Bel Cantanti is an American opera company under the direction of Dr. Katerina Souvorova. It was formed in 2003 to give performance opportunities to operatic talent in the Washington, D.C. area. It has produced fully staged operas and gala events with young professionals since 2003. The productions has been in a variety of venues including: the Austrian Embassy in D.C., the French Embassy in Georgetown, the German Embassy in D.C., and their current home the Randolph Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland.
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Productions
In December 2003, Bel Cantanti held its first fully–staged opera production, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, at St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg, Virginia. Bel Cantanti has had continued success with its productions of : Donizetti's L'elisir d'Amore, Verdi's Rigoletto, Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Donizetti's La fille du régiment, Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Rachmaninoff's Aleko, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The company's 2007-2008 season produced fully staged versions of Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio, performed in German, March 2008) and G. Puccini's birth with an abridged version of La bohème. In December 2007 Bel Cantanti is performing a concert version of Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel.
Reviews
Bel Cantanti and its young performers, coached by Katerina Souvorova, have garnered excellent reviews over the years in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Ionarts.blogspot.com, and other local papers.