Mozart’s Così fan tutte is a delicate work, finely balancing a cynical and psychologically disturbing libretto with some of the composer’s most lyrical and beguiling music. Yet Jonathan Miller’s misguided and gimmicky modern-dress production at the Washington National Opera forsakes complexity in favor of a kind of smug cleverness, offering a sniggering and sardonic take on the opera with little finesse or genuine insight.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company, performing at the Kennedy Center this past weekend as part of its farewell tour, offered a thrilling program of three contrasting works that made a persuasive case for Cunningham’s enduring importance as a revolutionary choreographer. It was also a highly entertaining evening, full of poetry, humor, generosity of spirit, and sheer, visceral excitement.

In my review of the opening night cast of the Washington National Opera’s Lucia di Lammermoor, I judged David Alden’s production to be dramatically uneven while reserving particular praise for soprano Sarah Coburn. The production’s second cast, which concluded its run on Saturday, November 19, 2011, made a more consistent and persuasive case for the human [...]

For its second production of the season, the Washington National Opera is offering a daringly revisionist interpretation of Donizetti’s bel canto classic, Lucia di Lammermoor. Director David Alden presents Luciaas a case study of early Victorian sexual politics and psychopathology, with the action set in the dark recesses of the Victorian literary imagination.  At the [...]

Puccini’s Tosca is one of the most supremely theatrical operas in the repertory, full of raw emotionalism and unrelenting in its dramatic tension. At its heart, the opera is a fierce battle of wills between the passionate diva Floria Tosca and the reactionary Papal State police chief Scarpia’s cynical corruption. In the Washington National Opera’s season [...]