The roles of Lisette and Prunier have been sung by soprano Deanna Breiwick and tenor Jonathan Johnson, younger singers who’ve carried out at main opera homes across the US. Ms. Breiwick sang effectively and gave us a convincing cheeky maid with dashed aspirations and a profitable coronary heart. Mr. Johnson’s shiny tenor displayed effectively in a number of arias and gave us a fairly convincing poet, pretentious and exacting in love. Each of those younger performers seem headed for higher issues. Rambaldo was performed by a now worldwide opera star and a neighborhood favourite, baritone Javier Arrey whose voice provides coloration to any efficiency. He gave Magda’s companion, Rambaldo, a softer edge, extra likable. I couldn’t assist however marvel if the storyline would have been aided by having Mr. Arrey play Prunier and Mr. Johnson play Ruggero, giving us a extra worldly clever Prunier and a younger lover for Magda to desert. Enjoying Magda’s associates and including to the enjoyable have been soprano Tess Ottinger, soprano Natalie Conte, and mezzo-soprano Melanie Ashkar.
With La Rondine, I really feel Puccini supplied the melodious music and the showcase roles for glorious singers to show their wares for this opera to be successful, however in the long run, had hassle flattening the three-point shot to win the sport, to return to my basketball analogy. For a “comedian opera, lighter in nature”, I’d have most popular a cheerful ending or at the very least yet one more bittersweet than bitter. That stated, WCO with this solid, headed by Ms. Perez made for an distinctive efficiency.
The Fan Expertise: Washington Live performance Opera performances are usually one and finished, and for me, are all the time a spotlight of the opera season. La Rondine was carried out on April 7 in Lisner Auditorium. The opera was carried out in live performance type and sung in Italian with English surtitles on an overhead display.
WCO has introduced their productions for the 2024-2025 season which is expanded to 3 operas as a substitute of their regular two: Puccini’s Manon Lescaut on November 24, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito on March 1, and Verdi’s Luisa Miller on April 13. WCO Government Director said in her pre-opera feedback that Lisner Auditorium can be upgrading their seats over the summer time, extra legroom for the orchestra part and extra consolation for all.
Peter Russell, Common Director of Vocal Arts DC, introduced a pre-opera discuss and supplied program notes. His talks are impressively detailed and informative.
In my expertise, all of the seats in Lisner Auditorium are high quality for viewing the efficiency, however the sound might be higher in direction of the middle of the auditorium. Parking on the road across the auditorium is catch as catch can; you should definitely learn the indicators! Metro is 2 blocks away. WCO has a customer net web page with instructions and parking data, useful find close by parking tons.
