“Washington National Opera is carving out a new area of expertise . . . staging grand spectacles to exacting standards with precision and power not often seen even at the world’s top houses.” -Opera Now
Washington National Opera is recognized as one of America’s premier opera companies. Under the leadership of Plácido Domingo, WNO has moved confidently forward since the company’s founding in 1956.
Washington National Opera makes its home in the nation’s capital and in the beautiful John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. With this inspirational backdrop, in each new season Washington National Opera strives to present the best that the art form has to offer. WNO has had innumerable artistic highlights, including world premieres, commissions of new works, new productions, and international tours. At the center of these triumphs have been performances by some of opera’s most admired artists, including Plácido Domingo, Frederica von Stade, José Carreras, Mirella Freni, Renée Fleming, Samuel Ramey, Olga Borodina, Salvatore Licitra, Anna Netrebko, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Juan Diego Flórez and Denyce Graves, to name only a few.
Washington National Opera reaches audiences inside and outside the opera house. WNO productions have been heard around the world through radio and television broadcasts on NPR, XM Satellite Radio, and PBS. The simulcast, a live broadcast of an opera from the Kennedy Center, has been attended by more than 125,000 people, including college students around the country for a simulcast of La Bohème in 2007.
As part of WNO’s commitment to not only presenting great opera but also nurturing the future of the art form, WNO’s Center for Education and Training—which includes the award-winning Education and Community Programs, the Plácido Domingo Intern/Apprentice Program, and the celebrated Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program—seeks to broaden the public’s awareness and understanding of opera, and cultivate the next generation of opera stars and supporters of the arts. In 2003 WNO launched Generation O, a program for patrons age 18 to 35, which makes WNO accessible to young opera lovers and new opera listeners through specially-priced tickets, special events, and educational opportunities.
The 2010-11 season continues WNO’s tradition of excellence, with five productions new to Washington DC, including a new production of Salome directed by Francesca Zambello and performances by some of opera’s biggest stars on the mainstage and as part of the new Plácido Domingo Celebrity Series, which will present Juan Diego Flórez and Bryn Terfel in concert with the WNO Orchestra.
In each new endeavor that the company undertakes, Washington National Opera strives to raise artistic standards and provide new and better opera to the nation’s capital.