August Everding, the German stage director and impresario, once said it is the right of everyone to fall in love with bad opera. That happened to me on Friday night at the Virginia Opera’s thoroughly enjoyable “Aida.” Everding was referring to Germany, where young people may get their first exposure to opera at one of the dozens of small local houses around the country. The Virginia Opera’s “Aida,” which finished its three-city run this weekend at George Mason University, had some of the hallmarks of the provincialism that Everding meant by “bad opera,” from the moment the aging tenor took the stage in a Cher-like wig and a lamé costume that made him look as if he were wearing Liberace’s bathrobe. Read full article > >

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Virginia Opera produces a wonderful ‘Aida’