Washington National Opera’s new production of Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha,” which opened at Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University on Saturday.Credit...Elman Studio
“Are we glad to see you,” Timothy O’Leary said to a full house at Lisner Auditorium on Saturday. “Welcome to the uninterrupted, slightly relocated 70th anniversary season of Washington National Opera.”
The audience applauded, and O’Leary, the opera company’s general director, continued. “We deeply appreciate your understanding and your solidarity, and your belief in creative freedom,” he said.
After yet more applause, he concluded: “Thank you for believing in the idea of American civil society whereby institutions that are mission-based like this are created and nurtured by we the people, and they are governed and owned by we the people.”
Without ever naming it, O’Leary was speaking about the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. That was Washington National Opera’s home until January, when it abruptly severed ties with the performing arts institution, joining an exodus of artists who have come to see it as a cultural proxy for President Trump and his political allies.
When O’Leary was done and it was time for the show, the genial plucks of a banjo at the start of Scott Joplin’s “Treemonisha” doubled as a kind of declaration. Washington National Opera had pulled off the risky, difficult feat of abandoning its home, and all the security that came with it, and opening a new production within two months.