Santa Fe Opera's grand opening weekend of Season 2008 kicked off yesterday with a black tie Opera Ball, clearing the way for tonight's premiere of Verdi's Falstaff (Laurent Naouri singing the lead). The season will close almost two months later on August 23rd, 2008 with a final performance of Falstaff. Also in rotation for 2008 is Mozart's Marriage of Figaro (conducted by Kenneth Montgomery), Benjamin Britten's Billy Budd (with everyone's favorite shirtless singer, Teddy Tahu Rhodes as the lead), Haendel's Radamisto, and Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater (in the American premiere with Peter Sellar's direction and Kenneth Branagh's favorite tenor, Joseph Kaiser, as Jonas).
Personally, and as our last post about the Santa Fe Opera demonstrates, we're more psyched for next season, which boasts Natalie Dessay's first Traviata Violetta, along with Tom Ford's costumière-y for the Moravec/Teachout opera, The Letter.
