It's been 54 years since Cabaret first opened on Broadway, but this season is the first time the Olney Theatre Center has staged the show. I have always loved this Kander and Ebb masterpiece…
Traveling through the south of France one glorious September, regardless of where my companion and I found ourselves, it seemed that at one point in the afternoon, there would be a classical…
Although I review the arts, most of my career has been spent as a health sciences writer. The combination means that although statistics might drive the bulk of what I write, my mind instinc…
Now that National Symphony Orchestra music director Gianandrea Noseda has nearly completed two full seasons " and has signed on to stay through 2025 " a clearer picture of the possibilities …
From the nexus of divas, dollars, and diplomats at this year's Washington National Opera Gala, there arose a thrilling truth: The finely frocked foreigners in attendance might question Ameri…
The Washington National Opera's (WNO) fine opening night performance of Puccini's Tosca provided an opportunity for catharsis and reflection, two things our overwrought city needs right n…
In the early 1990s, I lived in New Orleans at the corner of Philip and Constance streets. At the time, it was the transition zone between the toney Garden District and the St. Thomas project…
Let's get the persnickety stuff out of the way first. Then we can get to why the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's second Porgy and Bess in concert at the Strathmore Music Center in three years…
Food trucks are a fun and a convenient way to sample something tasty and new, but don't forget to check out the bars " of music that is. Several DC area venues offer bite-sized classical mus…
For thirty years, the Washington Bach Consort has offered its Noontime Cantata Series to Washingtonians seeking a free musical escape in the middle of the workday, something District officia…
It's been a quarter of a century since Satan came to call on the Kennedy Center, but the Washington National Opera's production of Faust (with music by Charles Gounod and libretto by Jules B…
Marin Alsop thinks we're ready for a "new normal" in classical music. That is why the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's music director has commissioned a work by a renowned composer who happens…
The Kennedy Center's artistic directorial staff defended their calculus for choosing their collective 2019-2020 classical-music season during a media briefing and panel discussion earlier th…
Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, the composer's operatic meditation on the metaphysical nature of love, sex, and death, is generally accepted to be the "before/after" point in the history of …
The Maryland Lyric Opera's stated raison d'etre is to find and nurture good singers, then give them a place to test their meddle on masterworks such as those by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, and t…
Opera in America has had the stink of death upon it for some time now. Lavish productions of period piece love stories and power struggles set largely during the time of kings and courtesans…
Growing up in Southeast DC, Soloman Howard had a godfather who saw to it that the young singer's obvious basso gift did not languish for lack of training and opportunity. "My godfather, Thom…