Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts has announced the first shows of its Summer 2017 season, including the Wolf Trap Opera (WTO) season, and symphony and dance programming.
Wolf Trap Opera’s expanded season features new works, company premieres, cross-disciplinary partnerships across the region, and a roster of some of opera’s most promising young talents. The schedule includes five fully staged productions, including two operas by contemporary composer Philip Glass in his 80th birthday year.
The WTO season opens at The Barns at Wolf Trap with the company premiere of Rossini’s rarely performed The Touchstone (La pietra del paragone), a classic Rossinian opera buffa. Also at The Barns, WTO will present a double-bill featuring contemporary American composers’ interpretations of fables: Philip Glass and Robert Moran’s eerie The Juniper Tree, based on the Brothers Grimm story, is paired with John Musto’s comic and poignant Bastianello, based on an Italian folktale. At the Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park, WTO takes center stage in a one-night-only performance of Puccini’s Tosca with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Wolf Trap Opera’s expanded season includes five fully staged productions and UNTRAPPED, a new initiative built on artistic partnerships
- Company premieres of Rossini’s The Touchstone (La pietra del paragone) and a double-bill of Philip Glass and Robert Moran’s The Juniper Tree and John Musto’s Bastianello at The Barns at Wolf Trap
- UNTRAPPED initiative includes Philip Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher directed by Septime Webre in partnership with Halcyon Stage; short pop-up performances; and concerts with the National Orchestral Institute at The Clarice
- With company premieres of two Philip Glass works, Wolf Trap Opera joins in international Glass@80 celebrations of composer’s 80th birthday year
- Company premiere of Puccini’s Tosca takes center stage at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts with the National Symphony Orchestra
- Listen, Wilhelmina!, a WTO-commissioned children’s opera by composer David Hanlon and librettist Kathleen Kelly, to have its world premiere for an audience of 1,500 young people in May
- Acclaimed New Zealand tenor and WTO alumnus Simon O’Neill to serve as WTO’s Filene Artist in Residence
The Washington-area music community – including Wolf Trap Opera alumni, Choral Arts, The Washington Chorus, and the Children’s Chorus of Washington – to come together at Wolf Trap for a massive Carmina Burana, welcoming the National Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director, Gianandrea Noseda, as part of his inaugural weekend celebrations. Also:
- Internationally acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela will have their Wolf Trap debut
- Renowned violinist Sarah Chang returns to Wolf Trap on tour with the Asian Youth Orchestra
- Innovative contemporary dance collective Pilobolus brings its inventive creative energy back to Wolf Trap
Tickets for all announced performances go on sale Saturday, March 18 at 10:00 a.m. Opening day specials include $10 lawn and $20 rear orchestra seats for all performances by the National Symphony Orchestra, as well as Gustavo Dudamel and the National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and Pilobolus.
Young At Arts, Wolf Trap’s accessibility initiative which offers free youth tickets to select performing arts events, will continue in 2017. An roster of eligible performances will be announced on March 28. Additional performances for the 2017 season, including all Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods shows, will be announced April 6.
An opera, symphony and dance calendar, production information and casting, and a full WTO artist roster can be found here.
Access Granted Journal 