Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center has announced its 2015-16 schedule, and it contains big news for Weill fans. WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello will bring Tazewell Thompson’s rapturously received 2012 Glimmerglass staging of Lost in the Stars to the Eisenhower Theater in February 2016. Leading the cast will be baritone Eric Owens, who will reprise his role as Stephen Kumalo. Sean Panikkar (Chorus Leader) and Wynn Harmon (Jarvis) will take up their respective roles again; John DeMain will conduct.
Thompson first directed Weill and Maxwell Anderson’s anti-apartheid musical, based on Alan Paton’s novel Cry, the Beloved Country, at Cape Town Opera in South Africa, November 2011. That production served as the basis of Thompson’s staging at Glimmerglass, which was widely hailed (click here for some review quotes and here for a selection of photos). Zambello, then as now the head of the Glimmerglass Festival, saw that she had a winner and has arranged for a revival at WNO. Lost in the Stars will be presented for nine performances from 12 through 20 February of next year.
Features
Preview of 2015-16 season at Washington National Opera (Washington Post)
Tazewell Thompson’s account of producing Lost in the Stars in Cape Town (Kurt Weill Newsletter)
Learn more about Lost in the Stars
