By Bernard Holland [NY Times, 19 September 2005]

WASHINGTON. Sept. 18 - The Washington National Opera enters middle age looking as healthy as it ever has. Fifty years ago there was no real company and no real season. Operas were put on one by one if someone found a way to pay for them. Sets were borrowed. A place at the Kennedy Center added legitimacy in 1971. An independent opera house in an old department store building was planned 10 years ago but proved impractical. Selling the property, however, put a lot of money in the company's bank account.