Hello all and welcome to Friday! I hope that your weekend will bring you many lovely things. Those of us in Baltimore may be splitting our time between the 137th running of the Preakness at Pimlico and Baltimore Concert Opera‘s performances of Puccini’s Il Trittico. However, if you’re feeling adventurous or are already in the Washington D.C. area you may want to check out Washington National Opera‘sWerther.If you need a bit more prodding, check out this review that I wrote for our friends at OperaPulse.
“Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Massenet’s Werther exists in seemingly two states: ecstasy or despair and the score builds upon these emotions. From the first act to the fourth, the cast intensifies these two emotions to their utmost. Although the libretto appears over-dramatic, even maudlin at moments, the opera is a look within the delirious world of Werther and his intensifying feelings for Charlotte. The Washington National Opera presented this powerful work Monday evening with visual grace and inspired musicality.
Click here to read the rest of the review
Now, tell me what you’ll be up to this weekend in the comments below!
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I’ll be attending the Sunday afternoon performance of Honegger’s King David – 3pm at Brown Memorial in Bolton Hill! Can’t wait!