what makes the barber of seville such a timeless classic?”
Washingtonians out for a recent night at the opera left their tux-and-tails at home, instead donning tee shirts and visored caps for a performance screened gratis at the city’s main baseball stadium. “Opera in the Outfield”, sponsored by the Washington National Opera company last weekend, offered thousands of area residents an evening of classical music in the decidedly informal setting of a baseball stadium — including many who had had no prior experience of opera. An audience of some 2,000 opera lovers attended the Washington National Opera’s opening night of its production of “The Barber of Seville” at the elegant Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. At the same time, the opera company beamed its performance of the light-hearted comic work to an audience of more than 20,000 at the city’s baseball main stadium, home to the Washington Nationals. “The company’s goal is to make opera accessible to everyone in our community,” said the company’s director and conductor, fabled Spanish
