Living

Laughs in the libretto

New Wolf Trap-commissioned opera ‘The Inspector’ debuts next week

Published

15 years ago

April 21, 2011

‘The Inspector’
A world-premiere opera based on Gogol’s play ‘The Inspector General.’ Music by John Musto, book and libretto by Mark Campbell. April 29 at 8 p.m. and May 1at 3 p.m.
Free one-hour talk at the Center for Education, next door to The Barns, an hour prior to each two-hour show.
The Barns at Wolf Trap
1645 Trap Rd., Vienna, VA
Tickets: $32-$72
877-965-3872/wolftrap.org

Mark Campbell (Blade photo by Michael Key)

Comedy is a different animal when it comes to opera.

That’s the experience of Mark Campbell, author of a new comic opera, “The Inspector,” that features his laugh-out-loud, incisive libretto matched perfectly to the expressive melodies in composer John Musto’s sophisticated-yet-fun style. It comes to the stage in its world premiere at The Barns at Wolf Trap on three nights beginning Wednesday.

Based on all advance indications, it will be another triumph for the veteran collaborators, Campbell and Musto, whose comic operas “Volpone” won major plaudits at Wolf Trap in 2004 and returned there for a successful reprise in 2007.

“We were their matchmakers,” Kim Witman, Wolf Trap Opera’s director, rightly boasts, about bringing the two together for “Volpone,” and she admits that “anytime you do that, you just don’t know at the beginning what’s going to work or not.”

This combo worked so well, says Witman, “that we’ll take the credit” for making it happen. About “The Inspector,” she says, “They both have an approach to this work that is modern in feeling, not as in avant-garde” — which in opera can be cold and remote — “but that hits the sweet spot.”

“The Inspector,” an update of the 1836 classic tongue-in-cheek satirical play by Russian writer Nikolai Gogol, “intersects as music and words,” she says, “with its own spin on our contemporary world, because this is not about high art, but they each set out to entertain.”

What’s great about the two, she adds, is that “they use actual English words and the same syntax you would use if you spoke to someone on the street, so it doesn’t feel theatrical, it just sounds familiar,” in Campbell’s way with words and Musto’s melodic punctuation.

Witman, an old hand at making opera come alive for new audiences, admits that “We’re hampered by the fact that we are called opera,” but she stresses, “in many ways ‘The Inspector’ is really musical theater. It’s simply that it’s sung by people with operatically trained and expressive voices, without microphones.” She points out that on Broadway, singers’ voices are amplified, but not in opera. “That’s what makes it opera,” but with “The Inspector,” she says, “in everything else it could just as easily be musical theater.”

Opera is alienating to some, she says.

“Many people won’t come out to anything called opera, because they think they’ll feel stupid or that it’s stupid because they can’t understand it. It’s because of the trappings of opera, the exaggerated posturing, that people stay away, and because it’s in another language, so people think ‘I won’t understand it,’ and because they think it’s going to be five hours long.”

But “The Inspector” is sung in English, with constant wisecracks, and she says, “is very fast,” clocking in at just two hours long.

Campbell — who is gay, and openly declares, “I’m single and available for marriage, unfortunately not yet in New York (he lives in New York City), but in D.C.” — says that he and Musto “were told to write a comedy because they (Wolf Trap) loved ‘Volpone,'” which was based on the English play of that name (in Italian it means “sly fox”) written by Ben Jonson and first produced in 1606.

Musto is Italian — half Sicilian and half Neapolitan — so Campbell says that when they put their heads together they soon decided to revamp and relocate the classic Gogol comedy, set in Tsarist Russia, to Mussolini-era Italy, and instead of Russian-flavored music, Campbell says it is very Italian in flavor, with tarantellas, those Italian folk dances with fast upbeat tempos, not cossack-style dances.

“The composer must help make the opera funny,” and all of Musto’s music, says Campbell, is created to make sure that the comedy of the libretto — the words — lands with flair and funny impact.

This is their fourth opera together. Three are comedies, and the fourth, says Campbell, has comic elements — “Later The Same Evening,” based on the paintings of American artist Edward Hopper.

“When it comes to comedy, we know how to do this,” he says.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

“It’s harder to do than drama, because it must do the same thing that drama does, create clear characters who want something, the same thing as when you tell any story, but it must also be funny.”

Campbell says that “you’d have to ask my friends if I’m funny” but that he thinks that he’s “actually a pretty miserable person, as are most people who have a comic bent, because at the core of their heart is something that’s pretty dark.”

Soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, who sings the role of the mayor’s daughter, Beatrice, in “The Inspector,” agrees. She has worked with Campbell before, in the 2007 revival of “Volpone,” when she also sang on the cast recording of it which was nominated for a Grammy.

“He’s very friendly,” she says, “but at the same time he’s very private, and a lot of artists are like that.”

“We know how to bond with people, but we save ourselves for a few people and put the rest into our art,” so she says that “you get to know more about Mark by reading his work than by spending time with him in a casual setting.”

And “The Inspector” is funny, albeit set in a dark time, in late 1920s Sicily, when the new Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader, or “Il Duce,” decided to try to clean up the inbred corruption on the island with its Mafia-style gangs that ruled in politics and society with a heavy hand of thuggery and thievery.

“His ego had been hurt,” says Campbell, who spent a long time researching the history of the period, “so he sent in his own inspectors — called “prefetti,” or prefects — to clean up the corruption in local power centers on the island. So the scene is set for the village (imaginary but based on his research) of Santa Schifezza, whose local mayor’s rule is both criminal and unchallenged, until someone the mayor (Fazzobaldi) believes to be Mussolini’s inspector arrives.

Tancredi, this mysterious stranger, traveling with his manservant Cosimo — exceedingly smart, acerbic even, and definitely more pragmatic than his “master” — arrive just as the citizens of Santa Schifezza have gathered to rehearse the town’s new anthem — which is so bad it’s utterly funny — for the next day, Municipal Mayor Day, a day Mayor Fazzobaldi has instituted in honor of himself.

But the mayor has been informed that an inspector from Rome will soon arrive, incognito, and put at risk the entire way of life, based on corruption, he has worked so hard to keep going. When the goofy twins, Bobachina and Bobachino, who run the post office, stumble in with the news that they have spotted a new arrival at the inn, and that he is tall, eloquent, elegant — and blond — the mayor immediately jumps to the conclusion that he must be the anticipated inspector.

“Comedy as a form of theater is different from humor,” says Campbell, born in D.C. and a Maryland resident until age 12. “In opera it’s usually found,” he says, “when characters are so obsessed with something — with greed or in the case also with abuse of power — that audiences don’t find it sad but funny.”

But he says his own favorite moments in comic operas are the sad or tragic moments, such as in the character of Figaro from the Beaumarchais play which formed the basis for Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” and Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville.”

“I have done my job,” Campbell says, “if I have first seduced people with the jokes and then pull a 180-degree turn and stop them dead in their tracks, surprising them with an incredibly sad moment. Opera allows you to do that, and in many other art forms you just can’t do this so efficiently, because it has music which allows you to cut to the chase faster than with mere language.”

Campbell, who wrote the funny lyrics to the musical “And The Curtain Rises,” which just closed its world-premiere run at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, has also just come from Norfolk, Va., where the Virginia Opera premiered this month his musical theater piece based on a Civil War theme, “Rappahanock County,” in collaboration with the composer Ricky Ian Gordon, who is also gay and whose own musical “Sycamores” premiered last year at Signature Theatre.

Campbell is philosophical about being single, having been, he says, “in several long-term relationships, which were fairly happy ones, but I am not someone who believes in love forever, because people change and can evolve into a relationship and then evolve out of it.”

Three of his former partners “are now among my best friends,” he says. “If you love someone, you want them to be happy, and if you’re truly invested with someone it’s just a matter of reformatting the relationship.” But he’s also realistic — because first “you must get past the awkwardness of the first couple of years and the first new boyfriends.”

Could a comic opera on the subject be far behind?

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Real Estate

Real terrors of homeownership come from neglect, not ghosts

Mold, termites, frayed wires scarier than any poltergeist

Published

5 days ago

November 2, 2025

Valerie Blake

The real terrors of homeownership have nothing to do with ghosts.

Each October, we decorate our homes with cobwebs, skeletons, and flickering jack-o’-lanterns to create that spooky Halloween atmosphere. But for anyone who’s ever been through a home inspection there’s no need for fake scares. Homes can hide terrors that send chills down your spine any time of year. From ghostly noises in the attic to toxic monsters in the basement, here are some of the eeriest (but real) things inspectors and homeowners discover.

Every haunted house movie starts with a creepy basement, and in real life, it’s often just as menacing. Mold, mildew, and hidden water leaks lurk down there like invisible phantoms. At first, it’s just a musty smell — something you might brush off as “old house syndrome,” but soon enough, you realize those black or green patches creeping along the walls can be more sinister than any poltergeist.

Black mold (Stachybotrys chartarum) is particularly fearsome – it thrives in damp, dark places and can cause serious respiratory problems. It’s not just gross – it’s toxic and, while some types of mold can be easily cleaned up, removing black mold can cost more than an exorcism.

Have you ever heard strange buzzing or seen flickering lights that seem to move on their own? Before you call the Ghostbusters, call an electrician. Faulty wiring, outdated panels, and aluminum circuits from the mid-20th century are the true villains behind many mysterious house fires. Home inspectors can also find open junction boxes, frayed wires stuffed behind walls, or overloaded breaker panels that hum like a restless spirit.

Imagine an invisible specter floating through your home – something that’s been there since the 1950s, waiting for you to disturb it. That’s asbestos. Home inspectors dread discovering asbestos insulation around old boilers or wrapped around ductwork. It’s often lurking in popcorn ceilings, floor tiles, and even wall plaster. You can’t see it, smell it, or feel it—but inhaling those microscopic fibers can lead to serious illness decades later.

Lead pipes, once thought to be durable and reliable, are like the vampires of your water system – quietly poisoning what sustains you. The results of a lead test can be chilling: even a small amount of lead exposure is dangerous, particularly for children.

And it’s not just pipes – lead paint is another problem that refuses to die. You might find it sealed beneath layers of newer paint, biding its time until it chips or flakes away. This is why, when selling a property built prior to 1978, homeowners must disclose any knowledge of lead paint in the home and provide any records they may have of its presence or abatement.

Scratching in the walls. Tiny footsteps overhead. Droppings in the attic. It’s not a poltergeist – it’s pests. Termites, rats, bats, carpenter ants, and even raccoons can do more damage than any ghost ever could.

Termites are the silent assassins of the home world, chewing through beams and joists until the structure itself starts to sag. Rats and mice leave behind droppings that can spread disease and contaminate food. Bats are federally protected, meaning your haunted attic guests can’t just be evicted without proper precautions. And I once had a raccoon give birth in my chimney flue; my dogs went crazy.

Ever step into a home and feel the floors tilt under your feet? That’s no ghostly illusion – it’s the foundation shifting beneath you. Cracked walls, doors that won’t close, and windows that rattle in their frames are the architectural equivalent of a horror movie scream.

Foundation damage can come from settling soil, poor drainage, or tree roots rising from under the structure. In extreme cases, inspectors find entire crawl spaces flooded, joists eaten by rot, or support beams cracked like brittle bones. Repair costs can be monstrous – and if left unchecked, the whole house could become a haunted ruin.

Some homes hold more than just physical scares. Behind the drywall or under the floorboards, inspectors may uncover personal relics – old letters, photographs, even hidden safes or forgotten rooms. Occasionally, however, there are stranger finds: jars of preserved “specimens,” taxidermy gone wrong, or mysterious symbols scrawled in attic spaces.

These discoveries tell stories of the people who lived there before, sometimes fascinating, sometimes chilling, but they all add to the eerie charm of an old home, reminding us that every house has a history — and some histories don’t like to stay buried.

So, while haunted houses may be a Halloween fantasy, the real terrors in homeownership come from neglect, not ghosts. Regular inspections, good maintenance, and modern updates are the garlic and holy water that turn a trick of a home into a treat.

Valerie M. Blake is a licensed associate broker in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia with RLAH @properties. Call or text her at 202-246-8602, email her via DCHomeQuest.com, or follow her on Facebook at TheRealst8ofAffairs.

Advice

Sexual desire is waning, should we open our relationship?

Couple faces difficult choices after seven years

Published

5 days ago

November 2, 2025

Michael Radkowsky

Waning sexual interest is a problem that affects most longterm couples. (Photo by Wavebreak Media/Bigstock)

Dear Michael,

When I met my husband seven years ago, I was super attracted to him and we had a really hot sex life.

That feeling has been waning for a while and now I am just not feeling it.

I know that people get older, gain weight, get less attractive over time but that’s not the case here. Ben is as good looking as ever. But I have little desire to have sex with him.

It bothers me that I don’t really want to have sex with the guy I love and want to spend the rest of my life with.

Is this why everyone else I know has an open relationship? Is there something I can do to want to have sex with my husband again?

This is causing major problems in my marriage. I don’t initiate anymore and half the time I find an excuse to not have sex when Ben initiates. He knows something is up but I usually blame it on work stress or not feeling well. I don’t want to hurt his feelings.

Aside from this, I love Ben and we have a lot of fun together. We’re very close, talk about all sorts of stuff, but not this.

Michael replies:

Pretty much everyone in a long-term relationship has to deal with decreased desire at some point.

Sex changes after you’ve been with your partner for a while. Sex is not going to be as easy, hot, and irresistible as it was at the beginning of the relationship. Newness generates a lot of the sexual heat at the outset of a relationship, and when the newness is gone, you don’t easily feel the same sizzling excitement that you felt when you first met.

Unfortunately, the kind of sex that people have at the beginning of a relationship is totally glorified in our culture as the gold standard of sex.

I say “unfortunately” because it’s not possible to consistently have the hot sex of a new relationship, ongoing, with a long-term partner. So if you think that is the best or only kind of sex to have, you will be contemptuous of anything else, and you will be disappointed in your sex life with your partner as time marches on.

But the sizzling sex people have at the start of a relationship is just one way to have sex. If you are willing to be imaginative, and are open to change, there are many other kinds of sex that can be wonderful.

How about sex for emotional connection? Sex for physical closeness? Sex for romance? Sex to celebrate just being together?

So, consider changing (not lowering!) your expectations. Rather than sulking or moping that you don’t want to spontaneously jump Ben’s bones, be open to having sex with your husband that is based more on your relationship and on your love for each other.

Now, here’s a whole other angle to consider: While the excitement of a new partner often fades, there are still ways to generate excitement and passion in a long-term relationship by taking risks and revealing yourself more deeply. Stick with me and I’ll explain.

You haven’t said anything to Ben about your waning interest. I encourage you to re-think this. You would be much better positioned to tackle this issue collaboratively. Not talking about how stuck you feel is likely to deepen your feeling of shame and fear that something is wrong. Speaking with Ben about what is actually a fairly common couples’ issue could be a relief.
Ironic as this may seem, the closer two people are, the less comfortable they may be being frankly sexual with each other. Clients often tell me that they are more comfortable expressing their real desires to someone they hardly know (or don’t know at all) than to their significant other. For one thing, the more your partner means to you, the more you may fear rejection if you reveal sexual feelings and desires that might upset or even shock your partner. For another, as couples get closer, sex may start to feel like too much closeness, and avoiding sex may be a way to create some space.

Not speaking up about what is important keeps you distant from your partner and drains your relationship of vitality. A powerful antidote to this: work toward becoming a person who can take risks, tolerate discomfort and uncertainty, and be able stand on your own when you don’t get your partner’s validation.

Talking with Ben, whether it’s about your lack of spontaneous desire for sex, or about sexual interests you may be keeping from him for fear of judgment, would involve your making uncomfortable moves that might lead to Ben’s judgment or even rejection. But doing so would also, of course, allow the possibility of more happening between you sexually. It would also let Ben know you better, thereby deepening the level of intimacy in your relationship. Making these moves could also be inherently exciting, which —guess what—could help to shake you out of your sexual doldrums and bring more passion and life into your relationship.

Similarly, you might start initiating. Even if you’re afraid it won’t go well and even if you’re not feeling it. That is the only way you are going to figure out how to have satisfying long-term sex. Take the need for an erection or orgasm off the table. Sex with your partner should not be a performance. Go for closeness, connection, and what feels good. And challenge yourself to go places that you are uncomfortable about going.

If any of this intrigues you, “Passionate Marriage” and “Intimacy and Desire,” both by David Schnarch, explore how your sexual connection can deepen over time in a long-term relationship.

Finally, with regard to your considering an open relationship as a remedy: Do you think that would enhance the sexual connection between you and Ben?

Michael Radkowsky, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist who works with couples and individuals in D.C. He can be found online at michaelradkowsky.com. All identifying information has been changed for reasons of confidentiality. Have a question? Send it to [email protected].

Wedding Announcement

Douglas M. Haller and Timothy H. Longnecker wed in Detroit, Michigan

Couple weds in Detroit, Michigan

Published

1 week ago

October 30, 2025

Phil Rockstroh

From left, Douglas M. Haller and Timothy H. Longnecker became married partners September 15, 2025 in Detroit’s gay-welcoming suburb of Ferndale, after 11 years as domestic partners in Midtown Detroit. (Photo courtesy of That Gay Photographer, Warren, MI)

Douglas M. Haller and Timothy H. Longnecker were married on September 15, 2025 in Detroit’s gay-welcoming suburb Ferndale after 11 years as domestic partners in Midtown Detroit. Julia Music, coordinator of LGBTQ Pride celebrations in Ferndale, served as officiant.

The couple sang stanzas of the 1927 song “Side By Side” as their vows, concluding with an AI Gay Wedding Pledge: “to be Allies pursuing happiness, equality and shared dreams.”

The couples’ families hail from Detroit’s Old Redford neighborhood; Douglas is Irish and French-Canadian, Timothy is German and English. DNA testing confirmed to the couple that each shares substantial ancestry from Ostrobothnia, Finland.

Douglas began his advocacy as a gay cultural and political activist in 1971 by coming out in the disco dance scene of Detroit’s Gay Palmer Park neighborhood. In Washington, D.C. after 1974, he was an interior designer at Georgetown’s Little Caledonia boutique. Douglas became the co-owner of Hermes Antiques with Helen Coutts, a retired English Literature teacher from Redford H.S. On S St. at Connecticut Ave., D.C.’s first Pride celebrations were held in front of their shop, alongside Lambda Rising bookstore. Following victimization in an anti-gay hate attack, Douglas became the public awareness coordinator of the Gay Activists Alliance, and was the principal organizer of its Anita Bryant demonstration at Dupont Circle.

Returning to Detroit in 1979, Douglas achieved an M.A. in Ancient History & Archival Administration at Wayne State University (WSU), studying under Finley Hooper & Philip Mason; his Master’s Essay re: an American Labor Movement cartoonist, utilizing the Walter Reuther Library’s archives. His WSU 1973 B.A. included American Political/ Diplomatic History, & Interdisciplinary Studies. During 1979-82 he was Information Officer of ASP (Assoc. of Suburban People)— Metro Detroit’s largest gay and lesbian social and political organization.

Douglas relocated toSan Francisco in 1982. He was Curator of Photographs at California Historical Society Libraries in Pacific Heights and Los Angeles. Living in the Mission & Haight, he was active in Castro and South-of-Market gay life, just as the HIV/AIDS epidemic first appeared.

In 1986 Douglas relocated to Philadelphia, as Head Archivist of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology/Anthropology; authoring an illustrated book on Maison Bonfils, 19th-century French photographers of the Near East. Douglas was Founding Archivist of Penguin Place, now Philadelphia’s William Way LGBT+ Community Center. He became a Charter Member, Academy of Certified Archivists; and Founding Member, Lesbian/ Gay Archives Roundtable, Soc. of American Archivists (Chicago).

Returning to WSU’s Reuther Library (1998), Douglas was Coordinator of Audiovisual Collections, & History of Photography Instructor. Following 9/11 Attacks (2001), he relocated to New Orleans as Head Curator of Louisiana State Museums. Later owning the Gay-welcoming Creole Inn B&B in the Marigny (nr the French Quarter), with his finger on the pulse of Nawlins’ Gaylife—until Hurricane Katrina (2005). GLBT+ neighborhoods weren’t inundated—becoming lively islands amidst destruction. Douglas returned to Detroit in 2008 as caregiver for his mother, Jeanette Kalahar (Haller) Marchand, formerly a radio singer in 1940s Detroit. He met Timothy in 2014.

Timothy achieved a 1991 MBA in Finance & 1985 BS in Management Information Systems from the Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor. During 30 years, he held Information Technology & Automotive Business positions in Metro Detroit & LA, including Partner at Deloitte & Touche, Ford Motor & IBM. As a Consultant, his work involved extensive travel in North America, Europe & Asia. He has two married daughters from a previous marriage, a Pediatric Cardiology Nurse Practitioner & a Recruiting Executive for Automotive Technology clients, both living in Metro Detroit. As their final project before retirement, Timothy & Douglas worked as Archivist & Technology Consultant for Detroit educators Harriet (Choreographer) & Irving (Sculptor) Berg. Harriet acted as a godmother during their early relationship & they assisted in caregiving during her final years.

Timothy and Douglas spend their retirement in a 1905 apartment near the Detroit Institute of Arts’ exhibits, films and concerts, enjoying ethnic restaurants, and traveling. In 2025 they went by train to experience the “First Homosexuals 1869-1939” exhibition in Chicago. The curator of the exhibition, Jonathan Katz, 1976 book “Gay American History”, inspired Douglas to become a gay archivist.