Washington National Opera previous WNO seasons ("Das Rheingold" in 2006, "Die Walküre" in 2007, and "Siegfried" in 2009), the fourth opera, "Götterdämmerung", was given in a concert performance in November 2009. During the 2007/08 season, WNO produced three rarely staged operas: William Bolcom's "A View from the Bridge", G.F. Handel's "Tamerlano", and Richard Strauss' "Elektra". During the following season Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucrezia Borgia" and Benjamin Britten's "Peter Grimes" were given, while the 2009-2010 season featured Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and Ambroise Thomas' "Hamlet". In May 2012 the Washington premiere of Verdi's "Nabucco" took place, directed by the rising star Thaddeus Strassberger. He
Sandra Grimes Sandra Grimes Sandra Grimes is a former CIA officer who participated in a small team that investigated and uncovered the actions of Aldrich Ames, a counterintelligence officer who was subsequently convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. Grimes was born in August 1945 to a couple who met in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and worked together on the Manhattan Project. She went to school in Los Alamos, then left and did the rest of her schooling in Denver, Colorado. While in high school she enrolled in a course in Russian, in which she excelled and gave her the encouragement to later