The Santa Fe Opera Holds High Note This Season

At a time when things seem challenging for opera, the Santa Fe Opera holds strong. Santa Fe is among the oldest opera festivals in America and is the largest and most important. It has made its reputation as a distinctive company with a flair for the unusual. This summer they presented operas such as "Dr. Sun Yat-Sen" by Huang Ruo, and Beethoven's "Fidelio."

With operas around the country at risk of closing and seeing declining income and empty seats, America's largest summer festivals - St. Louis, Glimmerglass, and Santa Fe - are in better shape than most year-round companies. Santa Fe leads the pack with the largest annual operating budget of $22.5 million dollars, the lowest rate of audience decline, only 3.5 percent since 2002,, and it's never had a deficit in its 57-year-history.

Santa Fe has retained its ability to get away with showing unusual work, even in a a large theater by most American festival standards. The late John Crosby, founder of the opera, remains known for his micromanagement of every aspect of his company, his indifferent conducting, and his great love of Richard Strauss. Santa Fe remains committed to unusual pieces; last summer's "Oscar" by Theodore Morrison, about Oscar Wilde, nearly sold out, and there has already been great demand for tickets for next year's "Cold Mountain" by Jennifer Higdon, based on the novel by Charles Frazier. Cold Mountain, the first opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, will receive its world premiere in The Santa Fe Opera's 2015 Summer Festival Season. Announcement of the five-opera repertory was made today by General Director Charles MacKay at a press conference in Santa Fe. The season opens Friday, July 3 with Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment and ends Saturday, August 29 with the same opera.

"Cold Mountain, the novel by Charles Frazier, won the National Book Award, was a major best seller, and an Academy Award-winning film," commented Mr. MacKay in his opening remarks. "It is a magnificent story that has touched readers throughout the world, and we here at The Santa Fe Opera are honored to add an opera to its distinguished provenance."

The season is in keeping with the Company's mission to present operas that may be familiar to the general public, Rigoletto, Salome and The Daughter of the Regiment; one less known and not often performed, the riotous comedy written when Mozart was eighteen, La Finta Giardiniera, (sometimes known as The Pretend Gardener), and a world premiere, Cold Mountain.

The roster of principal singers includes many Santa Fe favorites: Emily Fons, Nathan Gunn, Isabel Leonard, William Burden, Susanna Phillips, Bryan Hymel, Alek Shrader, Anna Christy, Heidi Stober, Judith Christin and Kevin Burdette. Returning are conductors Miguel Harth-Bedoya and David Robertson. The Company also welcomes directors Ned Canty, Lee Blakeley and Daniel Slater; scenic and costume designers Allen Moyer, Adrian Linford, Hildegard Bechtler and David C. Woolard; lighting designer Rick Fisher and choreographer Sea?n Curran.

Important debuts include two Italian conductors; Speranza Scappucci, who was a member of the Company music staff in 2005 and 2006 and Jader Bignamini in his American debut. It welcomes a number of young Americans including baritone Quinn Kelsey, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, soprano Georgia Jarman, mezzo-sopranos Cecelia Hall, Nicole Piccolomini, Canadian bass Robert Pomakov and Spanish tenor Joel Prieto.

Other debuts include Leslie Travers, scenic and costume designer for Salome; Thomas C. Hase, lighting designer for La Finta Giardiniera; Cold Mountain creative team members, director Leonard Foglia, scenic designer Robert Brill, lighting designer Brian Nason and projection designer Elaine J. McCarthy.

DEBUTS
SINGERS: Cecelia Hall, Georgia Jarman, Quinn Kelsey, Ryan McKinny, Phyllis Pancella, Nicole Piccolomini, Robert Pomakov, Joel Prieto CONDUCTORS: Jader Bignamini, Speranza Scappucci DIRECTOR: Leonard Foglia
SCENIC DESIGNERS: Robert Brill, Leslie Travers
COSTUME DESIGNER: Leslie Travers
LIGHTING DESIGNERS: Brian Nason, Thomas C. Hase PROJECTION DESIGNER: Elaine J. McCarthy

RETURNING ARTISTS
SINGERS: Robert Brubaker, Judith Christin, Anna Christy, William Burden,
Kevin Burdette, Emily Fons, Nathan Gunn, Joshua Hopkins, Bryan Hymel, Brian Jagde,

Isabel Leonard, Michaela Martens, Jay Hunter Morris, Alex Penda, Susanna Phillips, Alek Shrader, Andrea Silvestrelli, Heidi Stober, Laura Tatulescu CONDUCTORS: Harry Bicket, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, David Robertson

DIRECTORS: Tim Albery, Lee Blakeley, Ned Canty, Daniel Slater
SCENIC DESIGNERS: Adrian Linford, Hildegard Bechtler, Allen Moyer COSTUME DESIGNERS: Adrian Linford, Jon Morrell, Allen Moyer, David C. Woolard LIGHTING DESIGNER: Rick Fisher
CHOREOGRAPHER: Sea?n Curran
CHORUS MASTER: Susanne Sheston

*Debut
+Former Apprentice Artist

Photo by: Robert Reck

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