There is little doubt that the main event this week is the opening of the final part of the Washington National Opera’s season. The company’s penultimate production, Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa in a staging by David Alden, won the Laurence Olivier Award this year for best new opera production. For reasons beyond understanding, not a single performance has sold out, although this is likely to be the high point of the WNO season. Some people may be timid about Czech opera or may not be familiar with Janáček, and others may be uncomfortable with the subject matter. Take our advice: if you care about music drama, do not miss this opera.

OPERA:
>> Jenůfa is a tragic story about a small-town girl caught between love, a domineering foster mother, and the moral expectations of a stifling Bohemian town. It is a searing drama, set with Janáček’s signature style of melody based on the rhythms of Czech speech. This performance by the Washington National Opera has an excellent cast, including Patricia Racette in the title role, as well as one of the best conductors of Czech music today, Jiří Bĕlohlávek. Performances are scheduled for May 5, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, and 24, in the Kennedy Center Opera House. If you are a student or young professional, ages 18 to 35, you can become a member of the special program called Generation O, to qualify for tickets at greatly reduced prices.

>> Two performances remain in the production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, by the small but earnest company Opera Bel Cantanti, in Silver Spring’s Randolph Road Theater. May 4, 7:30 p.m.; May 6, 3 p.m.

ALSO WORTH MENTION:
>> For the symphonically inclined, we recommend a trip to Charm City, where the Baltimore Symphony will be performing a concert featuring conductor Marin Alsop and violinist Leila Josefowicz. This program includes a work by John Adams, The Dharma at Big Sur, and takes place only at Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. May 3 and 4, 8 p.m.

>> For your chamber music fix, the Kennedy Center Chamber Players perform a concert on Sunday in the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The program combines the rare and thorny (a Françaix trio and the Hindemith trombone sonata) with the more familiar (Schubert’s Trout quintet). Tickets: $35. May 6, 2 p.m.

>> Free concerts after the jump.

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