Opera is not one thing; it is many things. It provides entertainment that gives pleasure and distraction, providing relief from our daily toil. The human voice and music speak to our hearts and souls, and the stories bring into focus the shared humanity of diverse audiences. Wolf Trap Opera is living proof that opera is grounded in community.
The Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, nestled just outside the beltway west of Washington DC, will soon begin its 50th Season of summer concerts at the Filene Center; the new season leads off live, before-an-audience, concerts on June 18 with a performance by Wolf Trap Opera. Enjoying picnics and summer concerts at Wolf Trap is now a Washington tradition, and if you are an opera fan, Wolf Trap Opera has been your summer oasis for opera since 1971, and for many area residents, has provided their introduction to opera. Audiences will be allowed back into the Filene Center this year after last year’s forced closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though still with limitations – see The Fan Experience below.
Through a highly competitive process, Wolf Trap Opera each year brings new cadres of Filene Artists and Studio Artists to Wolf Trap to further hone their skills and develop their talents. Some singers will be returnees and familiar to WTO audiences. Even in the pandemic summer of 2020, WTO managed to keep their training programs for emerging artists operative, broadcasting their concerts online and offering a creative presentation of the fan favorite, Jukebox Arias, discussed further down. Opera singers who have trained with Wolf Trap Opera include Denyce Graves, Eric Owens, Christine Goerke, Alan Held, Kate Lindsey, Lawrence Brownlee, Ying Fang, and Morris Robinson, to name a few. Recently, mezzo-soprano Emily Treigle, a Studio Artist last season, was a Grand Finals winner at the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition (formerly known as the Met Opera National Audition Awards). The opportunity to see and hear these highly talented emerging artists, young in their careers, with many on their way to stardom, is a major attraction of WTO.
Opera fans are also beneficiaries of these training programs. As a result, we get some seriously good opera summer after summer, including a variety of operas we’d never get to hear in the large opera houses. In a normal year (remember normal?), WTO presents three fully staged productions in their small, fully enclosed venue, The Barns, and also presents a popular opera favorite performed in the large, partially enclosed Filene Center. This year’s productions will again be restricted by pandemic guidelines in place at the time decisions had to be made for June and July performances; all operas will be in the Filene Center this year in concert format, using pod seating to engage a socially distanced audience. Yes, I miss opera in the Barns, but this summer’s offerings do include three live productions with an orchestra, before an audience in attendance! There are also some concerts that will be available through livestream for at home viewing, and for Wolf Trap members, a few in both formats.
WTO’s process is to select their trainees and then select the operas to be produced based on the talents of that year’s cadre of singers. The decision to present this year’s operas in concert format was of course necessitated by pandemic requirements, requiring social distancing even among singers and musicians. Even so, this still promises to be an exciting season, based on the choices made, both in regard to format and the opera selections. The concert opera format is to be embraced. I am a frequent attendee at performances of the Washington Concert Opera and the Baltimore Concert Opera. The singers will not be in costumes, but they will be in character and supported by an orchestra. It will be theater, even without being fully staged, and freed from the need to move about physically, the singers can devote their full attention to singing. An opera aficionado once told me that concert opera was crack cocaine for opera lovers; my experience largely confirms that assessment.
This season, like all WTO seasons, both popular operas and lesser-known works will be performed along with concerts featuring returning opera stars as well as emerging opera stars in training. For this year’s Filene Center concert operas, I am only familiar with Sweeney Todd, but reading about the others has been fascinating, as I discuss below. The opportunity to sample carefully curated less well-known works, which typically are high in both entertainment value and artistic appeal, is another of Wolf Trap Opera’s attractions.
This year’s WTO events in front of an audience, all in concert format:
June 18 - The Anonymous Lover (L’Amant Anonyme)*
July 2, 3 - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
July 16 - Cinderella (Cendrillon) and Savitri
July 23 - STARias: Opera’s Most Powerful Moments*
*events livestreamed for purchase and in person
This year’s WTO events that will be free and livestreamed only:
June 11, 17, 25; July 9, 15 – Salon Series
July 10 – Aria Jukebox
Are you familiar with the Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the 18th century composer of The Anonymous Lover (L’Amant Anonyme); 1780)? Just try to find information on this opera or its composer in any of your common opera books. Mr. Bologne’s opera, the only one of six that has survived intact, was “reintroduced” by LA Opera to the repertoire last Fall with a filmed version, chosen for production in part because it was workable under pandemic restrictions, and in part, borne of the desire to give its black composer some of the recognition he deserves. Mr. Bologne, son of a wealthy white French planter and his wife’s black African slave, was a child prodigy who first came to fame as a fencer and then as a violinist. Much about him has been lost to history, but he is believed to have influenced other composers of his day, perhaps even Mozart. WTO’s Vice President Lee Anne Myslewski has said she was also pleased to present an 18th century libretto written from the perspective of a woman. The librettist was a popular and prolific French writer and educator, Madame de Genlis (Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité du Crest du Aubin); her history is as fascinating as her name. Ok, all well and good, but is it a good opera? Why not decide for yourself? It’s a comic love story about a secret admirer that features 18th century French music; you could hardly go wrong. Did I mention the accompaniment will be by the National Symphony Orchestra led by Geoffrey McDonald?
Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway production Sweeney Todd (1979) was made into a well-known film version starring actor Johnny Depp. Is it an opera or is it a musical? The answer is yes. His libretto covers a terribly wronged barber’s quest for revenge against a corrupt judge. Mutual desperation leads to a successful collaboration with a baker that is spiced with a gruesome sourcing of protein. I keep thinking of how well Sweeney and Hannibal Lecter would get along. Pate, anyone, with a nice chianti? Sweeney gets performed by at least a couple of American opera companies every year because the Sondheim music and songs keep audiences returning. Its popularity has resulted in the opera being the only WTO production to get two performances this summer. An added attraction is that the accompaniment will be provided by the National Symphony Orchestra led by Roberto Kalb.
WTO’s twin bill will include a one-act salon opera by Pauline Viardot, a woman composer relatively unknown today, and a chamber opera by a famous classical music composer who, as it turns out, had a fascination with Indian culture. Cinderella (Cendrillon) (1904) is not one of the famous musical versions of the Charles Perrault fairy tale, such as those by Gounod or Rossini, but remains true to the fairy tale. The composer is perhaps better known in her day as a leading soprano. She composed her version as a salon opera scored for accompaniment by a piano; however, WTO will make it even more interesting by employing a chamber orchestra. Gustav Holst, the famous English composer of The Planets is the composer of Savitri, (1921) a metaphysical meditation on love, life, and death taken from a story in the “Mahabharata”, a Sanscrit epic from ancient India. Though the libretto derives from Holst’s interest in Indian culture, it apparently does not contain strains of Indian music, which seemed not to be an interest of his. Too bad, but I am very curious to see what Mr. Holst does with the operatic form. Kelly Kuo will conduct the Wolf Trap Orchestra.
The final WTO performance before an audience in the Filene Center will be STARias, a concert of arias from famous operas by famous composers such as Verdi and Puccini. The connecting theme for the selections is the ability of opera to convey “the most powerful emotions of the human experience”. For me, the real attraction for this concert is the singers who are current opera stars and who are also Wolf Trap Opera alumni. The cast includes soprano Tamara Wilson, soprano Michelle DeYoung, tenor Paul Groves, tenor Robert Watson, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, and bass Raymond Aceto. An additional attraction is that they will be accompanied by Christopher Allen and the National Symphony Orchestra. I wish that this group of singers could be seen in the Barns, but my wish has to be tempered by the fact that the Barns could not accommodate an orchestra the size of NSO.
Leading off the online and free performances this year is a series of recitals called the Salon Series; which will begin on June 11 and run through July 15. In each concert, WTO’s artists will be giving their interpretations of classical art songs. It has taken me a while to warm up to art songs, primarily I think because of the language barrier. Listening a couple of years ago to recordings of Marian Anderson performing art songs with such emotional power has warmed me to the genre; so, I will be tuning in.
Jukebox Arias, WTO’s most popular concert, will again be performed online this year. A significant advantage is that you won’t be looking for tickets to a show that is typically sold out as soon as tickets become available; in fact, it will be free again online. You will be able to purchase tickets to vote for the arias that you wish WTO’s emerging artists to perform; that’s what makes it a jukebox. In recent years, WTO has ventured outside the Park into surrounding arenas to present opera, concerts, and recitals under the banner “Opera Untrapped”. WTO’s streamed events are placed in the category of “Opera Untrapped Online”.
I like to share what I've learned about opera in my journey. Why am I so enthusiastic about Wolf Trap Opera? Over my now eight-year love affair with opera, their performances often make my personal favorites list each year, even competing with the Met Opera and other large companies, and WTO often introduces me to operas I’d never hear otherwise. WTO’s The Rape of Lucretia in 2016 starring J’Nai Bridges stands out in my memory for its emotional impact; The Juniper Tree in 2017 introduced me to some new music I found captivating, and L’Opera Seria in 2016 might be my favorite opera of all time in terms of sheer opera fun. Even without fully staged operas in the intimate Barns theater, concert versions with WTO’s emerging artists is an exciting proposition. Will one this season join my personal group of unforgettables? As I have been saying for years now, Wolf Trap Opera makes opera fun, and let me add, exciting! The Summer of ’21 is a fine step towards getting singers in front of a live audience once more.
The Fan Experience: There are some pandemic necessitated complications for the fan experience again this year. Your gateway to Wolf Trap Opera information and tickets is of course their website. Individual seats are in the $30 to $100 range depending on the opera and the seat location. However, seats must be purchased in pods of two to four seats by one purchaser. Even though this requirement was necessitated by COVID-19 restrictions in place when these decisions were made, it places singles at a disadvantage for attending. At this point, the remaining seats are primarily in four seat pods. A unique feature of Filene Center performances is lawn seating, which this year will be available in four-seat pods ranging from $32 to $42 per seat, depending on the performance. August performances and the restrictions to be observed have yet to be announced by Wolf Trap.
For each of the concert operas in the Filene Center, there will be an audio pre-opera talk distributed online; listening to these is highly recommended. The concert operas in the Filene Center will have supertitles in English, as will the STARias concert.
The park grounds outside the Filene Center will be available as usual for picnicking prior to the performance, and concessions will be available for purchase. Parking is free at Wolf Trap, and it is likely the limited seating will decrease the time to get parked and the time to exit.
For free streamed performance of Jukebox Arias, voting for arias runs June 21 to July 2. Each artist will list three arias of which they will sing the one getting the most votes. A minimum donation of $10 gets you four votes per performer to distribute as you wish. Increasing the size of your donation increases the weighting of your votes. There is no information available as yet on how long events broadcast online will remain available for viewing.
This year a selection of Wolf Trap concerts performed in the Filene Center will also be livestreamed for home viewing. Tickets ($15) are only available to members of Wolf Trap; information can be found at this link which requires a member log in.. This is a welcome addition enabling fans who can’t make a peformance date and fans for whom pod seating does not work to view performances. Memberships start at $50 and has several advantages. You can designate that your support goes to WTO. In addition to the opportunity to purchase modestly priced tickets to selected online events this year, you get early ticket access to all Wolf Trap performances, and you are invited to the season announcing lecture each year, which typically includes some of that year’s soloists, a fun event itself.