Arts & Society

Gary Tischler • March 14, 2013

I’m guessing—I could be wrong here—that there’s no video game called “Druids and Romans” or “Gauls and Romans.” Ancient Britain of Gaul under the occupation of Ancient Rome is a tough task for movie makers as well as stage directors who have to cut through the thicket that is Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline.”

It’s tough for opera, too, but that’s exactly where we find ourselves in Vincenzo Bellini’s bell canto mountain of an opera, “Norma,” which has as its main characters the powerful druid high priestess Norma, her (secret) lover and father of her two children, the Roman general Pollione, the young novice priestess Adalgisa, with whom has fallen in love, and the druid Oroveso, who is also Norma’s father.

As a druid—the priest class of the ancient Celts—Norma is a high priestess of the land’s power and its magic. She interprets the will of the gods: Should the druids war against the Romans or sit back and wait? This is a paramount question during this opera, but the biggest question of all is what happens when Norma finds out that she’s essentially being dumped for a younger rival. Things do not end well, as is wont to happen in ancient Britain and in opera.

Perhaps none of that matters too much when you having the rising star soprano Angela Meade, performing and singing the role of Norma and knocking it out of the park, aided and abetted almost on an equal plane by mezzo soprano Dolora Zajick as her rival.

Meade has already done parts of the role and a concert version of “Norma,” the big rock candy mountain of bell canto singing for any star soprano worthy of the name. There have been some great Normas by all accounts, including the legendary Maria Callas. I’m guessing there’s another one that can be added to that list and her initials are A.M.

Meade is known for her technical virtuosity, something I can’t argue with. According to some critics, she isn’t yet the actress that she might be. For all the high notes—the riverboat gambling singing that is the musical equivalent of skipping a pebble on water and making it go forever—what Meade accomplishes in this role is to act with her singing. She loads her voice up not only with impossible amounts of breath and breadth and tone, but also with the most important part of the music—the singing—which is invested with the heart of Norma. This happens whether Meade is singing alone in the horrific scene where she almost “Medeas” her children (“Teneri, Teneri Figli”) or when she’s singing with Zajick in which forgiveness and sisterhood reign in a deliriously delicious duet (“Mira o Norma”, but it could be BFF).

Norma is torn—war against the Romans, revenge against Pollione—and she still has to tell her people that she is the mother of two, fathered by the Roman general.

This sort of thing is difficult to put together, because great music (yes!) or not, great singing (yes!), the action and the characters don’t exist in a vacuum. While the ladies make you care about the ladies, you have to be comfortable in the surroundings in which so much often preposterous things goes on. Director Ann Bogart and designer Neil Patel have opted for a bare-bones, bone-clean primitive look which seems somehow perpetually cold—an angled slab of stage, a wall propped up by what look like long wooden spears, an omni-present moon which the druids worship. It has just enough strangeness to make you realize just how strange that world must have been. The Romans, fixed in their legionnaire uniforms seem out of place in this environment—which seems right—while the locals range from robes to whatever the middle-class druids might wear, while vestal virgin types in shimmering white make patterns on the stage. In this group, Dmitry Belosselskiy as Oroveso resounds with authority. On the other hand, Rafael Davila has a little too much reckless petulance in his voice, but then he is playing a cad.

But as for Meade, certainly, and Zajick as well, I can only echo the gentleman behind me who voiced his pleasure at Meade’s solo and their duets with a resounding “Bravissima!”

The Washington National Opera’s “Norma” runs through March 24 at the Kennedy Center.

Gary Tischler •

Around ten years ago, singer Helen Reddy says she just got tired of performing and needed to move on to other things.

“I was just plain tired,” she said. “Of touring and everything that went with it. I’d done it most of my life from a kid on.” And then, recently, something happened. Reddy realized she missed performing.

“I sang at a birthday thing with my sister,” she said. “And I realized that I missed singing. I missed the audience, and so I thought I wanted to come back.”

Not without some trepidation. At first, Reddy did gigs in California, which had been the base and home for the Australian-born musical superstar of the 1970s and 1980s, the period when she had some of her biggest hits.

Now, she’s coming to Washington, to the Barns at Wolf Trap specifically for two concerts, Thursday and Friday, March 7 and 8, at 8 p.m.

“You know what I really like?” she asked. “It’s that contact with the audience, that back and forth, the emotional tug. It’s not just about nostalgia, or a greatest hits’ kind-of-thing. I have some of my old band mates, and I’ll be doing some of my hits, sure, but also standards, and songs of mine that perhaps aren’t so familiar, but that I love.” “No, no backup singers,” she said, laughing.

In a way, her presence in the states and in Washington has a little bit of serendipity to it—the city is and the country is in the midst of celebrating March as National Women’s History Month. Where would Women’s History Month be without a mention, the very presence of a kind of women’s history anthem, still defiant, still particular and pertinent?

Where would any mention of women’s history be without “I Am Woman”? Reddy’s hard-fought signature and anthem song, released in May 1972, had an up and down journey on the charts before finally making its way to the top of the Billboard charts in December of that year.

Not only did she first record and sing the song, but Reddy is its listed co-writer with songwriter Ray Burton. What happened after all that is something else again: the song resonated with women and the women’s liberation movement to the point that it became a musical flag for the women’s rights and remains so. There are millions of women—and no doubt quite a few men—who know the song by heart and will sing it without being asked. History keeps right on moving and the song moves with it. There are still firsts for women. Witness that the song was heard in the background after Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director.

Reddy’s presence in the nation’s capital, when all kinds of historical and commemorative exhibitions, symposiums and marches on women’s rights are being held, seems appropriate. You can bet that the song will be part of her show at the Barns, although not quite in the form you’re used to hearing it. “Yes, I will perform it,” she said. “Of course. It’s a strange thing, that song. I’m so proud of it, but it’s also one of those things, an achievement that’s kind of hard to top. I mean I’m a part of history now. So, that song has a huge importance to me and to others.”

“Woman” is not the only hit song Reddy ever wrote, recorded and sang—she’s had a big and long career, being part of an Australian show biz family, and setting out on a singing career in the United States in the 1960s. Her breakthrough hit was “I Don’t Know How To Love Him,” the Mary Magdalene ballad from “Jesus Christ Superstar.” It was followed by “I am Woman” and a host of other hits, including “Angie Baby,” “Delta Dawn” (the Alex Harvey-penned song also recorded by a teenaged Tanya Tucker and others) and “That’s No Way to Treat a Lady” among many others. Reddy reportedly has sold more than 25 million records worldwide—which is to say that in the 1970s and 1980s, she was huge.

That kind of red-hot heat of fame rarely lasts, but Reddy was to the stage born and toured often and also made forays into the legitimate theater stage, where she appeared as “Shirley Valentine” and in “Anything Goes” and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” in addition to appearances in movies and on television.

“I think there’s nothing like that connection between audience and singer,” she said during our interview. “I really love it. I look out there and see members of several generations, people my ages, old fans, to be sure, but also new ones, and women with their teenaged daughters. That’s very emotionally satisfying to me.”

This month, for sure, it will be good to see and hear Helen Reddy at the Barns at Wolf Trap. She is, after all, Helen Reddy, a star who has lived a life from there and back again. The song and its lyrics resonate for women everywhere, but surely for her, too: “Oh yes I am wise/But it’s wisdom born of pain/Yes I’ve paid the price/but look how much I gained/If I have to/I can face anything/I am strong/I am invincible/I am woman.”

Robert Devaney •

It may seem far off, but April 27 is coming fast for home-owners, volunteers and designers working to make the 82nd Georgetown House Tour a success. The main players met to strategize and socialize March 6 at the 34th Street home of Frank Randolph, who is again co-chairing the house tour with Stephanie Bothwell. There are eight houses on the tour. The tour’s popular Patrons’ Party will be held April 24 at the home of Marc Schappell and Tom Anderson, both executives at Washington Fine Properties, LLC. For more details, visit www.GeorgetownHouseTour.com, or call 202-338-2287. [gallery ids="119500,119490,119495,119483" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird • March 13, 2013

The 52nd Anniversary of the National Day of the State of Kuwait was elegantly celebrated at the Four Seasons Hotel Feb. 20. The prominence of Ambassador and Mrs. Salem Al Sabah was reflected in the presence of many familiar Washington leaders in the always lengthy receiving line. Much important business is conducted after office hours and this was abundantly apparent as guests exchanged greetings while sampling the exquisite international buffet. Global delights included Peking duck, chicken and beef Shawarma, lobster ravioli, crab cakes mini cheese cakes and a chocolate fountain. Departing guests received a chocolate and nut confection to savor the evening.

Mary Bird •

Mrs. Fügen Tan, wife of the Ambassador of Turkey, and Rosa Tai Djalal, president of the Muslim Women’s Association and wife of the Ambassador of Indonesia, hosted members and guests at the Embassy of Turkey Feb. 28. Several members took advantage of an optional guided tour to view “The Sultan’s Garden: The Blossoming of Ottoman Art” at the nearby Textile Museum before attending a late morning screening of “Süleiman the Magnificent,” followed by luncheon. Program chair Gamila Karjawally has the daunting responsibility of planning monthly embassy events as MWA, founded in 1960, fundraises for educational scholarships for Muslim women. Other events include the annual Muslim Women’s Bazaar and Ramadan Iftar dinners. [gallery ids="119445,119437,119466,119460,119472,119453" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

James Galway is a world traveler and a world citizen. He’s been all over and played and taught and talked about the flute in concert halls, schools, universities, and venues world-wide, but if you’re talking to him on the phone and if the name doesn’t give you a hint, you will recognize the lilt in the phone, that musical, growly accent, right away.

Galway is Irish, Belfast born, and he’s a talker, a knight, often referred to in just about anything you might find on him in the great wide internet world of communication and information as “the living legend of the flute.”

“Well, yeah, there’s that,” he says on the phone speaking from Dallas where he’s spending three days as part of his Legacy Tour, a musical tour and series of concerts, (often accompanied by his wife Lady Jeanne Galway, who is also a flautist of note), which mixes his vast repertoire of classical music with Celtic and Irish music, educational talk and master classes. He’s a knight, but he doesn’t stand or talk like he is. He doesn’t seem the kind of mind who needs a lot of patting on the back, or formalities.

To be sure, the tour is about his own legacy as a flautist, which is to say, he and Jean Claude Rampal before him, have done an enormous amount to spread the gospel of the flute, which is often relegated to the kind of instrument commonplace in Irish households and played on porches by just about anybody.

“It’s how I learned and came in contact with the flute, and fell in love with it, true,” he says, “but that’s not the whole story.”
It’s entirely appropriate and filled with a little touch of serendipity that Sir Galway is doing one of his Legacy Tour concerts (with his wife Lady Jeanne Galway and pianist Michael McHale) at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society in the shank of the afternoon at 4 p.m. Right after the Washington St. Patrick’s Day parade.

“Yes, that’s kind of nice isn’t it,” he said. “We’ve included a section that’s going to be Celtic in nature with traditional Irish folk songs and music.”

Appropriate to the day are the folk tunes, but appropriate to the Sir Galway’s legacy will be the major part of the concert, which includes works by Doppler (“Rigoletto Fantasie for Two Flutes” with Lady Jane Galway); Mozart (Flute Quartet in D Major”), Bizet/Borne (“Carmen Fantasy” arranged by Galway), and Debussy’s famous and popular “Clair de Lune”

In addition, he’ll be conducting a master class on the flute with local flute students at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in downtown Washington on Monday, March 18.

“The master classes, to me, the talking, the teaching is almost as important as performing,” Galway said. “It’s how you open people up to the music, the instrument itself. “

“My dad, my family, they all played,” he said. “It’s true, the flute seems such a common place instruments that everyone will pick one up and play one, if they could.”

But Galway got lucky and was one of those people who carried his ability with and love for the instrument to studies in London and Paris before embarking on a professional career with Sadlers Wells & Royal Covent Garden Operas, the BBC, Royal Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, and became solo flautist with the Berlin Philharmonic which was conducted by Herbert Von Karajan.

When he broke out as a soloist, it was a breakthrough in a big way and the end result has been a legend indeed, a career that has been 30 million albums sold, and a recording list that seems to stretch beyond the horizon. “When you realize what you can do with the flute—beside just play it—in terms of all the kinds of music, when I knew that, I was on my way, that’s what I was going to do,” he said.

It’s a real passion. You can hear it in his voice. If Rampal popularized the music of the flute into areas not usually associated with it, Galway moves it further with his education effort with new compositions which he has done or commissioned other composers to do. So, there’s Bach and Mozart and Handel on the flute and jazz, and new music, bending genders and cross pollination, something that’s happening quite a bit in the contemporary classical music scene, where he is more than a knight, but a king.
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Ari Post •

Hillyer Art Gallery
9 Hillyer Court, NW
www.ArtsAndArtists.org

Through March 29, Hillyer Art Space is hosting three exhibitions. Narciso Maisterra’s exhibit, “Passing Through the Body Without Staying,” is a testament to an emotional process of recuperation from illness via artistic creativity. In January 2011, Maisterra had an accident that affected his physical appearance. As soon as he regained the use of his right arm, he resumed painting, and the work in this show became the key to his recovery. Maisterra decided to start a series of self-portraits inspired by the ugliness and sadness he saw to create an unsympathetic image of himself. The series shows an artist using art as therapy to familiarize himself with his new face. Jungmin Park, in her exhibit “The City Stories,” portrays the relationships between cities, nature and people. She personifies both urban and natural objects and encapsulates their existence within a single memory, which she visualizes with natural and man-made objects. Garth Fry explores the psychology of isolation by creating shapes and forms that are void of applied color. He investigates this concept through his use of raw, coiled paper and glue. Visual tension is created through his use of light and shadows, further emphasizing refuge and loss of identity.

Jane Haslem Gallery
2025 Hillyer Place, NW
www.JaneHaslemGallery.com

“Endless Flowers” is a group exhibition at Jane Haslem Gallery, running through the end of April, the title of which is as pure, beautiful and evocative as the artwork it represents. From watercolors and drawings, to aquatints and engravings, the show takes the audience through a veritable botanical journey, filled with the floral beauty, natural wonder, and intimate perspectives on our daily environments in their relation to the its surrounding plant life. Two qualities that unify the works are light and delicacy, whether represented through the soft translucence of a petal, the clean and playful symmetry of potted wallflowers, or a nettled pillow of wildly blooming Queen Anne’s lace. The craftsmanship of the artists also shine—the texture of Billow Morrow Jackson’s oil painting Flowers on a Table or George Harkins’ watercolor, Berries and Bluejays, are haunting and substantial, and a wonderful compliment to the downy fragility of the sun-washed red tulips in Nancy McIntyre’s silkscreen Everett’s Front Window.

Cross MacKenzie Gallery
2026 R St., NW DC 20009

Cross Mackenzie Gallery is pleased to present “Through the Trees,” an exhibition of new paintings by Virginia Commonwealth University art professor Kurt Godwin, one of the D.C. area’s most accomplished artists. Art in America critic J.W. Mahoney, describes Kurt Godwin’s previous body of work “Philosophy of Nature” as follows: “These paintings intentionally marry three visual worlds: the plain representation of natural place and organic growth, the abstracting of conditions in physical reality according to scientific iconography, and various symbol systems that serve as analogies to the qualities and nature of a
transcendent reality.”

In this new show, “Through The Trees,” Godwin achieves that “transcendent reality” by returning to the representation and abstraction of natural place – he is painting the shimmering, hypnotic, mesmerizing light. He has shed his complex layering of symbols and scientific imagery to concentrate on the pure powerful force of the radiant sun. Godwin is a magician with paint and he wields his brush skillfully, delivering lush surfaces, animated brushstrokes and dabs of singing color. The viewer gets glimpses of a burning sunset, a reflection of a cloudless cerulean sky and a fractured, mid-day white haze.

Leafless dark tree trunks in shadow act as filters for the light that bends around their silhouettes. One gets the sense that the light would be blinding without the vertical shields that protect one’s eye’s from the harsh rays behind – while at the same time that light beckons like a stained glass window. For some, these woods are dark and threatening, the branches cage-like. For the artist and this viewer these paintings are beautiful, peaceful reminders of walks through the trees, away from the noise and danger of the world inspiring a feeling of awe in nature and sunlight – a transcendent reality.

Studio Gallery
2108 R St., NW
www.StudioGalleryDC.com

From March 27 through April 20, Studio Gallery will be featuring the work of three artists. Veronica Szalus’ work, “Down to the Wire,” is an evolving concept exhibit that explores fluidity through irregular and contrasting forms through both dimension and movement. The installation uses manipulated materials that are fragile, delicately balanced, and often porous, exploring continual nuanced shifts of form, much like our natural environments. Sculptor Brian Kirk is also inspired by natural forms, but equally by man-made objects. His metal sculptures utilize geometric shapes and forms, while his stone and glass casting are more organic. Harriet Lesser’s paintings are inspired by the manipulation of natural elements in a different way—her work explores the relationship between making art and cooking. [gallery ids="101199,143810,143804,143801" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

The Fourth Annual “Wacky & Whimsical Tea to benefit THEARC” was a joyous astronaut-theme afternoon at the Ritz Carlton March 3. NBC4 newscaster Eun Yang served as the event’s honorary chair. Elegantly attired young partygoers and their beaming parents and grandparents enjoyed a sumptuous high tea, silent auction and a variety of creative games for all ages as well as performances by students at THEARC. Under the leadership of Building Bridges Across the River, 11 nonprofit agencies including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Levine School of Music and The Washington Ballet provide cultural, health, educational, recreational and social service programs “East of the Anacostia River.”
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Mary Bird •

Washington lost one of its leading artists a year ago when figurative painter Manon Cleary succumbed to the lung disease she had contracted from many years of teaching in improperly ventilated studios. Her husband F. Steven Kijek memorialized his love for her and shed light on her artistry in an Evening with Extraordinary Artist series at the Arts Club Feb. 27. Kijek spoke of the classical precision gleaned through her study of Caravaggio and went on to chronicle the various stages of her work through slide and film. As he tackles five trunks of untouched archives, he hopes to bring Manon’s art to a higher level of recognition, which will require “time, money and connections.” [gallery ids="119486,119462,119469,119476,119479" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • March 12, 2013

Opera singers are identified by voice—as in soprano, mezzo-soprano, bass, tenor and so on, as if it’s part of their birth name—as in Soprano Patricia Racette and Soprano Angela Meade. That’s one thing both singers have in common.
Another is that Racette and Meade will open the Washington National Opera spring season—Racette beginning Saturday, May 2 in the title role of Puccini’s romantic early master work “Manon Lescaut”, Meade in the title role of Bellini’s hallmark bel canto work “Norma” beginning March 9.

One other touchstone—besides the fact that both women are shining stars in the opera firmament—is that neither knew early on that opera stardom, an opera singer’s life, would be their destiny as is more common in the world of classical music, where prodigies are the norm, not the exception.

“I think, early on, I had my heart set on becoming a cabaret or jazz singer, doing the Great American Songbook works, that kind of thing,” Racette, who grew up in New Hampshire, said. “Then along came this teacher in college, who heard me, and said, nope, you are an opera singer and that was that. I cried for a couple of days and then I set on my path.”

Meade, who is known an uncommonly beautiful natural voice, did not clearly know what she wanted to do or what gifts she had until in her late teens, growing up in Centralia, Washington State, another teacher at Centralia College, told her pretty much the same thing. “You’re an opera singer, I was told, and my immediate reaction was ‘What does that mean?’”
Obviously, both women found out what it meant and albeit possibly considered late bloomers, found their way to stardom, through different routes, paths and roles. Racette is a familiar presence as a star, with a thick resume of star turns, most notably her highly praised turn in “Madame Butterfly”. She is known for her acting ability, and the emotional clarity and detail she brings to her performances. “I think acting—the emotions, the character—are equally if not more important than voice and technique. I don’t like when technique is solely emphasis, I want to know how audiences feel, I want to make them feel. Certainly you can’t have one without the other.”

Both will find challenges and its expected fulfillment in the roles they’re taking on for the WNO spring season. “With Manon Lescaut, it’s a tricky thing,” Racette said. “The music is beautiful, but the part is a little dangerous because on the surface she’s in that line of courtesan types—Violetta in ‘La Traviata’ is a shining example, but there are others. Manon is young. She doesn’t quite know what she wants. She’s obviously attracted to the young, romantic student Des Grieux, but she’s also forced by her situation to live in the house of the much older and rich Geronte, who providers her with a lavish life style. She can be thoughtless and a little bit of a young girl interested in fine things, the material world. She is in the end a tragic heroine, and you have to make the audience see and hear that she has substance, and deep feelings of love.”
This is a first portrayal of Manon for Racette, who’s had her share of tragic as well as strong female characters in her repertoire, Mimi in “La Boheme”, Nedda in “Pagliacci”, Ellen Orford in “Peter Grimes” and the title role in “Madama Butterfly”, Violetta in “La Traviata”, She was last seen and very much heard in a powerful, passionately brave performance as “Tosca” at the Washington National Opera where she navigated the bel canto storms adeptly. At the WNO she also appeared in “Iphigenie at Taurid”, “Peter Grimes” and “Jenuva”.

Meade’s appearance as “Norma” has been highly anticipated by audiences, but it’s also a role she has wanted to perform, in terms of a challenge, in terms of the fact that “Norma” is a kind of check point when it comes to the great bel canto roles, one of which—“Anna Bolena” which she has already conquered. “I’ve done a concert version but not a production,” Meade said, “Ever since, I’ve just been dying to do the role. It’s just such a challenge and such a complicated role. There’s a lot of anger and fury here—this is a high priestess in ancient Britain who’s had a long love affair with the Roman ruler, had children with him and then he basically leaves her for a younger woman. There is a point there, yes, she resembles Medea, although maybe not quite so bad.”

There are some big shadows in the history of “Norma”, as there were in “Bolena”, Callas and Sutherland among them, speaking of high priestesses of a different sort. “You know, you can’t go into something comparing yourself to others. You’re aware of all that, but you have to do the best that you do, bring to it your own gifts and abilities.”

Meade’s rise—once she did indeed realize that she was and would be an opera singer has been nothing less than meteoric, although not necessarily typical. She entered auditions—“I always tell people who are going through this, sing something they haven’t heard before,” she said. She made her professional debut only five years ago by entering over 50 singing and vocal competitions and winning them all, the last ending with the best result. She sang on the Metropolitan Opera stage for the first time as one of the finalists (and winner) of the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and was invited to join the cast of “Ernani” as a backup. When soprano Sondra Rodvanosky became ill, Meade stepped into the role in her actual debut at the Met and was critically well received. That was some five years ago, and ever since, Meade’s ascent has been swift with critical praise, major roles like “Il Trovatore”, another “Ernani”, and “Anna Bolena” , as well as a concert version of “Norma.”

“Your life changes, that’s certain,” she said. “I haven’t sung in Europe that much, although I’ve done a few things, and there’s still so much ahead of you,” she said. “And your days and nights are always filled up. It was hard to get used to at first, there’s not much time for a kind of real life.” She and her boyfriend, who is also a singer and whom she met in Ireland last year, live in New York. “He’s a singer also, and you have to find that balance trying to spend time together with professional concerns.” She recently added the Beverly Sills Award and the Richard Tucker award to a long list of honors. More importantly, she recently went to Centralia and performed a benefit concert at Centralia College to establish a music scholarship in honor of her late mother Deborah. “That was coming home again, and you miss that a lot sometimes,” she said.

The New Yorker called her “astounding” and another critic said she could be the next great Verdi soprano. But listening to her, you hear the voice of a clear-headed, pragmatic young American woman, no frills, serious and getting accustomed to her rising fame.

Racette has been a star for some time, one of the great voices and great performers of the opera world. She’s appeared in most of the great roles, and most of the great venues—La Scala, the Opera National de Paris, the English National Opera, the Vienna Staatsoper and of course at the Met where her performances of “Madama Butterfly” and “Peter Grimes were seen in HD in movie theaters across the world as part of “The Met: Live in HD”

She has also taken as serious interest in new work, works by contemporary composers which then encourages by her presence and participation. She originated the role of Leslie Crosbie in the world premiere of “The Letter” by Paul Moravec at the Santa Fe Opera and sung the part of Robert Alden in Tobias Picker’s “An American Tragedy, also in Santa Fe. “We have to rejuvenate the form with new works,” she said. “You can’t just sing the same roles over and over and over.”
Several years ago, in an interview with Opera News, came out about her relationship with her partner, mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton. The two, who met in 1998, have since married in 2005. “We both share the same world, which makes things that much better. I think it was time to talk about that, and I did. “

As to her early dream of becoming a jazz and cabaret singer—well, you might want to check out her CD on GPR records called “Diva on Detour”, in which she tackles Billie Holliday, Stephen Sondheim and Broadway tunes with a rangy, gifted, sometimes earthy voice in the service of American songs, jazz and a little bluesy lilt.

Listening to Racette, you hear a voice that dives into music and moves forward with it, she sees opera, her own voice, and other musical forms as a creative mix that’s never static, alive to the possibility of the new, full of dreams undreamt as well as fulfilled, on a detour, moving straight ahead.

For details on dates, times, tickets and casts of “Manon Lescot” and “Norma” visit the Washington National Opera’s webpage](http://www.kennedy-center.org/events/?event=ONOSA).
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