. Our picks for the season's most interesting holiday concerts follow, mostly free of Christmas chestnuts: much more of the best of the rest after the jump. more ›

Most concerts in December are of the holiday variety; keep an eye out this week for a roundup of the good and schmaltzy. If you want to hear some music without jingling bells, here are your choices this week. more ›

The Thanksgiving holiday clears out most of the classical music calendar. If you find yourself in Washington this week, here are a few options. more ›

The focus in today's agenda is on unusual music being offered in concerts. If you are tired of hearing the same old pieces again and again, this is your week. more ›

This week, our focus is on several big-name soloists visitng town. All of them should be worth your time. more ›

With so many promising concerts on the schedule this week, there's something to listen to everyday, perhaps in the following order. more ›

Once more we lead off with concerts that will cost you nothing but time; this week proving again that some of the best concerts to be heard in Washington are... more ›

>> Without a doubt, the major event of the week is Tuesday's performance of Mahler's eighth symphony, the "Symphony of a Thousand," by the Mariinsky Orchestra (October 19, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. It is an immense work: part liturgical worship and part Faustian apotheosis, it requires hundreds of performers (if not quite the thousand implied by its nickname). With Valery Gergiev at the podium, it could be transcendent. more ›

After three programs to open the season, the Christoph Eschenbach era at the National Symphony Orchestra is off to an excellent start. Like last week's concert and, to a lesser degree the first week before that, in this weekend's concert, heard last night, the NSO players sounded unified, energized, well rehearsed and brimming with confidence. more ›

One of the best things about living in Washington is the bevy of cultural opportunities around town, many of which, free. And when it comes to classical music, some of the best concerts available are free. Do you see a theme to this week's agenda yet? more ›

Washington National Opera has had a rough couple of years: the cancellation of its Ring cycle and shortening of its season because of the recession, a rumored merger with the Kennedy Center and the departure of its general director, Plácido Domingo. Even before that, the company's music director, Heinz Fricke -- who had done so much to improve the quality of the Opera Orchestra and conducted so many of its best performances -- became ill. Maestro Fricke came less and less often to Washington, and some of the company's productions languished musically without his much-needed guidance. As rumored this summer and even earlier, Fricke has become music director emeritus, and the man we suspected to be in line to replace him has been officially appointed as new music director. more ›

Whether you are a devotee of classical music and opera or just want to try something different, there are many exciting concerts, many not costing you any money, to hear this week after the jump. more ›

Christoph Eschenbach is here and in the sold-out Kennedy Center Concert Hall last night, the excitement was palpable for his first program with the National Symphony Orchestra. The new music director's tenure promises a focus on contemporary music such as Matthias Pintscher's , which opened this first subscription concert. The piece, having premiered in 1999, received its Washington debut last night; in fact, this was the first time that the NSO has performed any piece by Pintscher. To keep more traditionally minded listeners interested, he is pairing many of these modern works with audience favorites, as he did last night with Beethoven's always popular Ninth Symphony. more ›

>> Without a doubt, one of the most keenly anticipated concerts of the fall is tomorrow's performance by Catalan viola da gambist Jordi Savall and his Baroque music ensemble Hespèrion XXI (September 27, 8 p.m.) in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The program is drawn from his recent CD of 17th- and 18th-century music from the New World, in collaboration with the folk music group Tembembe Ensemble Continuo. Tickets are only $15. more ›

>> The season opening galas continue next weekend with the National Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Ball on Saturday night (September 25, 7 p.m.). Any time that soprano Renée Fleming and pianist Lang Lang appear on a stage somewhere, tickets will sell, but how much does anyone really want to hear Fleming sing Strauss's Four Last Songs or Lang Lang play Liszt's first piano concerto? Not to mention the other fluff on the program. The real action at the NSO will begin next month. more ›

It's September, and there are actually enough concerts on the schedule that it must be time for the weekly Classical Music Agenda to return from its summer vacation at the beach. Here is what you should go hear this week. more ›

The latest spin-off from Peter Jackson's in 2009. Finally, the Filene Center hosted the U.S. premiere of this version of the final film last night; an evening of pleasantly cool air, no rain and plenty of amped-up Tolkien nuts. more ›

Until now, Washingtonians seemed to have avoided the opera crunch. But although Plácido Domingo raised the Washington National Opera's profile during his tenure as General Director, the company has been hanging by a thread financially more ›

Among the sometimes wacky performances of the Capital Fringe Festival are some unexpected offerings of the more mainstream variety, with a twist. An adventurous little company called Opera Alterna, which presented two new operas by local composers at last year's festival, returns with an earnest production of Thomas Pasatieri's 1967 melodrama Padrevia. The company is making the revival of Pasatieri's concise, neo-Romantic operas a specialty, after presenting two of them at the 2008 Fringe Festival. Pasatieri, writing his own libretto, adapted a tragic story from Boccaccio's Decameron, the first novella from Giornata IV, a day on which all the members of the brigata told stories of love that ended badly. Tancred, the Prince of Salerno, loves his only daughter, Gismonda, so much that he keeps her isolated from all other people in his palace. Reaching adulthood, she finds love by arranging to meet with Guiscardo, who tends the palace garden. Needless to say, Tancred catches the lovers in the act, leading to a violent conclusion, a verismo shocker that could pass at times as the fourth act of Puccini's Il Trittico. more ›

For the last subscription concerts of the season, the National Symphony Orchestra brought guest conductor Juraj Valčuha to the podium last night, in an alluring program of Haydn, Szymanowski, and Mahler. This concludes a two-year interim period before incoming music director Christoph Eschenbach takes the reins of the orchestra in the fall. The weekly game of "Who's Conducting This Week?" has given the NSO faithful the chance to make the acquaintance of a broad range of guest conductors, and Valčuha's debut with the orchestra is one of the high points. In one sense, this is a program for cognoscenti rather than those concert-goers who most enjoy hearing the same expected favorites over and over again. On the other hand, it is also excellent listening, plain and simple. more ›

The miserable heat outside pretty much spells the end of the classical music season, so your Classical Music Agenda is going on its well-deserved summer hiatus. Here are some concerts you might want to hear during the rest of this month -- the Agenda will return in a couple weeks with some picks for July. more ›