Opera Chic

The Great Gossett on Maometto II for Santa Fe Opera

(Photo: Santa Fe Opera/Ken Howard)

Santa Fe recently debuted Philip Gossett's new critical edition/world premiere of Maometto II in a new production by David Alden. The world's greatest Italian opera scholar schooled the Santa Fe Opera -- including bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni as the lead and soprano Leah Crocetto as Anna -- on Rossini's 1820 tale of a Turkish sultan's siege of the Venetian colony Negroponte, full of slaughter, suicide and everything in between.

Embedding disabled, clicky-click for Gossett.

(Photo: Santa Fe Opera/Ken Howard)

Santa Fe's "Butterfly"

(via the Santa Fe Opera's YouTube channel)

Santa Fe Opera Drills For Young Singers

Santa Fe Opera joins OPEC:

The Santa Fe Opera had given permission to drill on nearly 27,000 acres in Mora and neighboring San Miguel counties.

Turns out the opera company had been given the mineral rights in 2002 as part of a bequest from a longtime donor. She specified that it be used to support an apprentice program for young singers.

D-Day in Santa Fe: Dessay Steps Up her Game with Traviata's Violetta

She's sung almost everything from Morgana in Handel's Alcina to Ophélie in Thomas's Hamlet, but tonight, the bomb drops on Dessay-Day, and Natalie unveils her first Violetta exclusively for the Santa Fe Opera. The new Verdi Traviata production is from the Laurent Pelly/Chantal Thomas wonder-twin power team, and the highly-anticipated production has everyone clamoring for tickets. OC regrets she can't be in Santa Fe for the opening night, but wishes the entire Santa Fe Opera a giant in bocca al lupo!

Terry Teachout On "The Letter"

Terry Teachout gives a sneak peek into next summer's The Letter, that he wrote for Paul Moravec and will be unleashed at Santa Fe Opera 2009:

Taking his cue from the fact that Paul Moravec and I have lately taken to calling The Letter an "opera noir," Mark Tiarks, the Santa Fe Opera's head of planning and marketing, wrote the following blurb for this year's souvenir program:

(...)

That's a knowing and clever school-of-Chandler pastiche, and I was pleased to see it on the poster announcing the Santa Fe Opera's 2009 season. On the other hand, I wouldn't want anyone to get the idea that The Letter is, in the oft-quoted phrase with which Joseph Kerman amusingly (and wrongly) dismissed Tosca, a "shabby little shocker."

Whatevs, Max Steiner's score wasn't half bad either.

It's All Going Down in Santa Fe

(photo via)

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.

Santa Fe Opera Turns it Up 212°F in 2009

Drop it like it's hawt!

Last summer, OC traveled to the gorgeous deserts & hills of the Land of Enchantment, nesting in Santa Fe for a few nights to experience the unique beastly beauty that is the Santa Fe Opera. After chillaxing thru Tan Dun's American premiere of Tea and La Boheme, OC dropped some well-spent $$$ on Lucchese boots, and went back to Milan rawking the whole saddle-slicker style. You know...a Givenchy fringed leather vest, Lacroix spurs (with little crucifixes), and obviously, Jean Paul Gaultier pink leather chaps.

Speaking of leather chaps, this summer, the 2008 Santa Fe opera line-up boasts Teddy Tahu Rhodes in Britten's Billy Budd, and Joseph Kaiser (who we last saw via p2p as Tamino in the Branagh Magic Flute...and suck it, h8rs...we loved Branagh's opera4tehpeople, fairytale reading of the tale for the big screen, especially the animated, endearing performance of Benjamin Jay Davis as Papageno) in the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater. But we think we'll save our frequent flier miles for the stellar 2009 season, which the SFO announced yesterday.

The 2009 season opens July 3 (and runs through August 29) with the world premiere of a SFO commission, The Letter, composed by Paul Moravec (his first opera evar) with English libretto by Terry Teachout. The big draw, especially for OC, is that Santa Fe native Tom Ford (who single-handedly glam-ified the house of Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, but now designs solo) is premiering/moonlighting as a SFO costume designer, supplying the sartorial treasures to The Letter. Singing the lead as Leslie Crosbie is Patricia Racette, and frankly, we can wait to see what Ford does to/with her.

We also can't wait for Natalie Dessay's first Violetta evar in the new Laurent Pelly directed  production (with Chantal Thomas sidekick) of Verdi's La Traviata, and a never before performed Gluck's Alceste, with Christine Brewer in the title role.

Donizetti's L'elixir d'amore is also in a new production, and boasts the 5x Tony Award winning William Ivey-Long as costumiere. Conductor Corrado Rovaris (who we heard during our visit to Santa Fe last summer for La Boheme) joins the team with Dimitri Pittas as Nemorino and Jennifer Black as Adina.

We're so there...for a season that offers glam, secks, and Dessay in the middle of the desert.

Get Out UR Flip-Flops and Shorts: Summer Festivals Are Already Heating Up

USA Today (News Lite) is running an article on the "world's best opera festivals", focusing on Summer opera bashes both on native soil and abroad.

"[...] as any true opera aficionado will tell you, there's no better way to indulge the habit than by scoring a seat at one of the great outdoor music festivals. Sure, no one can deny the drama of attending an opera at, say, La Scala, even when a famous tenor like Roberto Alagna doesn't storm off the stage in the middle of a performance (as he did in 2006), or trembling in anticipation as soprano Renee Fleming infuses La Traviata with her singular velvet touch at the Paris Opera. But there's a world of sublime sounds out there, and it pays to plan ahead."

More like the *beginning* of the performance, Anthony. To save you precious reading time, here's who made the cut: Savonlinna Opera Festival, Santa Fe Opera, the Lucerne Festival, the Wexford Festival Opera, Tanglewood, Salzburger Festspiele, the Glyndebourne Festival, Chorégies d'Orange, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Bregenzer Festspiele, and the Arena di Verona Festival.

Snubbed this year (among many other worthies) was Glimmerglass and Pesaro's Rossini Opera Festival [edit: omg, how could I have forgotten the Fort Worth Opera Festival??] Also snubbed were my Carroll Gardens cousins who do the entire Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire in their backyard in August, on a stage made from a discarded wooden halfpipe some sk8r kids left rotting on their curb. They use my grandma's old mumu kaftan dresses for a curtain, and the ushers are the neighborhood dogs with flashlights taped to their paws. OC is serious. So, which are your favorites?