Santa Fe Opera's 1995 season got under way July 31, with performances continuing through August. It's the renowned company's 39th season since founder John Crosby made his dream come true in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains back in 1957 and, as usual, the productions are absolutely first-rate.
The gem of the five operas presented this season may well be Mozart's delightful comedy of topsy-turvy love, "The Marriage of Figaro." Dean Peterson as Figaro and Rodney Gilfry as Count Almavira are both very good, but it's the three women who stand out here.Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans makes a stunning American debut as Susanna, her clear, resonant voice managing the highest and lowest notes with equal facility and a command of dynamics that is nothing less than thrilling. Benita Valente (who debuted for Santa Fe Opera as a radiant Pamina in 1968's "Magic Flute") gives us a nuanced and poignant portrayal of the Countess, her rich, eloquent soprano bringing a welcome humanity to the role. With consummate performers such as these two, the close blending of their voices in their Act 3 duet becomes almost rapturous.
In no way to be outdone is the charming Spanish mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe who has the "trouser" role of Cherubino, the ardent young page hopelessly in love with love. Far more endearing and convincing than any Cherubino I've seen, this promising young singer deftly brings off the precarious tightrope trick of a young woman playing a young boy playing - in two major scenes - a young woman. Her diminutive size helps immensely, yet surprisingly does not hinder in the least her having one of the biggest and most beautiful voices in the opera.
The rest of the cast is very good as well (including Gary Wedow's ably directed chorus), and both George Manahan's conducting and John Cox's stage direction are virtually faultless. Craig Miller's lighting seems truly inspired, and Robert Perdziola's costumes and sets are a pure delight. Especially memorable is the tasteful library/study of Act 2, all done in rich browns, with its tooled-leather walls, antique swords and medieval armor, and the terrific multilayered garden-by-moonlight of Act 4, with its fountain, weeping willow, lush shrubbery and flowers running rampant, and its vine-covered statuary and crumbling walls.
But "Figaro" is not the only visual and aural treat in this very good season. The other four offerings are memorable as well.
I must admit I was somewhat put off when I learned that one of this year's selections, "The Countess Maritza," was not really an opera at all but was instead a Viennese operetta. And though it is certainly the "lightest" work I have seen presented on this stage since I first became hooked on Santa Fe Opera five or six years ago, it is nevertheless done with such style and class - such absolute perfectionism - that it too instantly becomes one of the most joyful highlights of the 1995 season.
The work of Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman, "Countess Maritza" is an amazing blend of Hungarian Gypsy music, Viennese waltzes and contemporary 1920s dance rhythms (the Charleston and even a tap-dance number taking their turn in the choreography).
If a work like this is to hold its own among the great classics of Mozart, Strauss and Puccini, it must be done to the hilt, and SFO's "Countess Maritza" is exquisitely presented.
Crosby himself leads the orchestra with panache, and director Lou Galterio and choreographer Daniel Pelzig keep the action - and the dancing - interesting throughout. And not only are the voices good - especially beautiful Gwynne Geyer's rich, warm rendering of Countess Maritza - but there are two character actor/comedians who appear midway through Act 3 who comically lift the operetta into the sublime: The skillfully hilarious Judith Christin as the hero's wealthy aunt and the amazingly agile and acrobatic Grant Neale as her aged servant may provide the most brilliantly comic addition to an already amusing production an audience will ever see.
From the pastel tones of the wisteria-covered summer house to the appropriately glitzy Art Deco cabaret scene, Maxine Willi Klein's scenery design is full of charm, as are Dona Granata's costumes and Michael Lincoln's lighting.
If this season seemed short of well-known "superstars" (where, for example, were the divas - such as Marilyn Horne, Fredrica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw - that usually grace the gigantic SFO stage?), there seemed to be, nevertheless, no expense spared to present once again the most dazzling and classy productions in the country.
Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" ("The Girl of the Golden West") was equally well done. Soprano Mary Jane Johnson is no stranger to the part of Minnie, owner of the saloon in a 19th-century California mining camp, having sung the title role the last time "Fanciulla" played at Santa Fe. Once again, she takes the part and makes it her own, as does Craig Sirianni, who reprises his role as the bandit Ramirez (posing as the stranger, Dick Johnson), which he too performed here in 1991.
Most impressive is baritone Timothy Noble as the imposing, bearded Sheriff Jack Rance, who not only is in full command of the part but sings with such a masterly blend of ease, virility and refinement that one is in awe of his presence on stage. John Conklin's richly detailed and aptly rustic sets ably serve the romantic realism of this mountain drama, as do the subtle costumes of Lewis Brown and the atmospheric lighting of Craig Miller. Both director Bruce Donnell and conductor John Fiore have deftly handled the melodrama (equally evident in Puccini's lush score as well as David Belasco's original play), and the opera's most touching moments - when the macho chorus sings Puccini's poignant refrains in a heartbreakingly soft harmony - linger in the memory long after the opera has finished.
Always a treat at Santa Fe is the obligatory "new opera," this year the world premiere of "Modern Painters," composer David Lang's first attempt at an operatic work.
Though maybe not 100 percent satisfying, it is nevertheless a deeply interesting and highly intriguing foray into the life of Victorian art critic John Ruskin, his personal life as well as his attitudes toward painters such as impressionist/romanticist Joseph Mallord Turner and pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, and his impassioned clashes with the oncoming Industrial Age.
The problem comes with our being inundated with too many facets of Ruskin's life at once - the strong influence of his mother; his fascination with two young women (one of them only 13 years old); his obsessions with art; with recovering a pre-Renaissance clarity in painting; and with preserving historic buildings and monuments - yet none of these threads carries through meaningfully to the end so that we feel a kind of artistic wholeness in the work.
Still, director Francesca Zambella, lighting designer Amy Appleyard and scenic and costume designer Alison Chitty (whose imaginative and versatile sets become anything from a building's scaffolding to Venice's famous Rialto Bridge) cleverly provide a visually exciting experience, from the bare-chested workers enthusiastically swinging sledge hammers and rhythmically clanging away at the fallen stones of a demolished building to the almost floating movement of black-clad women with their black umbrellas moving forward through a heavy mist.
Composer Lang is a minimalist but one who manages to avoid much of the grueling repetitions of his contemporaries. George Manahan effectively directs the orchestra and Gary Wedow some haunting offstage choral work. Manuela Hoelterhoff's libretto is not without irony and wit, and choreographer Pelzig (along with costumer Chitty, I assume) have come up with with one of the most ingenious ways of suggesting Venetian gondolas and gondoliers that one can imagine (the heels of their high platform shoes trailing the trademark curve of the prows of the gondolas as they glide with their long black poles across the floor). All in all, "Modern Painters" is a most stimulating event, with Francois le Roux a powerful and fascinating Ruskin.
Most controversial of the five operas presented this year by SFO is probably the annual Strauss offering - this time around, his Wagnerian music-drama, "Salome," based on the biblical story of John the Baptist and Salome's dance of the seven veils.
As is customary with his tradition of choosing one opera by Strauss each year, Crosby himself directs the orchestra - and conducts it very creditably - with the fine cast interweaving their voices into the dramatic fabric of Strauss' orchestration. In the title role, Danish soprano Inga Nielsen (on Aug. 18 and 24 the part was to be sung by Mary Jane Johnson) acquits herself well, nicely fusing both the vocal and dramatic demands called for in this role.
The supporting cast is good, and Tom Hennes' simple but effective set, Martin Pakledinaz's costumes, and, once again, Amy Appleyard's atmospheric lighting, serve the period effectively, the rich deep colors, accented by gold and highlighted by burning torches amidst the massive mosaic-decorated pillars, giving the effect of biblical paintings or tableaux.
One questions the seeming anachronisms, however, of Salome's costume, and the apparent irrelevance of her veils (some of which are merely drooping from her arms and all of which make little difference whether she removes them or leaves them on). Another minus with this production is the unfortunate length - for the whole thing, relatively static to begin with, is played, as Strauss intended, as one long act with no intermission. Still, it's nice to look at and nice to hear and, though perhaps the least memorable of this year's productions, is nevertheless a competent and effective presentation.
Next year's opera by Strauss will be the lesser-known "Daphne." Filling out the 1996 repertoire will be Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," Mozart's "Don Giovanni," Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress" and a world premiere by Tobias Picker called "Emmeline."
To attend this year's performances or 1996's, write Santa Fe Opera, P.O. Box 2408, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2408, or call 1-505-986-5900 or 1-505-986-5955. Just to be in this one-of-a-kind town (where the adobe style is everywhere and charming bed-and-breakfast establishments abound) is a pleasure no one should miss.
Santa Fe's world-class international folk-art museum by itself is worth the trip. And if you're a music lover, this personality-plus New Mexico town is, in July and August, an absolute must - for running simultaneously with the five operas in repertory are concerts by the excellent Desert Chorale and, above all, the magnificent Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.