Young love soars with joy and heartbreak through bustling cafés and gritty garrets in Puccini’s tribute to bohemian Paris.

Oh, to be young and in love in Paris! Sure, there are bills to be paid—but there’s also art, moonlight, and poetry! When a group of young bohemian artists gets tangled up in love’s highs and lows, growing up is its own bittersweet heartbreak.

If tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, then make today a party! No other group of friends bursts with more youthful optimism than in Puccini’s tough and tender story. This striking production features grand sets evoking the city of love, from the gritty garrets of the Left Bank to the bustling Café Momus. With an acclaimed international cast, ravishing music, and relatable tale of exuberance and struggle, Puccini’s La bohème will win your heart for the first or fiftieth time.

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La bohème

Opera House

In Harlem, a couple celebrates the birth of their firstborn—a boy, Black and beautiful. As the mother worries for her son’s future in today’s America, the father wrestles with his role as a police officer, a “Black man in blue.” When the unimaginable happens years later and a white officer kills the son, their deepest fears will come true.

Following its postponement in our 2020–2021 season, WNO presents the long-awaited D.C. premiere of Blue, the “Best New Opera of 2020” (The Music Critics Association of North America). Tony Award®–winning composer Jeanine Tesori and NAACP Theatre Award–winning librettist Tazewell Thompson’s new opera is inspired by contemporary events and Black literature, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Jeanine’s signature genre-blending style captures the grief of a community, the bonds of a family, and the vulnerabilities of protecting a child. By giving voice to the joy and pain of families that are often unheard, Blue places timely issues at the forefront of modern opera and invites audiences to the emotional epicenter of their impact.

Blue

Kennedy Center

Get a sneak peek of WNO’s exciting spring productions—Blue (March 11–25) and La bohème (May 13–27)—at this special FREE preview event at Alfred Street Baptist Church!

WNO’s talented Cafritz Young Artists will perform selections from Blue and La bohème. The program will be emceed by WNO Artist Ambassador and Young Artist alum Soloman Howard. The Young Artists will include Katerina Burton, soprano; Amber Monroe, soprano; Kevin Punnackal, tenor; Jonathan Rhodes, tenor; Christian Simmons, bass-baritone; and Nicole Cloutier, pianist.

This event is FREE with required online registration. Please note that a limited number of reservations are available for this event! To ensure patron safety, COVID-19 vaccination and face masks are highly encouraged but not required. Parking is available in the Alexandria Gateway Garage, in nearby garages, or at limited street parking.

WNO Spring Preview at Alfred Street Baptist Church

Alfred Street Baptist Church

This year’s Marian Anderson Vocal Award winner, soprano Leah Hawkins, is praised for her “gleaming sound” (The Washington Post). The 2018 graduate from WNO’s Cafritz Young Artist program has quickly gained a reputation for her compelling performances, with significant debuts on stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Portland Opera, Tulsa Opera, and more.

Named for the groundbreaking African American contralto, the Marian Anderson Vocal Award recognizes a young American singer in opera, oratorio, or recital repertory. Given annually by the Kennedy Center, the award offers a cash prize, a residency at Washington’s Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and a recital presented by WNO. Prior recipients include Frederick Ballentine, Will Liverman, Soloman Howard, Ryan Speedo Green, Denyce Graves, Eric Owens, Lawrence Brownlee, J’Nai Bridges, Janai Brugger, John Holiday, and many others.

Marian Anderson Vocal Award Recital: Leah Hawkins

WNO’s acclaimed commissioning program for contemporary American opera enters its tenth exciting season.

This season, three talented composer-librettist teams—B.E. Boykin and Jarrod Lee, Jens Ibsen and Cecelia Raker, and Silen Wellington and Walken Schweigert—showcase their three new one-act operas.

American Opera Initiative (AOI) mentorship is led by newly appointed AOI Artistic Advisor and librettist Kelley Rourke, librettist and filmmaker Kimberly Reed, composer Carlos Simon, and WNO Principal Conductor Evan Rogister, who will lead a chamber orchestra of WNO Orchestra members. The concert staging will be directed by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello.

American Opera Initiative

Visionary impresaria Mary Cardwell Dawson fights and triumphs as she establishes the National Negro Opera Company in Carlos Simon and Sandra Seaton’s new play with music.

She trained hundreds of African American youth to sing. She founded the longest-running, all-Black opera company. She organized opera guilds in the country’s biggest cities. Mary Cardwell Dawson’s dream to bring music to African American audiences came true—and it changed the future of opera.

The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson makes its highly anticipated mainstage premiere to celebrate the remarkable founder of the historic and groundbreaking National Negro Opera Company, established in 1941. Starring acclaimed mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in the title role, this play with music by Mark Twain Award-winning playwright Sandra Seaton includes selections from the repertory of the National Negro Opera Company and original music composed by Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence and 2023 Grammy nominee Carlos Simon.

The story starts in Washington, D.C. in 1943, where the company is set to perform on a floating barge to evade racially-segregated venues. But when bad weather threatens—pushing the performance to a segregated performance hall—Mary Cardwell Dawson must find a way forward.

Washington National Opera

13 - 27 May, 2023

La bohème

11 - 25 Mar, 2023

Blue

Feb 23, 2023

WNO Spring Preview at Alfred Street Baptist Church

Feb 12, 2023

Marian Anderson Vocal Award Recital: Leah Hawkins

Jan 21, 2023

American Opera Initiative

Washington National Opera

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