Wednesday (9/30) on her Washington Post blog Classical Beat, Anne Midgette writes, “Baltimore these days has become a veritable case study in opera-company development. You wouldn’t have thought so this time last year, when the Baltimore Opera Company was emitting its last gasps before closing for good this spring. That demise left a gaping hole in the landscape—but that hole is now being flooded with so many other opera companies that you truly can’t tell the players without a scorecard. I’ve mentioned this before, but it seems like new opera is being added every day.” Midgette notes major performances from the Lyric Opera House, Opera Vivente, Baltimore Concert Opera, American Opera Theater, and, not far from Baltimore, the Annapolis Opera. “One-off performances and shoestring productions may not replace what a permanent opera company has to offer. On the other hand, all of the energy and devotion to the art form represented by all of these varied attempts is itself a force to be reckoned with. One wonders if so many people would have realized they cared so much had the Baltimore Opera Company managed to stay above water.”
Posted September 30, 2009
