22 stories by "Brett Dodson"
The Washington National Opera (WNO) turns again to one of Giuseppe Verdi's beloved masterworks to begin their 2018-2019 season. Artistic Director Francesca Zambello is joined this season by …
As the winner of eight Academy Awards in 1954 including Best Picture, and holding the position of No. 8 on the American Film Institute's top-100 list, the inclusion of “On the Water…
This is opera? It was only an hour. The music was jazzy and energetic. It was funny. There was gratuitous partial nudity. The leading role was the only one singing (or speaking!). The story …
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" at the John F. Kennedy Center is a delightful, high-energy production that can hardly be described as "semi-staged." A fabulous cast and fi…
Sunday evening's Washington National Opera Gala was as much a celebration of iconic American musician Leonard Bernstein, whose music was featured exclusively, as it was the National Opera. E…
In an all-Tchaikovsky program, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra joined forces with the Baltimore School for the Arts, presenting a program that highlighted some of the more classic works of …
The Philadelphia Orchestra rarely misses a year in which they trek down to either the Kennedy Center or Strathmore upon invitation of Washington Performing Arts to present a concert that lik…
The Washington National Opera, in collaboration with Opera Philadelphia and the Minnesota Opera, has mounted a new production of Giuseppe Verdi's dramatic masterwork “Don Carlo,”…
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) regularly makes the case for their consideration amongst the nation's finest orchestras, but perhaps seldom so strongly as with the quality displayed o…
In the cozy, slightly chilly, Bavarian-esque theater of the Wesley United Methodist Church on Connecticut Avenue, Artistic Director Katerina Souvorova stood before the audience, informing th…
It has been a decade since the Washington National Opera last presented a Baroque opera. The successes of the collaborative talents involved with their current production of Handel's “…
Despite a last-minute change in featured soloist, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Marin Alsop presented a fine performance Saturday evening at Strathmore Music Hall. Depa…
In their "Symphonic Stories" themed program Saturday evening at Strathmore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Jun Märkl presented a polished performance of works mostly i…
The Virginia Opera continued their season-opening production Saturday night at the George Mason University Center for the Arts with Camille Saint-SaÑ‘ns' biblical, seductive psychodrama, …
This weekend's National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) program highlights two iconic American composers of the previous century, along with a very brief work by John Adams, whose compositional voi…
This weekend, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra continued their season with another thematic program under the leadership of Music Director, Marin Alsop at Strathmore Music Hall. This time, the t…
In their first subscription series performance of the season, the Baltimore Symphony filled Strathmore with sounds that reminded why the DC Metro area is so lucky to be their "second home." …
In its season opener, the Washington National Opera presents an “Aida” that, despite the interpretive efforts of the design team, still has Verdi's voice ringing loudest and t…
Music and film have shared an intersecting path for over a century, from the days of unscripted piano accompanying silent films to the modern practice of orchestral scores recorded to coa…
Saturday's performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at Strathmore explored the connections music has to the most basic elements of human consciousness. Spirituality, cognizance, and r…
There's something about listening to Barbershop music in an intimate space that seems "just right." The tight harmonies, subtle inflections, and story-telling lyrics make being up close to t…
Virtuosity was on full display at Strathmore Thursday evening for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's performance of Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique" and Paganini's "Violin Concerto No. 1" w…
