Sante Fe Opera Festival 2024
Carol Benet
In the middle of the most gorgeous scenery in the United States, with art everywhere and the dozens of restaurants with delicious food, Sante Fe in northern New Mexico boasts of one of the most important opera events in the world, the Sante Fe Opera Festival.
Operas takes place July and August in an architecturally splendid outdoor auditorium seating more than 2000 (Polshek Partnership Architects and acousticians Purcell & Noppe & Associates). Some operas are timed so that they start just before and during sunset so the wonderful open background on the stage for two operas this season is filled with rich colors of the western vista introducing the universal and timeless beauty of nature.
The 2024 season features five operas with one world premiere and four beloved classics. “The Righteous” with music by Gregory Spears and libretto by former poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, is a slog, It is over three hours of a story that tries to incorporate too many themes drawn from the 1980’s such as feminism, the war on drugs, Mid-East conflict, AIDS, political power grabs, unfaithful husbands, hypocritical preachers, social inequality and the such. The opera needed a serious editing job that would let it focus on one or only a few of these important themes.
But the production was in place with conductor Jordan de Souza, director Kevin Newbury, set designer Mimi Lien and costumes by Devario Simmons, Japhy Weideman lighting designer and chorus master Susanne Sheston.
Both the wife and budding feminist Michele (Jennifer Johnson Cano), the countertenor Jonathan (Anthony Roth Costanzo) with his closeted love for the preacher showed both vocal and acting expertise. The opera deals with the question of who is “righteous” and the spiritual search for truth and good these ordinary characters seek. The production borders on the soap opera level.
Two of the other operas in the season were the kind that make the Sante Fe Festival famous. The comic “The Elixir of Love” by Gaetano Donizetti has an update to the 1940s in a small Italian town. The simple story of an itinerant salesman Dulcamara (Alfredo Daza) who peddles a remedy that he claims can cure everything. The poor car mechanic Nemorino (Jonah Hoskins) is in love with Adina (Yaritza Véliz) and buys the phony love potion. Adina falls for the army bigwig Belcore (Luke Sutliff) and they are to marry when Nemorino, who has inherited a fortune, intervenes and the right couple is united.
Director Stephen Lawless has brought this favorite classic comic opera to a new level with a flashy red car from the period and characters flitting around in real motorcycles. Ashley Martin-Davis’s costumes and set are colorful and fun. Roberto Kalb’s conducting of the fine orchestra and Susanne Sheston’s choral direction are top-knot.
Also during the season is the favorite Verdi’s “La Traviata” which was a pure pleasure. The Armenian soprano Mané Galoyanb as Violetta was as fine a singer as actress in this heart throbbing story of a courtesan in love with Alfredo (Bekhzod Davronov) whose father Giorgio (Alfredo Daza) intervenes to save the marriage prospects of his daughter. Galoyanb has a bright future ahead.
“La Traviata” is filled with beautiful areas and ensembles throughout. The director Louisa Muller has brought a new staging (set and costumes by Christopher Oram) placing the opera in Paris of the 30s before the Nazi occupation when everyone was in a party mode. The parties here are wild as if the era was coming to an end as it was. Choreographer Matthew Steffens helps with the lively fun-loving scenes. Conductor Corrado Rovaris is masterful in bringing out the joyful scenes as well as the deeply pathetic ones.
Two more operas “Der Rosenkavalier” and “Don Giovanni” are on the roster for the Sante Fe Opera Festival that ends on August 24. 2024.
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