Classical WETA is Washington's Home for Opera

Saturdays at 1:00pm

Classical WETA is Washington's home for opera year round. From December through May, experience the power and passion of the Metropolitan Opera. The rest of the year features performances from leading opera houses around the country, including the Chicago Lyric Opera and Washington National Opera.

Upcoming Broadcasts

May 10 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Giuseppe Verdi: La traviata

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cast:

Violetta Valéry / Renée Fleming
Alfredo Germont / Matthew Polenzani
Giorgio Germont / Thomas Hampson
Baron Douphol / Philip Kraus
Flora Bervoix / Buffy Baggott
Annina / Marjorie Owens
Gastone / David Portillo
Marquis D'Obigny / Phillip Dothard
Dr. Grenvil / Paul Corona

Plot summary:

La traviata — the wayward one — Paris's most sought-after courtesan; kept by society's most important men and living a life of empty pleasure.

But then Violetta falls in love — real love — finding joy and a new beginning with her adored Alfredo. Oh, how she weeps when Alfredo's father begs her to give him up to save the family name. Oh, how we weep when it all ends too soon for opera's "fallen angel."

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May 17 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
John Adams: Doctor Atomic

Conductor: Robert Spano

Cast:

J. Robert Oppenheimer / Gerald Finley
Kitty Oppenheimer / Jessica Rivera
Edward Teller / Richard Paul Fink
General Leslie Groves / Eric Owens
Robert Wilson / Thomas Glenn
Pasqualita / Meredith Arwady
Jack Hubbard / James Maddalena
Capt. James Nolan / Roger Honeywell

Plot summary:

Director Peter Sellars takes us to Los Alamos, New Mexico. It's 1945. Scientists are working on a top-secret project for the U.S. government: development of the A–Bomb. We're there for the frenzied three weeks before the blast, and we're there for the final countdown. We watch real people grapple with monumental moral and ethical dilemmas. Could "the gadget" ignite the world's atmosphere?

At the helm, the mercurial Robert Oppenheimer; plus a take-no-prisoners general and scientists — some hawks, some doves — racing for a "successful" conclusion — and unleashing the unfathomable.

Experience the landmark opera that created its own shock waves at its San Francisco world premiere!

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May 24 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Gioachino Rossini: The Barber of Seville (in Italian)

Conductor: Donato Renzetti

Cast:

Almaviva / John Osborn
Rosina / Joyce DiDonato
Figaro / Nathan Gunn
Bartolo / Andrew Shore
Basilio / Wayne Tigges
Berta / Lauren Curnow
Fiorello / Daniel Billings
Sergeant / David Portillo

Plot summary:

He's handsome, socially connected, and rich. Almaviva is the man of Rosina's dreams and he even wants to marry her! So what's the problem? Her crusty old guardian thinks he should be her husband!

It's time to call in reinforcements. Enter Figaro, the barber of Seville, master of blarney and bamboozlement and the best friend two sweethearts ever had.

With wonderful sets inspired by Magritte, everything turns up roses (not to mention five-foot combs and floating chairs!) in this beloved Rossini charmer.

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May 31 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (in Russian)

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cast:

Eugene Onegin / Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Tatyana / Dina Kuznetsova
Lensky / Frank Lopardo
Olga / Nino Surguladze
Prince Grenin / Vitalij Kowaljow
Filipyevna / Catherine Wyn-Rogers
Mme. Larina / Marie Plette
Triquet / Keith Jameson

Plot summary:

Meet Eugene Onegin — a self-indulgent St. Petersburg playboy. He tarries with the sweet country girl Tatyana, then rebuffs her when she pours out her passion; he looks for sport with the fiancée of his best friend, and then kills him in a duel.

Years pass. Onegin meets Tatyana again and she's blossomed into a sophisticated beauty. Onegin is smitten — but though she loves him still, Tatyana rejects him. A caring husband has won her devotion, and Onegin is left alone, a portrait of despair.

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June 7 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
George Frederic Handel: Julius Caesar (in Italian)

Conductor: Emmanuelle Haïm

Cast:

Caesar / David Daniela
Cleopatra / Danielle de Niese
Cornelia / Patricia Bardon
Sextus / Maite Beaumont
Ptolemy / Christophe Dumaux
Achilla / Wayne Tigges
Nirenus / Gerald Thompson
Curio / Darren Stokes

Plot summary:

It's 48 B.C., and things are hopping!

Caesar has defeated his countryman Pompey for the job of Rome's supreme commander. Now he's out to conquer Egypt for the empire.

Egypt's current ruler is the duplicitous Ptolemy. He's deposed his sister Cleopatra and hopes to impress Caesar by murdering Pompey.

But Caesar is furious, and Pompey's family wants revenge.

No dummy she, the beauteous Cleopatra seizes the moment. Caesar's the man who can return her to the throne... and she stages a seduction that even the ruler of the Western world is powerless to resist!

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June 14 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Giacomo Puccini: La Boheme (in Italian)

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cast:

Mimi / Elaine Alvarez
Rodolfo / Roberto Aronica
Musetta / Nicole Cabell
Marcello / Quinn Kelsey
Colline / Andrea Silvestrelli
Schaunard / Levi Hernandez
Benoit/Alcindoro / Dale Travis

Plot summary:

It will make you laugh, and it will break your heart — the true-to-life tale of struggling young artists living life to the fullest in Paris's Latin Quarter. Pulsing at its center, the love story of the ardent poet Rodolfo and the vulnerable seamstress Mimì that begins with rapture and ends with deep, poignant loss.

Savor some of the most sublime music ever composed and two splendid casts.

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June 21 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Richard Strauss: Die Frau ohne Schatten (in German)

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cast:

Empress / Deborah Voight
Dyer's Wife / Christine Brewer
Nurse / Jill Grove
Emperor / Robert Dean Smith
Barak / Franz Hawlata
Spirit Messenger / Quinn Kelsey
Voice of the Falcon / Stacey Tappan
Hunchbacked Brother / John Easterlin
One-Eyed Brother / Daniel Sutin
One-Armed Brother / Andrew Funk

Plot summary:

The lovely Empress — part celestial being, part human — has a major problem. Her husband will be turned to stone and she'll be whisked back to the spirit realm unless she has a child — something she cannot do because she doesn't have a shadow.

So it's off to the human world to get one. With help from her scheming nurse, the Empress convinces a poor dyer's wife to trade her shadow in return for a life of privilege and wealth. But the dyer himself would kill to have kids — so what's the Empress to do?

Like Mozart's Magic Flute, this epic fairytale brims with symbolism and blazes with ravishing music.

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June 28 at 1:00pm

Chicago Lyric Opera
Giuseppe Verdi: Falstaff (in Italian)

Conductor: Sir Andrew Davis

Cast:

Falstaff / Andrew Shore
Alice / Veronica Villarroel
Ford / Boaz Daniel
Mistress Quickly / Meredith Arwady
Meg Page / Elizabeth De Shong
Nannetta / Stacey Tappan
Fenton / Bryan Griffin
Dr. Caius / David Cangelosi
Bardolfo / Rodell Rosel
Pistola / Andrew Funk

Plot summary:

What happens when an old knight who still fancies himself a ladies' man sends identical love letters to two married women? Plenty, as Sir John, that wine-bibbing rascal and finds out when the merry wives of Windsor (and a few furious husbands) decide to teach him a lesson and hang him out to dry! Verdi at the peak of his powers, and inspiration from Shakespeare. What a combination, and what a cast!

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