Mar 01, 2011
DCist at the Opera: ‘Madama Butterfly’
The Washington National Opera is going to make it through the financial crisis, thanks to being absorbed into the Kennedy Center. It has meant some sacrifices, not least of which is some less adventurous programming this season and next. Such is the company’s latest production of Puccini’s gorgeous but overdone Madama Butterfly, the most often produced opera in North America, according to Opera America.
May 19, 2009
DCist Goes to the Opera: Turandot
Act I of “Turandot,” directed by Andrei Şerban, Washington National Opera, 2009 (photo by Karin Cooper) After a spring season of more challenging operas — a vicious Peter Grimes and a controversial, Americanized Siegfried — Washington National Opera brought home the bacon on Saturday night, opening its final production, Puccini’s Turandot. The company presented this opera last time only in 2001 (with Alessandra Marc in the title role), and the Kirov Opera brought its…