All the Rage: 'Otello,' 'Die Walkure' and Pianists Par Excellence

Anja Kampe and Placido Domingo, here in the Washington National Opera's 2003 production of "Die Walkure," will reprise their roles next month. (By Carol Pratt)

Placido Domingo continues to astound. The tenor is now 66 and still adding roles to his repertory (he recently agreed to take on the baritone role in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra"). Happily for Washington, we are going to have a second chance to hear Domingo in a role he has sung here before -- that of Siegmund in Wagner's "Die Walkure." His 2003 appearances were hampered by the reconstruction of the Kennedy Center Opera House, when the Washington National Opera was forced to perform in the acoustically challenged Constitution Hall.

Beginning March 24, Domingo will sing "Die Walkure" again, with the same fine Sieglinde who was his partner four years ago, soprano Anja Kampe, at the Kennedy Center, where they belong. WNO Music Director Heinz Fricke will conduct. The introduction of titles in the Opera House has reminded us that Wagner was not only one of the greatest composers of the 19th century but also one of Europe's finest dramatists between Goethe and Ibsen. You won't want to miss this.

- Shakespeare's "Othello" has been the foundation of not one but two great operas. Verdi's late tragedy (a collaboration with an equally gifted librettist, Arrigo Boito) has long been justly famous. But Gioacchino Rossini's "Otello," while less dramatically convincing, is brimming over with magnificent music, as anybody who has heard the recording with Jose Carreras and Frederica von Stade can attest. Curiously, Rossini gave three leading roles -- Otello, Iago and Rodrigo -- to tenors (why didn't Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras pick up on this?)

In any event, on April 29 at Lisner Auditorium, Washington Concert Opera will present a complete performance of Rossini's "Otello" under the direction of Antony Walker. The "three tenors" will be Bruce Ford, Kenneth Tarver and Tanner Knight. The Desdemona will be Elizabeth Futral, and there is nobody active today I'd rather hear in the role.

- A number of remarkable pianists will be appearing in Washington this spring, beginning tonight, when listeners have a choice between Richard Goode at the Music Center at Strathmore and Till Fellner at the National Gallery of Art. My own top pick might go to Evgeny Kissin, who will be playing works by Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Brahms at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on April 18, under the auspices of the Washington Performing Arts Society.

- Finally, call me grumpy if you will, but I am not at all looking forward to the National Symphony Orchestra's"Serious Fun" examination of humor in music, slated for May 10-12. The NSO rarely plays at its best in these quickie festivals -- three days, three different programs -- and I can find no reason why we are having the duo-piano team of Katia and Marielle Labeque back to play Saint-Saens's infinitesimal "Carnival of the Animals" for the third time during Leonard Slatkin's tenure as music director. This is a man desperately in need of some new ideas.