After five months, 138 costumes, and 37 wigs, “La traviata” is ready for the stage.

Soprano Cristina Nassif is a 20-something native of the Maryland suburbs. The daughter of an opera singer mother and a pianist father, Nassif received a music degree at the University of Maryland and got her start on the stage in the Virginia Opera Young Artist Program. Last season, she triumphed with Virginia Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, which brought her to the attention of the hungry eye of Plácido Domingo, ever watchful for…

In late October the major musical groups in Washington — the Washington National Opera and National Symphony Orchestra — take a break from performing for a couple weeks until November. You might think that their absence would mean a reduction of concert volume, but this is not really the case. In fact, we have a lot to tell you people about for the next two weeks, and without opera and symphony, we may even get…

Boy meets courtesan. Families disapprove. Tuberculosis gets in the way. The tale may border on predictable. But Neil Bartlett’s Camille, making its American debut at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, in the tradition of the many adaptions which came before it, proves that it’s not always about a complex plot, if you know how to tell a story right. The play is based on the allegedly-autobiographical novel by Alexandre Dumas fils, (son of that…

Plays by women; plays about women. The fairer sex captures the imagination of many D.C. theaters this September, offering works by celebrated female authors and performing plays that focus on female characters. And if that’s not your thing, well, there’s always Kafka. Two area theaters present works by Caryl Churchill — Studio Theatre performing A Number beginning Sept. 7, and Fountainhead Theatre staging Top Girls, which opens Sept. 8. The former show explores ethical issues…