394 stories by "Susan Galbraith"
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote The Magic Flute as a fairy tale fantasy he was seeking broad popular appeal. Washington National Opera has followed suit with this production, including pr…
Rarely does a reviewer get to indulge in a second viewing of a production. In this case, director Tom Morris' splendid production of A Midsummer Night's Dream is well worth multiple viewings…
Nothing quite prepares you for a Marguerite Duras play, so rarely is she done on this side of the Atlantic. As delicate as lace, as ephemeral as the foam on the waves that provide the aural …
World Stages, an International Festival offers three weeks of feasting on international theatrical fare at the Kennedy Center with twenty-two theatrical offerings from nineteen countries, in…
Washington Concert Opera is about to bring Giuseppe Verdi's rarely produced Il Corsaro to the Lisner Auditorium March 9th. It's the two-hundredth birthday of composer Verdi, and there is…
Massive. Emotionally wrenching. Magnificent. On Saturday night, at the east coast premiere of Moby-Dick, the Washington National Opera audience sighted the breaching of a great American …
When you want to understand a new theatrical work in a challenging form like opera, with its many moveable parts, it's not enough to plop down for a single performance. Ideally, you should a…
Souvenir purports to be one big gag about bad opera singing " and of course some people would say all opera singing is appallingly funny– so a comedy based on the life of an historic, …
This past weekend the Kennedy launched its first annual International Arts Leaders Forum. It was a grand vision with as grand a title. The stated goal was that big institutional leaders woul…
When the spotlight hits Freda Payne in the opening number, its dusty light swirling around her evoking a club atmosphere, you could swear the first lady of song has been reincarnated. Payne …
There is more swishing than swashbuckling in the latest Constellation Theatre Company production of Scapin, but all is delivered with such juicy enthusiasm and at such daredevil speed that t…
Watching Mikhail Baryshnikov in Man in a Case is everything that so much American Chekhov in adaptation is not; there's nothing languid about this performance, but rather we watch his charac…
Composer Jeanine Tesori has a new work opening December 14th at the John F. Kennedy Center, with its special Christmas theme making it a suitable holiday treat for the whole family. Commissi…
As professionals came together at the John F. Kennedy Center the weekend of November 22nd, across the spectrum of music styles, two ideas came to predominate in the program American Voices..…
As I observed master class after master class across the spectrum of vocal music that was represented this past weekend in American Voices, I learned that the format is more comfortable for …
Last Friday evening, the premiere jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves ran a Jazz Master Session in the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center. Renée Fleming moderated the event as part of a week…
Dispatches from American Voices: Renee Fleming & Friends Opera singer Renee Fleming contacted Michael Kaiser of the Kennedy Center over a year ago with the idea to gather together singer…
When Maurice Hines walks out on the Kreeger stage, he is home. He glows happiness. He blows kisses and loves his audience up. Â He tells stories and sings standard after standard with a de…
"Invest in what you love." Washington National Opera and The Kennedy Center have put their considerable forces behind doing just that, and what Artistic Director Francesca Zambello loves is …
Michael Stebbins stands on stage in black — a shapeless dress, stockings, and orthopedic laced shoes, with a square headscarf hiding his hair. It could almost be a wimple and he a nun …
Signature Theatre has mined something with its world premiere of Crossing that is deep, mysterious, and, just maybe, more precious than gold. Such richness isn't easily retrieved, but the jo…
You have to hand it to Synetic's Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili. It took courage to turn his back on the basic 'wordless' formula that has won the company many accolades with its inve…
You could fairly hear the crackle of anticipation on opening night at Arena Stage when the lights went up on Estelle Parsons. She sat asleep in a chair and there she slept " until the audien…
There are many brave aspects of this elegantly sparse production, including its hypnotic single set of rippling silk walls and composer Richard Wagner's romantic yearnings stripped-down to t…
The Kennedy Center’s 12th annual Page-to-Stage event was an all you-can-eat buffet last Monday. Not to worry if the flavors and tastes run together. Everyone won in this Labor Day Week…
