Plácido Domingo is taking leave of Washington National Opera in a grand way this month, both on the stage as Oreste in a riveting production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride and at the podium.

Charles Downey provides us with one last Classical Music Agenda. Click through for your weekly picks, including a free recital by soprano Sarah Coburn at the National Museum of Women in the Arts tonight.

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.

Patricia Racette (Iphigénie) and Plácido Domingo (Oreste) in Iphigénie en Tauride, Washington National Opera, 2011 (photo by Scott Suchman) MUST SEE: >> Plácido Domingo is about to step down as artistic director of the Washington National Opera at the end of this season, though it may not mean that Domingo’s performance in the role of Oreste in this month’s production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride will be your last chance to see him on…

Yet again, this is one of those weeks where it’s very good to live in the district, if you want to hear some classical music for free, that is. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard MAKE IT FREE: >> Have some Bach at lunchtime with the Noontime Cantata series from the Washington Bach Consort this Tuesday (May 3, 12:10 p.m.). They will be performing Die Himmel lacht! Die Erde jubilieret, BWV 31, with organist Scott Dettra at the…

With holidays this week, there isn’t much going on in classical music. So that your Classical Music Agenda can take an Easter vacation, today’s installment covers the next two weeks.

Before the classical music schedule shuts down for the Easter holiday, here are a few concerts you should hear this week.

It is another busy week for classical music lovers in Washington, and here are our picks for the best performances in town.

Stile Antico >> The best things to hear this week are concerts of older music, beginning with harpsichordist Trevor Pinnock’s Tribute to Wanda Landowska on Tuesday night (March 29, 8 p.m.) in the free concert series at the Library of Congress. He will perform part of this concert on a Pleyel instrument that once belonged to Landowska, one of the pioneers of the harpsichord revival. Reserved seats are all claimed, but if you show…

>> Without a doubt, the concert not to be missed this week is the recital by soprano Christine Brewer and pianist Craig Rutenberg (March 23, 7:30 p.m.), presented by Vocal Arts D.C. in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. In a review of her last recital here, I described her voice as “that rara avis, a luscious and buttery dramatic soprano that has the power to strip paint off the walls but with the control and suavity to apply that nuclear force only when needed.”