Under the stewardship of General Director Timothy O'Leary, Washington National Opera continues to move confidently forward on a great adventure that began when the company was founded in 1956. Five decades and countless artistic leaps later, the Opera has achieved the stature of a world class company and plays to standing-room-only audiences at the Kennedy Center Opera House. The company recently received the designation "The National Opera" by the Congress of the United States of America. Washington National Opera has earned its position through the number and quality of its new productions and by championing lesser known works of significant musical worth rarely presented on today's opera stages. It is committed to sustaining new American opera, presenting new works in crucial second productions to expand the operatic repertory. It has been hailed for its work with operas on the epic scale, as the British magazine Opera Now recently stated, "Washington National Opera is carving out a new area of expertise . . . staging grand spectacles to exacting standards with precision and power not often seen even at the world's top houses." The company is also known for its discovery and nurturing of important young talent and the international collaboration system it has pioneered with leading foreign opera companies.