SJOG Travelers
Santa Fe Opera’s 55th Season
by Susan English
The Festival Season, held in Santa Fe’s beautiful opera house under the New Mexico stars, included five operas: Faust, La Bohéme, Wozzeck, Griselda, and The Last Savage. Included in their Apprentice Singers Program were two of Opera San José’s Resident Artists: tenor Michael Dailey and baritone Evan Brummel. Also, many alumni of Merola and former Adler Fellows were featured.
The New Mexican noted on July 2, 2011: “The Santa Fe Opera launched into its 55th season Friday night with its first-ever production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, and it proved so colorful, fun and upbeat that (it) left the audience no choice but to smile. That reaction is not a given with Faust, which deals with tragic themes and destructive characters.” Judging by the sales of tickets to this production, it was very well received.
Puccini’s La Bohéme was also a popular ticket this season. David Lomeli, a 2008 alumnus of the Merola program was singled out for praise by Ionarts: “As heard last night, under a menacing, dark-clouded and lightning-streaked sky, the cast was, with a few exceptions, excellent. David Lomeli’s Rodolfo made the biggest splash, in his Santa Fe debut: a winner of the 2006 Operalia Competition, the Mexican tenor sang with heroic poise, with seemingly boundless energy and control and is definitely a singer to watch.” Opera San José’s Michael Dailey sang Parpignol.
The New York Times reviewed two of this summer’s operas. On August 14, 2011, Tommasini wrote of The Last Savage: “The Santa Fe Opera has gambled that in this year of Menotti’s centennial the time has come for a fresh look at (this opera). A colorful, antic-filled and shamelessly campy production, directed by Ned Canty, opened here last month. On Thursday night the audience laughed and cheered Menotti’s inane entertainment.” He goes on to say, “I was glad for the chance to see this curious rarity. The gifted cast, headed by the appealing bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch…was uninhibitedly exuberant. George Manahan led a vibrant account of Menotti’s score, which has moments of rare invention amid much lightweight filler.” Both Michael Dailey and Evan Brummel sang parts in this production.
The second opera to garner attention from the New York Times was Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Tommasini (8-14-11) noted, “Still after The Last Savage I almost needed to hear Berg’s profound and shattering Wozzeck. As the oppressed, delusional Wozzeck – a lowly soldier forced to do menial tasks to scrape out a living for his common-law wife, Marie, and their young son – the excellent baritone Richard Paul Fink gave an anguished and emotionally volatile performance. The entire cast was strong… What a one-two punch of evenings at the opera. Still credit the Santa Fe company with presenting two works side by side that are polar opposites in everyway imaginable.”
Perhaps the opera receiving the most attention this season was Vivaldi’s Griselda, in part due to the reputation of director Peter Sellars. The St Louis Post noted on August 2, 2011: “Yes, it’s another Peter Sellars production. This time he took on Antonio Vivaldi’s dramatically problematic Griselda, and updated it to reflect his usual themes: The world is a horrible place, people are no damned good, and the Establishment is the root of all evil… I heard a spectacular cast offer some wonderful singing despite the dreary staging.” The Los Angeles Times reviewed this opera on August 1, 2011: “…there is tremendous music to be found in Vivaldi’s operas if not cohesive drama. And by putting its trust in a trio of L. A. artists - Sellars, Gronk and Gershon – Santa Fe Opera allowed Griselda to bloom, like a wildflower, in the desert.”
Quite a collection of diverse opera offering comprised this 55th season. Next year’s operas will include: Puccini’s Tosca, Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, Rossini’s Maometto II, Szymanowski’s King Roger, and Strauss’ Arabella. Will you be traveling to Santa Fe for this 56th Festival next summer?
(SJOG Newsletter November, 2011)
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