Washington National Opera opens first show since leaving Kennedy Center

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Washington National Opera opens first show since leaving Kennedy Center

Alan Etter | [e-mail]
March 9, 2026, 7:00 PM


The Washington National Opera Company opened "Treemonisha" this weekend to two sold-out audiences at Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University.(Courtesy Elman Studio)

The Washington National Opera opened “Treemonisha” this weekend to two sold-out audiences at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. ... It’s the first show the opera company has produced since announcing in January that it would be leaving the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Washington National Opera General Director Timothy O’Leary told WTOP when he and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello took the stage to welcome the audience, they were met by a more than two-minute-long standing ovation.

“It’s been a really exciting, inspiring kind of groundswell of support,” O’Leary said of the overwhelming responses the opera has received since making the decision to leave the Kennedy Center.

He added the opera has maintained a “constructive discussion” with the Kennedy Center, and he would not rule out a return to the facility, where Washington National Opera spent 55 years of its residency in D.C.

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