Washington National Opera

Yeah, absolutely.

That's at WNO.

Yes.

exist question it does okay yeah anyway so does

The Kennedy Center, beyond being, you know, a gorgeous building and a sanctuary for the creative arts, was also a centralized place for arts leadership intelligence.

Um, you know, this is the, our national cultural center, more than a quarter of a billion dollars in revenue annually, two thousand shows a year, you know, that were put on, the, the h- of the Washington National Opera, the home of the National Symphony Orchestra, and all the labor that it took to keep that thing humming, you know, on a daily basis was fractured, balkanized, and dispersed.

And that does something, you know, on par with the, the underfunding and dismantling of the Department of Education, the, you know, the infiltration of partisan beliefs in the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Justice.

The fracturing and, um, the kind of the partisan casting in the Kennedy Center mirrors the fracturing and partisan casting and hiring in all these other federal institutions.

And it was like COVID round two is how I was kind of feeling at the Kennedy Center because nobody knew what was going to happen.

Except that it was just only the NSO that was dealing with this and the Washington Opera, Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

And so I started to wonder, like, what else can I do? If, like, for some reason, the Kennedy Center seat this week is, what would I do for an income? I'm an avid hiker and love the outdoors.

And I was thinking, well, I could work at REI.

I didn't wanna forget to ask you, just very quickly, the opera that you do in Washington, DC, the nation's capital.

There's Washington National Opera.

This year they're not at the Kennedy Center.

They're touring all around.

Yes.

Today, we are honored to have, uh, Francesca Zambello, who is a trailblazing stage director and also the artistic director of the Washington National Opera, and she's also led the Glimmerglass Festival.

Francesca, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, and I just wanted to get started.

Um, last season, uh, the Washington National Opera, where you're currently the artistic director, had a big pivot that you guys had to do.

Um, you guys left the Kennedy Center and had to figure out a way to present opera.

Michael Kaiser has been called the Mr. Fix-It of performing arts institutions.

Over the past 15 years, he has revived the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, the Washington Opera, the American Ballet Theatre, and many others.

In 1998, he was appointed executive director of the Royal Opera House in London.

In his short time there, he was credited with rescuing the company from financial ruin.

Leonard Slatkin, who's the, who's a great music director of the National Symphony Orchestra-

A wonderful

... and Plácido Domingo at the Washington Opera, and Suzanne Farrell, who is building a ballet company at the Kennedy Center.

These are wonderful artistic minds with whom I'm very, very honored to collaborate.

I agree with you that having these American themes on the operatic stage is, uh, something that really we should value.

I was glad to see the Washington National Opera do Robert Ward's The Crucible last season.

Mm-hmm.

A very American story, a very American play, Arthur Miller.

Yeah, I'm sad to, sad to agree with you, John.

I think you're absolutely right.

You know, if you ask people, "Who's the, who's the director of Lincoln Center today?" You know, "Who's the chief, uh, who's the CEO of the Washington National Opera or the Metropolitan Opera?"

Yeah.