After it got dark in 2020 and only four operas and reduced seats are offered this summer, the Santa Fe Opera returns in 2022 with postponed programs and a standard season of five operas.
There will be 36 performances of the operas, all in new productions, as well as two evenings with scenes from the budding singers and technicians, announced General Director Robert Meya in a virtual event on Thursday.
The season starts on July 1st with Georges Bizet’s Carmen, followed the next evening by Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff on July 16th, Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde on July 23rd and the world premiere of Huang Ruos and David Henry Hwangs M. Butterfly on July 30th.
All but Carmen and Falstaff were scheduled for 2020.
Repertoire 2022 marks a departure from the company’s longstanding commitment to a diverse and adventurous repertoire. It includes three mainstream pieces from the late Romantic period that traditionally weren’t among the ensemble’s strengths, as well as a well-known work from the early 19th as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel in 2017 and Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa in 2019.
“I am personally looking forward to the long-awaited company premiere of Wagner’s masterpiece and my favorite opera Tristan und Isolde”, says Meya, “as well as the world premiere of M. Butterfly, which couldn’t be more topical and relevant” when dealing with questions of gender identity. As always, there is something for everyone, including Verdi’s comedic masterpiece and [his] last opera Falstaff, Rossini’s most popular opera The Barber of Seville and a poignant retelling of Bizet’s Carmen, which was my first experience at the Santa Fe Opera in 1999. “
At the national and international level, M. Butterfly is the most prominent event. The playwright David Henry Hwang adapted the libretto from his play of the same name, which won the Tony Award in 1988. This is the second opera by the composer Huang Ruo to be premiered here; the first, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, ran in 2014. It is directed by James Robinson, Artistic Director of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, whose recent credits include Terence Blanchard’s critically acclaimed Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
For Santa Feans, the seasonal curiosity is not a new piece, but an opera by Richard Wagner. Tristan und Isolde is only the second Wagner work to be performed here, and the first since The Flying Dutchman in 1988. James Gaffigan conducts a slightly shortened version that still lasts over four hours. All performances start at 8 p.m. Tenor Simon O’Neill is Tristan; The Guardian recently described him as “one of the most popular Wagner singers of the era”. The aspiring soprano Tamara Wilson won the Richard Tucker Award in 2016 and sings her first stage Isolde here.
Music director Harry Bicket conducts Carmen, in a new production directed by Mariame Clément and designed by Julia Hansen, both of them at their first Santa Fe appearances. Clément says of the opera: “The common prejudice is that it is a happy, colorful piece, but in reality it is very dark and gloomy.” Her production updates the setting of an abandoned amusement park and adds a quiet young girl as Carmen to the cast – Doppelganger added. The title role is played by the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, who was last seen here in 2015 in Cold Mountain.
Bass-baritone Michael Sumuel makes his debut as the bullfighter Escamillo, while tenors Bryan Hymel and Michael Fabiano share the role of Don Jose. Hymel sang the title role in Faust here in 2011; Fabiano was an apprentice in 2005 and returned to La Traviata as Alfredo in 2013.
The Santa Fe Opera Falstaff has already seen very positive reviews in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The production is shared with the Scottish Opera and directed by Sir David McVicar from Glasgow. It’s an updated production too, but not the insane kind that often boos on opening night: the opera is taken from Shakespeare’s early 15th century.
Paul Daniel conducts a cast with Quinn Kelsey in the title role, along with Alexandra LoBianco as Alice Ford, Megan Marino as Meg Page and Roland Wood as Ford.
Rossini’s The Barber of Seville rounds off the season. The Mexican conductor Iván López-Reynoso is doing his first Santa Fe merit, as is the British set and costume designer Andrew D. Edwards. Australian director Stephen Barlow returns after a ten-year absence to direct the ever-popular comedy. The production mixes the suntanned visual palettes of southern Spain and northern New Mexico. It also boasts “a clever revolving stage that adds a variety of possible locations to the usual individual indoor and outdoor settings of this opera,” the season announcement said.
The Barber of Seville has an appealing cast, led by baritone Joshua Hopkins as Figaro. Mezzo-soprano Emily Fons and tenor Jack Swanson, both former apprentices, are Rosina and Count Almaviva, the hopeful young couple. Only Kevin Burdette as Doctor Bartolo and Ryan Speedo Green as Don Basilio stand in the way of marital happiness.
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