Past Performances

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Maya Lin (cover)

Music by Huang Ruo
Libretto by David Henry Hwang

In English with Projected English Titles
World Premiere

What stories do our monuments tell? What legacies do they embody? What memories do they cement?

Four iconic places. Four creative teams. Four intimate stories. Some of America’s most exciting artists, musicians, composers, and librettists assemble to create four unmissable world premieres as a jewel in the crown of the Kennedy Center 50th Anniversary season. Inspired by Washington D.C.’s iconic monuments and the ideals embodied by President Kennedy, Written in Stone is a series of interwoven short works presented together in a single evening. Creative teams Jason Moran and Alicia Hall Moran, Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang, Kamala Sankaram and A.M. Homes, and Carlos Simon and Marc Bamuthi Joseph offer intimate stories that celebrate diversity and acknowledge the struggles of today’s America.

Setsuko Kobayashi

Music by Jack Perla
Libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo
Premiered: Friday, August 21, 2015. Commissioned by Seattle Opera
This is the Kentucky Opera Debut

Sung in English with English captions

Treasured Possessions Become Symbols of Home in this Opera Inspired by True American Stories

Set during WWII, An American Dream centers on two women: a Japanese-American girl forced to leave her home and a Jewish German immigrant determined to bring her family safely to America. This poetic and gripping opera carries timely themes of belonging, justice, and the struggle to maintain a sense of place.

In its Seattle Opera world premiere, An American Dream was called “a heartwrenching opera…eloquent and moving” by the Seattle Times, with Opera News describing the music and libretto as “touching…sentimental…lyrical.”

Setsuko Kobayashi

Music by Jack Perla
Libretto by Jessica Murphy Moo
Premiered: Friday, August 21, 2015. Commissioned by Seattle Opera
This is the Kentucky Opera Debut

Sung in English with English captions

Treasured Possessions Become Symbols of Home in this Opera Inspired by True American Stories

Set during WWII, An American Dream centers on two women: a Japanese-American girl forced to leave her home and a Jewish German immigrant determined to bring her family safely to America. This poetic and gripping opera carries timely themes of belonging, justice, and the struggle to maintain a sense of place.

In its Seattle Opera world premiere, An American Dream was called “a heartwrenching opera…eloquent and moving” by the Seattle Times, with Opera News describing the music and libretto as “touching…sentimental…lyrical.”

Amour

Washington Concert Opera

The Orpheus myth has been recounted time and again throughout modern history, and for good reason. Stories of love lost, regained, then lost again, are timeless for the ways in which they strike right at the core of our connections to one another, and the 1859 Berlioz adaptation of Gluck’s opera, in which the lead role was rewritten for a mezzo-soprano, is no exception. Come for the compellingly human love story between Orpheus and Eurydice, stay for the virtuosic performances of Classical music by our stellar cast, joined by the WCO Orchestra and Chorus.

Heroine

WORLD PREMIER ONE-ACT OPERA
By J.P. Redmond & Julia Hoch

ABOUT THE OPERA
There are stories that cry out to be told: to celebrate, to condemn, to connect. Anna and Joseph have just such a story to tell…if only this time they can get it right, finally. Inspired by the oral tradition of fairy tales and the archetypes they explore, The End: A Fairytale, brings to life a retelling of The Grimm Brothers’ “The Robber Bridegroom.”

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.

Frasquita

The title character of Carmen is at once familiar and inscrutable — an outsider who acknowledges no law but her own. Her fiery, irresistible song serves both to draw people in and keep them at arm’s length. While her uncompromising pursuit of freedom and love has a price, she is willing to pay it.

In French with projected English titles.

New co-production with Minnesota Opera.
This production is generously co-sponsored by Jacqueline B. Mars and Chris and Bruce Crawford.