The company's production is directed by Lillian Groag, a playwright and theatrical director who has staged operas for New York City Opera and Glimmerglass Opera. The conductor is Virginia Opera artistic director Peter Mark.

"It is thrilling that for the first time in Virginia, we are able to present...this seamless union of music and drama," Mark said in a statement. "A more powerful and transcendent story of love has never been told, and we are telling it here in Virginia!"

The cast includes tenor Thomas Rolf Truhitte as Tristan and soprano Marjorie Elinor Dix, in her company debut, as Isolde.