Wolf Trap: partially successful expedition

"Alcina" was sold out today. I admit that driving out to Wolf Trap without reserving a ticket in advance was taking a chance, and maybe I was assuming far too much. I thought I would make the most of the trip and buy a ticket for the Sunday matinee of "Ariadne auf Naxos" on August 17 -- also sold out! This is good news for the Wolf Trap Opera Company, of course. Next summer, I will consider getting a summer subscription or buying selected tickets well in advance. The few production photos which I've seen on line all look so handsome, by the way.

This was as much an exploratory trip to get oriented to visiting Wolf Trap Farm Park again, because I've only been there once many years ago. For future reference: The Barns, the smaller, fully enclosed theater where most of WTO's season takes place, is on the other side of the Dulles Access Road from the main Filene Center, but if you're coming from the direction of the Beltway, you have to exit as if going to the Filene and make a U-turn to go back across to get to the Barns. That said, it seems this time of year, the Barns box office is likely to be closed, and you have to buy at the Filene box office any way -- if tickets are available.

It was hot, humid and a little hazy today, but the hill where the Filene Center is situated was getting some very nice breezes. The Filene itself looks like a massive wooden ark for the performing arts. I did stop and stare and reminisce about my one visit in the past to see "Mlada." As for Handel's "Alcina," I saw Opera Vivente's own wonderful production in Baltimore last fall (updated to a 1960's psychedelic setting), but it wasn't too soon to hear this gorgeous opera again.