Also this issue: Northern Lights A report from Toronto’s World Stage festival. -Toby Zinman Are You Hot? Two artists answer that question with technology, not washed-up celebrity judges. -Robin Rice Artsbeat -Debra Auspitz No Show -Patrick Rapa Mamma Mia! -Debra Auspitz "Back to the Future" at SkateNerd Gallery -Brian White Miami City Ballet -Janet Anderson Faust -Peter Burwasser

May 1- 7, 2003

artpicks

La Traviata

One of Wilmington's architectural and cultural treasures is its Grand Opera House, a 19th-century jewel with a comfortable, intimate atmosphere: a great destination for a brief trip by car or train. Opera Delaware ends its noteworthy season with an art deco staging of Verdi's evergreen weepie La Traviata designed by the Canadian team Renaud Doucet and Andre Barbe. Three rising young American singers take part: Patricia Johnson and Benjamin Warschawski as the youthful lovers Violetta and Alfredo, hemmed in by society's rules; and William Andrew Stuckey as Alfredo's disapproving dad. Soprano Johnson has sung to acclaim on three continents, tenor Warschawski has sung Alfredo for the New York City Opera and baritone Stuckey performs with Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others. Artistic director Leland Kimball directs and (after a fine Tosca in November) David Wroe leads the orchestra. Bring your handkerchiefs: Traviata gets the tear ducts flowing.

La Traviata, May 3-11, $23-$64, Opera Delaware at the Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St., Wilmington, Del., 800-374-7263.

—David Shengold