Is opera for everyone? Absolutely, Katerina Souvorova, a Gaithersburg resident and founder of the small-but-mighty Bel Cantanti in Montgomery County, proclaims. Anyone who thinks this classical music form, born in Renaissance-era Italian courts to entertain and shill for the royals, isn’t for them, Souvorova challenges them to give her chamber-size opera company a try.
Born and trained as a singer in Belarus in the then-Soviet Union, she noted, “I think it’s a very American thing not to like the opera. … But try … make yourself try, because everywhere in the world, opera is a part of cultural life.” And, an added bonus: tickets cost about $40 per person. A bargain of operatic proportions.
Bel Cantanti, Souvorova’s modestly sized but adventurously programmed opera company was formed in 2003 after she followed her spouse to Montgomery County for his job at the National Institutes of Health.
Beautiful Singers in Any Language
Her first production in the region, Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” was an unexpected hit. “We just put our money together, rented costumes from Washington Opera and just performed it,” she recalled.
So this fledgling group of young singers needed a name. An Italian tenor Souvorova was working with suggested Bel Cantanti. As a singer, repetiteur and opera coach, she knew this phrase is grammatically incorrect. Proper Italians know bei cantante means “beautiful singer”; bel is the singular form for the word beautiful, while cantanti is the plural form of cantante, a male singer.
Bel cantanti stuck, the founder noted, “and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard, ‘You know the name of your company is not correct.’”
Since that first performance in a church in 2003, Sourovova has produced an estimated 60 to 70 operas. Among them are those well-known repertory warhorses like Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” Rossini’s “Barber of Seville” and Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” but always with a twist. Sometimes singers will play multiple parts or she’ll edit the larger works to shorter, more streamlined productions.
But Sourovova specializes in lesser-known operatic works, particularly those in her mother tongue, Russian. In February, “Princes, Queens and Demons” will share a program of Russian operatic excerpts, often not seen or heard in the West. These include Tchaikovksy’s “The Queen of Spades,” Borodin’s “The Prince Igor,” Rubinstein’s “Demon” and other Russian operas.
Musical Theater Kid Turned Operatic Soprano
Bel Cantanti’s other notable achievement has been the literally thousands of young singers Souvorova has coached, cast and nurtured over the years. Making it big in the 21st-century opera world is as competitive and expensive as drafting into the NBA. A number of her singers have gone on to illustrious stages including New York’s Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Italy, and Garnier in Paris, to name a few.
Emily Casey, a rising DMV-area soprano, grew up in the region as a “musical theater kid,” coming late to opera. She encountered Souvorova at The Catholic University. “In college I had a little bit of a draw to it, and decided to try [opera] out in college and see how it goes. … I fell in love with it, becoming fully immersed at that point.” Serendipitously, the first opera she saw, “La Boheme,” became the first in which she performed.
“I met Katerina at Catholic,” auburn-haired Casey said. “I took her Italian diction course as a freshman, and her Russian diction course as a senior.” They reconnected post-COVID lockdown when she was looking for performance opportunities and saw Bel Cantanti’s audition listing. “I finally got a chance to sing with Katerina’s company.
“She is just the ultimate professional repetiteur, so knowledgeable about the operatic repertoire,” Casey said. “She comes in with such knowledge and really encourages each singer to sing correct style, but to also move beyond just singing notes on the page.” From her coach and teacher, Casey learned to infuse each moment on stage with meaning and heart: “I feel very lucky to be able to work with her.”
The Place to See Next-Gen Opera Stars
Baltimore-based baritone Rob McGinness designs and teaches professional development for performers at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. He’s performed with Bel Cantanti for about a decade. In fact, at a late-summer benefit concert at Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, village resident John Brittain had nothing but praise for this rising young singer, whom he followed when he lived in Baltimore. Brittain explained that Bel Cantanti rehearses in the theater and occasionally he’ll run into McGinness and other performers. Bel Cantanti, he said, “is first rate with very fine singers. It’s bittersweet, though, because I think some should be performing in Rome or Vienna,” alluding to the intensely competitive nature of opera.
The 2025–26 Bel Cantanti season will continue its mission of supporting rising young singers and expanding the audience for opera in the county. While the company is itinerant and the county lacks a formal opera house, Souvorova has forged relationships with The Writers’ Center in Bethesda and the Bender Jewish Community Center in Rockville. But renting weekend performance space is costly. Souvorova has built a relationship with St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Aspen Hill, where she serves as music minister. During off-peak church hours the choir practice room provides a familiar space for the singers to rehearse. It’s also where Souvorova builds some of the smaller set pieces and costumes.
The season opens with the family-friendly “L’Enfant et les Sortileges” by Maurice Ravel. This short opera feels like Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” meets the Grimm Brothers’ “The Willful Child.” Filled with everyday objects come to life like an armchair, clock and teapot, it’s a great romp that child-centric moral parents will appreciate.
Snow Queens and Russian Princes
For the winter holiday season, Bel Cantanti revives its production of “The Snow Queen,” a retelling of the beloved Hans Christian Andersen tale, which Disney remade as “Frozen.” With a script created by Jane Barbara and music culled from popular operas and nondenominational carols, “The Snow Queen” returns due to audience demand.
The new year brings “Princes, Queens and Demons,” leaning into Sourovova’s Russian training and roots with a selection of solos, duets and ensembles performing excerpts from Borodin’s “Prince Igor” and Rubinstein’s “Demon.” The season closes with the great Donizetti work “Anna Bolena,” dramatizing the final days of Henry VIII’s wife Anne Bolyn.
While opera was born to please and entertain the royal hierarchy across Italian, French, Spanish and German courts, Souvorova, an émigré American, believes in the importance of this high-brow art form. She’s devoted a lifetime to coaching, directing and offering opportunities for the next generation of opera artists.
“This kind of work [requires] passion,” she asserted. “I’m doing this because I cannot not do it.”
For further information on Bel Cantanti and its 2025–26 season, visit belcantanti.com.
Lisa Traiger is an award-winning arts journalist who writes on theater, dance, music, film and visual arts from her home in Montgomery County.
love to come to a show! We recently were delighted with two performances of Carmen and really loved both of them!!