Wolf Trap Opera Continues Free Online Streaming with 2016 Production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia

Production to stream for six months on wolftrap.org and classicalweta.org

Vienna, Virginia (September 29, 2016) – Wolf Trap Opera continues its free, online streaming project with the 2016 production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. The acclaimed production is available for six months, through March 2017, at www.wolftrap.org/streaming and public broadcaster Classical WETA 90.9 FM at classicalweta.org. Production photos are available upon request; background and casting info are below.

The streaming project is part of a multi-year plan to offer WTO performances to a broader audience, extending the reach and visibility of one of the nation’s most highly regarded residency programs for emerging opera professionals.

“Wolf Trap Opera’s mission is to prepare singers for professional success, and one way to do that is by creating opportunities. By recording and streaming performances, we are guaranteeing that our artists’ work will be more visible within the opera community, which includes fans, other artists and industry leaders,” stated Kim Witman, Senior Director, Opera and Classical Programming at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, the parent company of WTO. “But beyond that, we are incredibly proud of this powerful production of The Rape of Lucretia, and proud of all our artists – to give their work a life beyond four performances is thrilling.”

The Rape of Lucretia was a new production performed at The Barns at Wolf Trap in June 2016. The production ran for four performances, earning high praise from audiences and critics alike, with The Washington Post praising it as “an intense wallop of a well-sung production.”

The Rape of Lucretia was directed by Louisa Muller and conducted by Craig Kier, with set design by Erhard Rom and costumes by Kara Harmon. The principal cast was composed of second-year Filene Young Artists, including mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in the title role, baritone Will Liverman as Tarquinius, tenor Brenton Ryan as Male Chorus, mezzo-soprano Kerriann Otaño as Female Chorus, bass Christian Zaremba as Collatinus, and baritone Shea Owens as Junius. Wolf Trap Opera’s elite group of young singers is chosen through a highly selective annual nationwide audition tour. See complete casting and creative team below.

Video production for The Rape of Lucretia was provided by Blue Land Media, with in-house audio recording by Robert H. Grimes for Wolf Trap Recordings.

The first opera offered as part of the initiative, the 2015 production of John Corigliano and William M. Hoffman’s The Ghosts of Versailles, garnered thousands of views from opera fans nationwide and internationally. The next production in the series, the 2016 U.S. premiere of Florian Leopold Gassmann’s hilarious send-up L’Opera Seria, will be available for streaming in Spring 2017.

###

Special thanks to
Dan and Gayle D’Aniello, Wolf Trap 2016 Season Underwriters
Ed and Andy Smith, Performance Sponsors

Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, produces and presents a full range of performance and education programs in the Greater Washington area, as well as nationally and internationally. Wolf Trap features three performance venues: the outdoor Filene Center and Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, both located at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and The Barns at Wolf Trap, located down the road from the national park and adjacent to the Center for Education at Wolf Trap. The 7,028-seat Filene Center is operated in partnership with the National Park Service and annually showcases an extensive array of diverse artists, ranging from pop, country, folk, and blues to classical music, dance, and theatre, as well as multimedia presentations, from May through September. The Barns at Wolf Trap is operated by the Wolf Trap Foundation year round, and during the summer months is home to the Grammy-nominated Wolf Trap Opera, one of America’s outstanding resident ensemble programs for young opera singers. Wolf Trap’s education programs include the nationally acclaimed Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, a diverse array of arts education classes, grants, and a nationally recognized internship program.

Classical WETA 90.9 FM is the exclusive home of classical music in Greater Washington. Each week, the station attracts nearly 500,000 broadcast listeners as well as tens of thousands of online listeners from around the globe who stream the station at classicalweta.org and listen via iTunes. The station provides opera broadcasts of world-class companies on Saturday afternoons, including live performances of The Metropolitan Opera and performances by the Washington Concert Opera. Among the station’s programs is Front Row Washington, which presents classical performances by renowned soloists musicians and ensembles, recorded at venues throughout the nation’s capital. In addition, VivaLaVoce features classical vocal music available by live stream at vivalavoce.org and via the HD2 signal of Classical WETA 90.9 FM.

Media Information

Interviews, b-roll and high-resolution images are available upon request.

Michelle Pendoley, Director, Public Relations
703.255.1917 or michellep@wolftrap.org

Production Overview

THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA
New Wolf Trap Opera production – English, with supertitles
Music by Benjamin Britten

July 10-18, 2016
The Barns at Wolf Trap
1635 Trap Road, Vienna, Virginia 22182

Premiered in 1946 to re-open Glyndebourne’s theatre, Britten’s intimate and haunting lyrical masterpiece is based on an ancient Roman tale of corruption and tragedy. Lucretia, the beautiful and virtuous wife of a Roman general, is defenseless against the tyrannical prince Tarquinius. The horrific events unfold reinforced by Britten’s evocative score, moving arias, and two-person male and female chorus into a tense and potent tapestry of music and drama.

CAST

in order of vocal appearance

Male Chorus

Female Chorus

Collatinus

Junius

Tarquinius