Preview Review: Santa Fe Opera’s eclectic 2017 Season
From Baroque to the Orient to the man behind the Apple logo, Santa Fe Opera's 2017 exotic lineup encompasses the length and breadth of the operatic landscape.
Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Capriccio’: Richard Strauss’ grad school arts seminar
Richard Strauss' infrequently heard “Conversation Piece for Music” is less an opera and more a furtively amusing debate on the merits of literature vs. music that's then set to music.
Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’ meets the U.S. Civil War
Santa Fe Opera’s unusual setting for Gounod’s operatic take on Shakespeare’s romantic classic, "Romeo and Juliet," brings the Bard's star-crossed lovers across the sea in a surprisingly effective U.S. Civil War setting as the Capulets and Montagues morph into the North and South.
Saddle up for Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Girl of the Golden West’
Great singing, lush orchestral accompaniment put a spit-shine on Puccini’s original Spaghetti Western Opera. But what’s with this SFO production’s cramped sets? Patricia Racette stars in this interesting production.
Santa Fe Opera’s elegant, disturbing ‘Vanessa’
With a libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber’s infrequently performed but highly regarded opera, "Vanessa," gets a well-deserved, near-perfect production in Santa Fe.
Santa Fe Opera’s ominously fatalistic ‘Don Giovanni’
Strangely dark and abstract Santa Fe Opera production of Mozart’s tragicomic masterpiece serves to highlight excellent singing, characterizations. Bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch stars in the title role.
Santa Fe Opera launches its 60th season
Lively 2016 Santa Fe Opera season underway, featuring vintage Mozart, neglected Puccini, lushly Romantic Gounod and other operatic masterpieces.
Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’: The In Series’ biggest small surprise
In a bold, largely successful move, the In Series bids for a bigger place at DC’s artistic table with a performance of Beethoven's "Fidelio" that raises the bar for “pocket opera.”
Down and dirty with Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Rigoletto’
SANTA FE, N.M., August 11, 2015 − Despite its relentlessly sordid story line − based on a controversial drama by Victor Hugo − Verdi’s “Rigoletto” has long been one of the composer’s most popular operas. Loaded with dramatic tension and shot through with brilliant and showy arias, it’s surprising that most productions we’ve seen over the ...
Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Daughter of the Regiment’: A high C comic hit
SANTA FE, New Mexico, August 9, 2015 — Santa Fe Opera’s 2015 mostly period-centric version of Donizetti’s comic opera, “Daughter of the Regiment” (“La fille du regiment”) might not be the traditional opera goer’s cup of tea. But that said, this production — currently on stage in Santa Fe — wraps the infinite delights of ...
Higdon’s ‘Cold Mountain’ scores big time for Santa Fe Opera
SANTA FE, New Mexico, August 7, 2015 — Staging the world premiere of a new American opera is always risky business. Most audiences would still prefer enjoying yet another re-run of “La Bohème.” But Santa Fe Opera’s August 1 world premiere performance of Jennifer Higdon’s “Cold Mountain” packed the house with a diverse audience of ...
Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Salome’: Shock and awe
SANTA FE, N.M., Aug. 5, 2015 – For a 21st century audience, Santa Fe Opera’s smashing new production of Richard Strauss’ shock opera “Salome” in many ways brilliantly revives the creepy atmospherics of the 1905 original production that scandalized the early 20th century opera world. It’s the 2015 operatic equivalent of “shock and awe,” made ...
Santa Fe Opera announces world premiere opera on life of Steve Jobs
SANTA FE, N,M. — In a well-attended news conference Wednesday morning, Santa Fe Opera (SFO) general director Charles MacKay announced that the company’s next new opera commission, “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” will receive its world premiere performance in 2017. The creative team for the new opera will be well-known composer Mason Bates and acclaimed veteran ...
A charming ‘La Finta Giardiniera’ in Santa Fe
SANTA FE, New Mexico, August 2, 2015 — After enjoying the Santa Fe Opera’s production of Mozart’s “La Finta Giardiniera,” here recently, it becomes easier to understand what infuriated Antonio Salieri about his young rival. The libretto of this still relatively unknown comic opera is painfully convoluted and its characters are two-dimensional, more or less. ...
If it’s August, it must be time for the Santa Fe Opera
SANTA FE, N.M., July 30, 2015 – We’re coming to you from New Mexico for the next two weeks instead of our usual dateline, Washington, D.C. In a welcome respite from the dismal political goings-on in the nation’s capital, we’ve come to not-quite-sunny capital city of New Mexico to cover a week of productions by ...
Funny ‘Impressario,’ exquisite ‘Le Rossignol’ in Santa Fe
SANTA FE, N.M., August 16, 2014 – Most nights at the opera involve the production of a single, substantial work. That doesn’t leave many performance opportunities, however, for any number of worthy short or one-act operas. The solution, over many years, has been to stage “double bills,” from time to time, in which a pair ...
Santa Fe Opera’s ‘Dr. Sun Yat-sen’: Difficult to parse
SANTA FE, N.M., August 15, 2014 – A great deal of buzz surrounded the Santa Fe Opera’s American premiere production of composer Huang Ruo’s newish opera, “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen.” But its first performances on this side of the Pacific followed a strange, twisted, and arguably political path that began with the scheduling of its world premiere ...
A brilliantly updated ‘Fidelio’ comes to Santa Fe
SANTA FE, N.M., August 13, 2014 – Continuing with its 2014 “update” motif, the Santa Fe Opera is presenting its first ever production of Beethoven’s “Fidelio” this month, having debuted its new-look version on July 31. SFO updates Beethoven’s original, with considerable, almost startling effectiveness, to some time in 1930s Germany under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi ...
The Santa Fe Opera’s wild, crazy and fabulous ‘Don Pasquale’
SANTA FE, N.M.,August 11, 2014 – Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), famed for his bel canto tragic operas like “Anna Bolena” and “Lucia di Lammermoor,” has been a regular presence in opera houses around the world for over 175 years. True, of the dozens of opera he composed over his relatively short lifespan, perhaps only ten of ...
Santa Fe Opera’s updated ‘Carmen’: Too close for comfort?
SANTA FE, N.M.,August 10, 2014 – Even those who profess not to like opera generally can’t resist the music from Georges Bizet’s “Carmen.” Chock full of irresistible tunes and exotic, authentically Spanish intervals and rhythms (even though they’re all delivered in French), and bigger-than-life characters, this timeless musical tale of love and revenge is made ...