Next season I’m excited for Il pirata

I’m overdue for some bel canto and WCO has historically done it well.

September 11, 2026

Ahoy there! After missing the Met’s bel canto Triple Crown last season (two of which featured tenor Lawrence Brownlee), I’m looking forward to Washington Concert Opera’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s Il pirata in May. I’m overdue for some bel canto and WCO has historically done it well.

Brownlee will star as the swashbuckler Gualtiero opposite soprano Angela Meade as Imogene (his love interest) and baritone Will Liverman as her husband, Ernesto. Brownlee and Meade sang Oreste and Ermione, respectively, in WCO’s 2023 production of Gioachino Rossini’s rarity Ermione, one of the most fiery and exciting nights of opera I’ve experienced, and I’m looking forward to hearing them together again. This time, their characters’ love will be requited, though with another tragic ending. It will also be good to have Liverman back so soon after his strong Zurga in WCO’s Les pêcheurs de perles last season.

Andrew Lokay

Andrew Lokay began his career as an opera fan at the San Francisco Opera, where the first performance he saw was Madama Butterfly. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and French with honors in international security studies. He now lives in Washington, DC and is a frequent audience member for opera and theatre in the nation’s capital.