Is Berio’s Sinfonia a masterpiece, or a work of its time that today seems outdated? Written in 1968 during a time of revolution it is not in itself a work…
Category: Performances
Das Rheingold and Die Walküre in Bayreuth
The first two of this fourth edition of the 2022 Bayreuth Ring des Nibelungen, staged by Valentin Schwarz, with the understanding that the Bayreuth Festival mounts a new Ring every…
Canto Virginia Delights Audiences of All Ages with Outreach Performance Who’s Afraid of Opera?
Outreach performances are often viewed as a rite of passage for young aspiring opera singers, in many cases involving travel to schools for 8 A.M. assembly performances. The advantage Canto…
Back to the Future: Verdi’s Macbeth at Teatro Nuovo
Big American opera companies in America today resemble Broadway companies. They strive to fill gargantuan theaters by serving up a mix of warhorses and crossover repertoire, staged by celebrity directors,…
Berlin Staatsoper’s poignant re-interpretation of Strauss’s comedy Die schweigsame Frau
Die schweigsame Frau (1935) was Strauss’s only collaboration with Stefan Zweig – a writer as prominent and satisfactory for the composer to work with as Hugo von Hofmannsthal had been…
Glyndebourne brings Falstaff to Metroland
In Richard Jones’s production of Verdi’s last opera, first seen in 2009, big, bold sets evoke mid-1940s Windsor, just after the end of the War. The mock Tudor facades of…
A new Meistersinger in Bayreuth
Following the one with the gigantic blow-up of Beckmesser as a caricatured evil Jew. Zeitgeist has now made Beckmesser a populist rockstar, (lead photo, Michael Nagy as Beckmesser). The problem…
An Evening With Loudoun Lyric Opera Brings Art Song to Loudoun County
As part of their Midsummer Opera Dream festival this year, Canto Vocal Programs collaborated for the first time in its ten-year history with Loudoun Lyric Opera on an art song…
Washington National Opera Coach Ken Weiss Holds Masterclass With Canto Virginia
In addition to its core faculty of opera industry professionals, Canto Vocal Programs makes it a point to provide its students with instruction and feedback from industry professionals from outside…
Canto Vocal Programs Hosts A Romantic Evening With “The Love Concert”
Mere hours after the wonderful morning outreach performance last Saturday, the singers of Canto Virginia 2025 performed a larger, more formal concert with the theme of love. Canto Vocal Programs…