The Summer of 2010
The Santa Fe Opera’s 2o1o season includes four new productions, including three operas never before performed by the company. The season opener is a new production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”, starring Kelly Kaduce (Butterfly), Brandon Jovanovich (Pinkerton), Elizabeth DeShong (Suzuki) and James Westman (Sharpless) with Conductor Antony Walker making his Santa Fe Opera debut. Lee Blakeley is director, Jean-Marc Puissant is Scenic Designer, with Brigitte Reiffenstuel’s costumes.
[Below: Tamino (Charles Castronovo) embraces Pamina (Ekaterina Siurina) in a revival of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”; edited image, based on a Ken Howard photograph, courtesy of the Santa Fe Opera.]
The first Santa Fe Opera performances of Britten’s “Albert Herring” stars Alek Shrader is the title role, with Christine Brewer, Celine Shafer, Jill Grove and Kate Lindsey. Sir Andrew Davis conducts. Paul Curran directs a new production for which Kevin Knight designed the sets and costumes.
Leonard Slatkin conducts the world premiere and all five performances of Lewis Spratian’s “Life is a Dream”, starring James Maddalena, Ellie Dehn, Roger Honeywell and John Cheek. Kevin Newbury is stage director. Sets are by David Koring and costumes by Jessica Jahn.
A new production of Offenbach’s “Tales of Hoffmann” in its company premiere, stars Paul Groves as Hoffman, Erin Wall as Hoffmann’s four obsessions (Stella, Olympia, Antonia and Giulietta), Gidon Saks as the four villains (Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr Miracle and Dapertutto) and David Cangelosi in the character roles of Andres, Cochenile, Frantz and Pittinacchio. Kate Lindsey is Nicklausse. Stephen Lord conducts. Christopher Alden is stage director, Allen Moyer set designer with Constance Hoffman’s costumes.
Other Music
In July 2010, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival has its first artist-in-residence, the great international opera mezzo, Susan Graham, who will sing two performances (July 18 and 19) of Jake Heggie’s “The Deepest Desire: Four Meditations on Love” and two performances (July 25 and 26) of Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde”.
[Below: Susan Graham is the Artist-in-Residence for the 2010 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; edited image, based on a photograph from the San Francisco Opera.]
