Name: Queen of Hearts
Start: 2026-02-14T19:30:00
Location: Georgia Room

Nicholas McGegan

James Reese

Maya Kherani

Opera Lafayette

Celebrate love in all its guises—sensual, humorous, chaste, and tragic—through tender ballads, amorous duets, cheeky verses, and bawdy drinking songs, all led by Nic McGegan, Music Director Laureate of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, renowned for his musical wit. Savor food, craft cocktails, and wine in homage to Bacchus.  In Washington DC, wine will be provided by 2023 Michelin-guide Washington, DC Sommelier of the Year Sarah Thompson (Queen’s English). In New York City, signature cocktails will be provided by noted NY mixologist Alex Dominguez (Bar Calico).

Queen of Hearts

Georgia Room

St. Francis Hall

Composers Marianna Martines and Maria Antonia Walpurgis defied 18th-century convention by putting women front and center. GRAMMY-nominated soprano Lauren Snouffer takes the stage in this daring solo performance reawakening Talestri, Queen of the Amazons, and Berenice, Princess of Egypt. Lauren also shines in bravura arias by Gluck and J.C. Bach, written for the era’s fiercest rival to the soprano: the castrato, a castrated male singer.  The storied Opera Lafayette Orchestra completes this program with Haydn’s Symphony 63, “Roxelana,” an instrumental work celebrating the Sultana of the Ottoman Empire.