Leslie Weisman

The Washington Chorus: ‘The Essential Verdi’ at The Kennedy Center

The Washington Chorus, marking the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth with a series of concerts, offered the sixth on Sunday evening, with a program of arias, scenes and choruses from his...

Washington Performing Arts Society/Young Concert Artists: Julia Bullock, Soprano, With Renate Rohlfing, Piano by Leslie Weisman

Sunday afternoon’s recital at The Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert in the Young Concert Series, was a musically and intellectually adventurous expedition that...

Vocal Arts DC Presents: Hei-Kyung Hong, Soprano, in Recital at The Kennedy Center by Leslie Weisman

The Kennedy Center’s 500-plus-seat Terrace Theater was filled nearly to capacity Wednesday night for soprano Hei-Kyung Hong’s recital of German and Korean art songs, the latter as cherished by and...

‘The Old Masters’ at Washington Stage Guild by Leslie Weisman

We Washingtonians take pride in accomplishment, and in being duly recognized for it. And strongly dislike having our expertise challenged—particularly, publicly. Fortunately, most of us don’t have our...

‘Speech & Debate’ at Montgomery College’s Communication and Performing Arts Department by Leslie Weisman

Montgomery College Communications and Performing Arts Department’s production of Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate, which closed on Sunday is whip-smart, sophisticated, and incisive. First, there’s...

‘Jerusalem’ at The Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum’s Johnson IMAX Theater by Leslie Weisman

If Secretary of State John F. Kerry is willing to think way outside the box in his attempts to break the seemingly eternally intransigent deadlock in Middle East peace negotiations, he could do worse...

‘Legacy and Life: A Musical and Visual Reflection’ at The Choral Arts Society of Washington at The Kennedy Center by Leslie Weisman

A sizable crowd at Legacy and Life: A Musical and Visual Reflection greeted the Choral Arts Society of Washington’s performance of the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi and Take Him, Earth by composer Steven...

‘Inventing Van Gogh’ at Washington Stage Guild by Leslie Weisman

Steven Dietz has the dubious distinction of being one of the nation’s most performed but least known playwrights. With its earnest production of Dietz’s searing, cerebral and enigmatic (and, some...

An Interview with Washington National Opera’s ‘Tristan and Isolde’s’ Alwyn Mellor by Leslie Weisman

British soprano is making her debut with the Washington National Opera in the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, sharing the role with Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin. Leslie: You’ve...

Interview with Ian Storey of ‘Tristan and Isolde’ at Washington National Opera by Leslie Weisman

British tenor Ian Storey plays Tristan in Washington National Opera’s Tristan and Isolde Leslie: You’ve performed the role of Tristan in opera houses from Berlin to Glyndebourne, under the baton of...

Film Review: ‘Thanks for Sharing’ by Leslie Weisman

“Thanks for sharing,” most commonly considered a wry reply to one who’s just told you something you really didn’t need to know, is both apropos and perplexing as a title for a film whose characters...

Reporting from The Page-to-Stage Festival: ‘5 Plays’ from Catholic University of America by Leslie Weisman

The Catholic University of America (CUA) presented five readings of new plays on Saturday afternoon. Circulation by Robert Montenegro Language lovers who like their grammar lessons steeped in...

Film Review: ‘In a World . . .’ by Leslie Weisman

Carol Solomon, daughter of one of the great voice-over (V.O.) artists, Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed), has been getting by as a voice coach, so overshadowed vocally and cowed psychologically by her...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Our Boys’ by Leslie Weisman

The Fringe is rightly known and celebrated for giving people who may not be regular theater goers a chance to take a few bites of the performing-arts apple, with the hope and expectation that, once...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Shirt of Happiness’ by Leslie Weisman

What is the secret of happiness? If we took everybody who claimed to have an answer to that elusive question and laid them end to end, the line would probably stretch from DC to Armenia, where this...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Bully’ by Leslie Weisman

Entering the theater, we are greeted, and just this side of visually and audibly—threateningly, or unintentionally?—assaulted, by the sight and sounds of a slim, intense young man doing athletic...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Elephant in My Closet’ by Leslie Weisman

Looking at the title of this show, you know it’s a metaphor. And even without knowing anything about what the show’s about, you probably feel sure you know what the metaphor’s for. Which makes it a...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Black-Jew Dialogues’ by Leslie Weisman

“So different. So alike. Who knew?” Such is the premise of this smash hit show, which has played across not only across the country but across the ocean (of all places—given the theme—Edinburgh), with...

Capital Fringe Review: ‘Arlington National Cemetery: My Forever Home’ by Leslie Weisman

“Standard advice for people who are planning a move into a new home is ‘get to know your neighborhood’ before you move in,” writes Ellouise Schoettler. The widow of a Vietnam-era physician and flight...

Film Review: Much Ado About Nothing’ by Leslie Weisman

No doubt about it: this is not your father’s (not to mention your English teacher’s) Shakespeare. Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing opens with a close-up of a man’s bare feet inserting themselves...

Film Review: ‘What Maisie Knew’ by Leslie Weisman

When Henry James wrote What Maisie Knew at the turn of the twentieth century, little did he dream that more than a century later it would form the basis for a screenplay that would speak with equally...