Santa Fe Opera Repertory for 2009 Announced
General Director Richard Gaddes and General Director Designate Charles MacKay have announced The Santa Fe Opera repertory for the 2009 season. The announcement was made just two months before Gaddes will retire (September 30, 2008) and will be succeeded by MacKay.
The 2009 season, opening July 3, is highlighted by the world premiere of The Letter, commissioned by The Santa Fe Opera, as well as new productions of Gluck’s Alceste, Verdi’s La traviata and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. Alceste is being performed by the company for the first time. Don Giovanni, the only revival, was last staged in Santa Fe in 2004. The season also features several important debuts, major singers tackling roles for the first time, and the debut of fashion icon Tom Ford designing costumes for opera.
“It is a great honor for me to begin my tenure here with such an exhilarating and illustrious season,” commented MacKay, who becomes the company’s third general director on October 1. “Although the selection and much of the planning was done by Richard, I had an opportunity to participate and contribute ideas as well. The company’s commission of an important new opera from the distinguished composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout will be, I believe, enormously popular with the public, as will all the operas in the 2009 repertory.”
“The 2009 season follows The Santa Fe Opera’s well-known and popular format,” Gaddes said. “There are two familiar and loved operas, La traviata and Don Giovanni. The Elixir of Love, long absent from our repertory, makes a welcome return. Our rarity this year is Alceste, and the world premiere of The Letter continues the company tradition of introducing exciting new operas. Throughout the season we feature many superb singers, including a number of former apprentices. And we have three magnificent sopranos, all audience favorites here in Santa Fe, who are taking on important roles for the first time – Natalie Dessay in La traviata, Christine Brewer in Alceste and Patricia Racette in The Letter,” said Gaddes. “Our casts this season are truly exceptional.”
DEBUTS
SINGERS:
John Del Carlo, Paul Groves, Elza van den Heever, Ning Liang, Kate Lindsey, James Maddalena, Saimir Pirgu, Matthew Rose, Rodell Rosel, Harold Wilson, Charles Workman
CONDUCTORS:
Frédéric Chaslin, Patrick Summers
DIRECTOR:
Jerry Zaks
SCENIC DESIGNERS:
Hildegard Bechtler, Louis Desire
COSTUME DESIGNERS:
Louis Desire, Tom Ford, William Ivey Long
RETURNING ARTISTS
SINGERS:
Jennifer Black, Christine Brewer, Patrick Carfizzi, Natalie Dessay, Roger Honeywell, Keith Jameson, Corey McKern, Lucas Meachem, Anthony Michaels-Moore, Laurent Naouri, Susanna Phillips, Dimitri Pittas, Patricia Racette, Wayne Tigges
CONDUCTORS:
Kenneth Montgomery, Corrado Rovaris, Edo de Waart
DIRECTORS:
Jonathan Kent, Francisco Negrin, Laurent Pelly, Chas Rader-Shieber
SCENIC DESIGNERS:
Thomas Lynch, Chantal Thomas, David Zinn
COSTUME DESIGNERS:
Laurent Pelly, David Zinn
*Santa Fe Opera Debut
+Former Apprentice Singer
LA TRAVIATA
Sung in Italian
New Production
Last performed by The Santa Fe Opera in 2001
July 3, 8, 11, 17, 24, August 4, 11, 17, 22, 26, 29
Conductor *Frédéric Chaslin
Director Laurent Pelly
Scenic Designer Chantal Thomas
Costume Designer Laurent Pelly
Violetta Natalie Dessay
Alfredo *Saimir Pirgu
Gastone +Keith Jameson
Germont Laurent Naouri
Anthony Michaels-Moore
Douphol Wayne Tigges
Dr. Grenvil *Harold Wilson
Internationally-renowned soprano Natalie Dessay returns to Santa Fe for her first-ever performances as Violetta in La traviata to open the season Friday, July 3. This is Ms. Dessay’s third appearance in Santa Fe, following Amina in La sonnambula in 2004 and Pamina in The Magic Flute in 2006. Alfredo will be sung by the young Albanian tenor, Saimar Pirgu, who makes his American debut at the Los Angeles Opera in September, and his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2009. The role of Germont will be shared by Laurent Naouri and Anthony Michaels-Moore. Naouri was Escamillo in Santa Fe’s Carmen in 2006; Michaels-Moore first appeared with the company as Simon Boccanegra in 2004; the two will share the title role in Falstaff this summer. Dr. Grenvil will be sung by American bass Harold Wilson, in his debut.
Conductor Frédéric Chaslin makes his Santa Fe Opera debut with these performances. A native of France, Chaslin has been resident conductor of the Vienna State Opera since 1997, and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2002. The French team of Laurent Pelly and Chantal Thomas will direct and design the production. Their last Santa Fe collaboration was the highly popular Platée in 2007.
THE ELIXIR OF LOVE
Gaetano Donizetti
Sung in Italian
New Production
Last Performed by The Santa Fe Opera in 1968
July 4, 10, 15, August 6, 12, 20, 25, 28
Conductor Corrado Rovaris
Director *Jerry Zaks
Scenic Designer Thomas Lynch
Costume Designer *William Ivey Long
Adina +Jennifer Black
Nemorino +Dimitri Pittas
Belcore +Patrick Carfizzi
Dulcamara *John Del Carlo
The second opera of the season is the sparkling comedy, The Elixir of Love, which opens Saturday, July 4. This new production of the Donizetti classic, not staged in Santa Fe since 1968, features three former apprentices now making headlines on the national music scene: Jennifer Black as Adina, Dimitri Pittas as Nemorino and Patrick Carfizzi as Belcore. Black and Pittas were the star-crossed lovers in Santa Fe’s La bohème in 2007; Carfizzi was Masetto in the company’s 2004 Don Giovanni. American bass-baritone John Del Carlo makes his company debut as Dulcamara.
Corrado Rovaris, who led La bohème here in 2007, will conduct. Santa Fe’s production team includes three outstanding award-winning Broadway veterans. Director Jerry Zaks, a four-time Tony Award winner, received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director for the revival of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial on Broadway in 2006. A well-known actor, Zaks has also appeared in movies and television. Scenic designer Thomas Lynch, internationally noted for his work in opera and theater, including the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun, designed The Santa Fe Opera’s productions of Xerxes in 1993 and Ashoka’s Dream in 1997. Costume designer William Ivey Long makes his Santa Fe Opera debut. A five-time Tony Award-winner, Ivey Long is known for his work on The Producers and Hairspray, as well as Mel Brooks’s new musical, Young Frankenstein.
DON GIOVANNI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sung in Italian
Revival
Last Performed by The Santa Fe Opera in 2004
July 18, 22, 31, August 8, 13, 21, 24, 27
Conductor Edo de Waart
Director Chas Rader-Shieber
Scenic and Costume Designer David Zinn
Donna Anna *Elza van den Heever
Donna Elvira +Susanna Phillips
Zerlina *+Kate Lindsey
Don Ottavio *Charles Workman
Don Giovanni Lucas Meachem
Leporello *Matthew Rose
Masetto +Corey McKern
Commendatore *Harold Wilson
Mozart’s Don Giovanni, a revival from the 2004 season, opens July 18. The original director, Chas Rader-Shieber, and scenic and costume designer David Zinn will return to oversee the production. The title role will be taken by Lucas Meachem, a young American baritone who made debuts at both the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden during the 2007-08 season, and makes his Santa Fe Opera debut in this summer’s Billy Budd.
The Don Giovanni cast includes three former apprentices: Susanna Phillips, the Countess in this summer’s Marriage of Figaro, sings the role of Donna Elvira; Corey McKern, Marcello in Santa Fe’s 2007 La bohème, is Masetto; and Kate Lindsey, in her debut, sings Zerlina. Also making their debuts are Elza van den Heever, who appears regularly with the San Francisco Opera, as Donna Anna; Arkansas-born tenor Charles Workman as Don Ottavio; the British bass Matthew Rose as Leporello; and Harold Wilson as the Commendatore. 2009 is the second season for Edo de Waart in Santa Fe as the company’s Chief Conductor. The Dutch-born maestro made his American debut in Santa Fe in 1971 leading The Flying Dutchman. He was recently named Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra beginning in 2009, and one of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s group of Artistic Partners in 2010.
THE LETTER
Composer: Paul Moravec
Librettist: Terry Teachout
Sung in English
World Premiere
Commissioned by The Santa Fe Opera
July 25, 29, August 3, 7, 15, 18
Conductor *Patrick Summers
Director Jonathan Kent
Scenic Designer *Hildegard Bechtler
Costume Designer *Tom Ford
Leslie Crosbie Patricia Racette
Chinese Woman *Ning Liang
Geoff Hammond Roger Honeywell
Ong Chi Seng *Rodell Rosel
John Withers +Keith Jameson
Robert Crosbie Anthony Michaels-Moore
Howard Joyce *James Maddalena
The Letter is based on W. Somerset Maugham’s 1927 stage adaptation of one of his best-known short stories. It has been filmed twice, the second time in 1940 in an Oscar-nominated version starring Bette Davis and directed by William Wyler. Paul Moravec, the composer, won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in Music for Tempest Fantasy and is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey and University Professor at Adelphi University. The Letter is his first opera. Terry Teachout, the librettist, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the author of a forthcoming biography of Louis Armstrong.
“The Letter is an opera noir, a music drama about ordinary people who make a few mistakes and suddenly find themselves swept into very deep emotional water,” says Moravec. “It combines the aesthetic of American verismo with dream-like qualities often characteristic of a psychological drama. We intend it to be as fast-moving and hard-hitting as a film noir from the ’40s,” he stated. “Our goal,” says Teachout, “has been to write a work that’s firmly rooted in traditional operatic practice – one that will make dramatic sense to mainstream audiences.” The opera runs ninety minutes.
Patricia Racette and Anthony Michaels-Moore will star as Leslie and Robert Crosbie, an unhappily married expatriate couple whose life in the jungle of Malaya is torn apart by passion, violence and revenge. Racette made her Santa Fe debut in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Emmline in 1996, and appeared most recently with the company in Turandot in 2005. Michaels-Moore sings the title role in this year’s Falstaff. Other members of the cast include Roger Honeywell, who appeared in the 2007 production of Tea: A Mirror of Soul; former apprentice Keith Jameson, who made his debut in Turandot in 2005; and, in their company debuts, Rodell Rosel, James Maddalena, and Ning Liang. Patrick Summers, Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera, also making his Santa Fe Opera debut, will conduct.
The production will be staged by Jonathan Kent, who made his debut as an opera director with Santa Fe’s Katya Kabanova in 2003, and returned to the company most recently for Thomas Ades’s The Tempest in 2006. Kent is staging The Marriage of Figaro in Santa Fe this summer. The acclaimed British director recently directed Brian Friel’s Faith Healer on Broadway. Making her Santa Fe debut is designer Hildegard Bechtler, who created the set for Primo, Anthony Sher’s stage version of Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man, which played on Broadway in 2005. Tom Ford, the internationally renowned fashion designer, will design the costumes. Former creative director of the Gucci and Yves Saint-Laurent companies, Ford now produces men’s clothing, perfume, and accessories under his own label. Ford grew up in Santa Fe, graduated from Santa Fe Prep, and maintains a home here. This marks his debut designing costumes for opera. The Letter opens July 25.
ALCESTE
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Sung in French
New Production
First Performance by The Santa Fe Opera
August 1, 5, 10, 14, 19
Conductor Kenneth Montgomery
Director Francisco Negrin
Scenic and
Costume Designer *Louis Desire
Alceste Christine Brewer
Admete *Paul Groves
Hercules Wayne Tigges
Christine Brewer returns to sing the title role in Gluck’s masterpiece, Alceste, a decade after she made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Ariadne. Now acclaimed as one of America’s great dramatic sopranos, Brewer last appeared with the company as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes in 2005. Joining the cast are Paul Groves, in his Santa Fe Opera debut, as Admete, and Wayne Tigges, who first appeared as Don Basilio in Santa Fe’s The Barber of Seville in 2005, as Hercules. Kenneth Montgomery is the conductor. Francisco Negrin, who staged Santa Fe’s Agrippina in 2004, will direct. Louis Desire, who frequently collaborates with Negrin, makes his company debut as scenic and costume designer.
The powerful role of Alceste, one of the most demanding in all of opera, has long attracted Brewer, who had been waiting for the right opportunity to sing the opera for the first time. American tenor Paul Groves, who makes his Santa Fe Opera debut with these performances, created the role of Jianli in the world premiere of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera in 2006. Winner of the 1995 Richard Tucker Foundation Award, Groves made his La Scala debut in 1996 and regularly sings with the world’s leading opera companies.
Loosely based on the drama by Euripides, Gluck’s landmark opera tells of the devotion of Alceste, the Queen, to her dying husband, Admete, and how she is rewarded for offering herself as a sacrifice so that he may live. Gluck’s opera was considered revolutionary at the time of its premiere; the simplicity of the action and the noble grandeur of the music pointed the way to a new and more powerful kind of opera. Alceste opens August 1.
The nine week season of 37 performances runs from July 3 through August 29.
Ticket orders for the 2009 season can be made via the Box Office and by telephone: 505 986 5900, toll free 800 280 4654, beginning June 27, 2008. Online ticketing will be available starting in September 2008.