A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
And we'll lay aside the fact that under current federal law, it may not even be legal to change the name; questions of legality have rarely seemed to pose much concern for Donald Trump or congressional Republicans loyal to him.
Whatever the outcome, Trump's ideas of what is acceptable (or not) as art are already having an impact on the opera house's programming. This past spring, Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce pulled their smart Dupont Circle drama "Fellow Travelers," which focuses on gay government employees during the McCarthy-era Lavender Scare, from Washington National Opera's 2025-26 lineup. It's been replaced by Robert Ward's 1961 operatic adaptation of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible."
Trump, meanwhile, has indicated his desire for no further "drag shows or anti-American propaganda" at the nation's cultural center. That rules out a significant number of titles, whether that be because they feature roles intended to be performed en travesti (that means "in drag" in opera-speak, also known as Italian) or they depict American characters as entitled and greedy -- for example, Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," which associates snippets of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with the dishonest American Navy Lieutenant Pinkerton.
So what can the opera house play? Fortunately, there are plenty of operas that should satisfy the commander-in-chief's scruples while also pleasing audiences who don't necessarily agree with him. We combed the repertoire for a few possibilities.
DON GIOVANNI (W.A. Mozart)
"Madamina, il catalogo è questo ...," the popular aria, is just one of the reasons why this Mozart dramedy would make the pitch-perfect season opener. Not only does Don Giovanni pack some of the most relentless earworms in the operatic repertoire, but the plot revolves around a deceitful philanderer and carries a prescient moral: No matter how much money and social clout one may possess, or how many loyal lackeys one may have to shield them from vengeful exes, jealous husbands, and angry members of the public, no one can run forever from the consequences of their actions. In the Don's case, that means getting dragged to hell in the final scene by a statue of a man he murdered at the beginning.
NABUCCO (Giuseppe Verdi)
Nothing's more dangerous than a leader who thinks he's a god; just ask the King of Babylon in this beloved Verdi opera. He gets struck down by lightning, driven insane, and thus tricked into signing a death warrant for all the Israelites in his kingdom as well as his own daughter.
WOZZECK (Alban Berg)
At its heart, "Wozzeck" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of trusting quack doctors who prescribe fad diets. Eat nothing but beans and mutton, and you might just murder the mother of your child, terrify everyone in your local watering hole, and hallucinate your way into a long walk off a short pier. Who knows what might happen if you follow a so-called carnivore diet? Maybe you'll cancel hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of vaccine research.
CATS (Andrew Lloyd Webber)
Not an opera? Close enough, it's sung through! And believe it or not, "CATS" is having a bit of a moment -- and it's not because of the uncanny valley 2019 film adaptation, but Bill Rauch and Zhailon Livingston's radical rework, which imagines the Jellicle Ball in the queer underground Ballroom culture, as seen in "Paris Is Burning." Ballroom icon Junior LaBeija even graced the stage as the elderly Gus the Theatre Cat during that production, which packed the seats at New York City's new Perelman Performing Arts Center last summer. It's safe to say that without that influence, drag as a modern and relatively accessible art form would not exist -- which is why the Melania Trump Opera House must only mount reruns of the original 1980s production, certain never to cause any queer awakenings. Skintight leotards and leg warmers for all!