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Washington National Opera (WNO) welcomed their first audiences back to the Kennedy Center since the
Covid-19 pandemic shut them down 18 months ago. With four performances November 6 through 14, 2021, of Come Home: A Celebration of Return, a concert performance of
opera excerpts touching themes of liberty, justice, and artistic idealism, including a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The last performance November 14 concluded with a champagne
toast for the entire audience in celebration of the 50 anniversary of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
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WNO pulled out all the stops with outstanding opera singers, luxurious costumes by Bibhu Mohapatra, sophisticated video projections (DC
Multimedia Productions), and the full WNO orchestra and chorus conducted by the flamboyant and masterful Evan Rogister. The works featured from
various operas made the listener want to hear more by soprano Alexandria Shiner (graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist
Program), South African soprano Pretty Yende, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, tenor Lawrence Brownlee, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn, but on a night
when each would be featured in one opera.
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The program, which ran over two hours with intermission, opened with Richard Wagner's Overture from Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and
featured artful projections showing the building of the Kennedy Center. In the first half of the show among arias and ensembles from the works of Wagner,
Offenbach, Gluck, Ricard Strauss, and Verdi, mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sang "The Girl in 14G," a contemporary aria by Jeanine Tesori which comically
depicts a woman living in an apartment house where opera singers practice their art. It's a demanding work excellently rendered since the Girl in 14G
mimics the singers she hears, moving back and forth from a pop singing style to operatic.
The second half of the program featured work by Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi,
Bizet, and Rossini. Leonard singing the Carmen duet "C'est toi? C'est moi!" with tenor David Butt Philip made another splash with dramatic edge.
Francesca Zambello appeared once in video to welcome back the audience and
once live to detail the tribute to her dear friend Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Aired was video footage of Justice Ginsburg on the WNO stage in the speaking role of
the Duchess of Krakenthorp from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. Zambello also pointed out that most of the program's singers wore gloves in honor of
RBG who had a flair for fashion.
One new thing to get used to—WNO's program information is now accessed
through a QR code that was displayed outside the doors of the Opera House. The assumption is that most people have smart phones and will appreciate this
method of saving trees. Additionally, the surtitles are also a little more enhanced with information that provided some segues.
Cover photo by Scott Suchman
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Writings
