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Santa Fe Opera
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The Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of . John Crosby, a New York-based conductor, founded SFO in 1956, originally as the Opera Association of New Mexico. His goal was to give American singers the opportunity to learn and perform new roles while having ample time for rehearsal and preparation. Its first season began on 3 July 1957.
SFO is internationally known for introducing new and innovative operas as well as for its productions of works from the standard operatic repertoire.
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Encyclopedia
The Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of . John Crosby, a New York-based conductor, founded SFO in 1956, originally as the Opera Association of New Mexico. His goal was to give American singers the opportunity to learn and perform new roles while having ample time for rehearsal and preparation. Its first season began on 3 July 1957.
SFO is internationally known for introducing new and innovative operas as well as for its productions of works from the standard operatic repertoire. Since its inception, the Santa Fe Opera has staged over forty American premieres and has commissioned nine new operas.
Crosby remained as general director, with the longest such tenure in US opera history, until 2000. He subsequently died in December 2002. Since 2000, Richard Gaddes has been SFO's General Director. In August 2007, Gaddes stated that he wished SFO to begin a search for his successor, with him remaining in the position until the hiring of SFO's next General Director. In November 2007, SFO named Charles MacKay the company's next general director to succeed Gaddes, effective 1 October 2008.
In addition to being SFO's founding General Director, Crosby had simultaneously served as SFO's de facto first principal conductor. Alan Gilbert became the company's first music director from 2003 to 2006. In May 2007, Santa Fe Opera announced that Gilbert had officially concluded his tenure as its music director, and that Kenneth Montgomery had been named interim music director. Montgomery's tenure as interim music director concluded after the 2007 season. He is scheduled to continue as a guest conductor for three operas over the years 2008 to 2011. In July 2007, the Santa Fe Opera named Edo de Waart their chief conductor, effective 1 October 2007. His initial contract was for 4 years. However, in November 2008, SFO announced that de Waart would vacate the position before the end of his contract, no earlier than the end of the 2009 season. de Waart cited health and family reasons for this decision.
Crosby's programming and organizational philosophy
From the beginning, certain characteristics of what was to become a typical season emerged. It runs annually from late June or the beginning of July to the third week of August, with five operas presented in rotating repertory.
Generally, two popular operas opened the season, typically one by Mozart. An American (or world) premiere was generally in the program and these included works commissioned by the company. A lifelong lover of the operas of Richard Strauss, John Crosby regularly scheduled one and presented many American premieres of the composer’s work, an example being the 1964 U.S. premiere of the 1938 Daphne. Finally, the fifth opera was often a work which is rarely performed.
Recent programming
The company has maintained this concept and, in 2006, the 50th anniversary season, it was represented by Carmen and The Magic Flute; by Thomas Adès’ The Tempest, an American premiere; by Strauss’ Salome; and by Massenet’s Cendrillon, each with a new production. The 2007 season also typified this programming concept with La bohème and Cosi fan tutte; Tan Dun's Tea: A Mirror of Soul in its American premiere; Strauss' Daphne; and SFO's first production of a Jean-Philippe Rameau opera, Platée.
In May 2007, the 2008 season was announced: Verdi's Falstaff, Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater (a U.S. premiere), Britten's Billy Budd (reflecting Gaddes' feeling that Britten has been under-represented), and Handel's Radamisto.
On 30 April 2008 the soon-to-be general director, Charles McKay, announced the 2009 season program which opens on 3 July 2009 with La traviata featuring Natalie Dessay who will be making her first appearance in the role of Violetta. Following are Donizetti's The Elixir of Love, which has not be presented by the company since 1968; Mozart's Don Giovanni; Gluck's Alceste, a company premiere; and the world premiere of a new opera, The Letter by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout. It is based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham which had been made into a successful 1940 film noir, The Letter, starring Bette Davis
The Apprentice Programs
In his first season, Crosby created the Apprentice Program whereby eight young people were to be given living expenses and paid per performance to be members of the chorus and to understudy major roles. Unusual for its time, in America in the 1950s, the Apprentice Program helped young singers to make the transition from academic to professional life. To date, over 1,500 aspiring opera singers have participated. As Crosby noted:
"In this country young artists have to do something which is impossible – gain experience. But with our plan, these young people will be scheduled in small roles and will have the opportunity of working with their older brothers and sisters who have already won their spurs. To get such experience now, a young artist has to go to Europe."
The Apprentice Program for Technicians was added in 1965.
The Program has formal academic goals in addition to the "hands on" experience provided by the preparation for and participation in professional productions. Seminars and master classes are conducted; singers receive coaching in voice, music, body movement, career counseling, and diction. Technical apprentices are provided with instruction in stage operations, stage properties, costume and wig construction, scenic art, wigs and make up, music services, and stage lighting.
The Apprentice Program for Singers and Technicians continues at the Santa Fe Opera today. Typically, about 1,000 aspiring young singers and 600 technicians apply; in 2006, 43 singers and 61 technical apprentices worked at the opera.
The singers act as the chorus for each opera, as well as performing small roles. In addition, apprentices "cover" (understudy) some leading roles.
The technical apprentices perform a variety of backstage functions. They are divided into five separate running crews: scenery, electrics, properties, and orchestra services. These five crews perform the majority of work on the daily changeovers between the five operas of the summer season and also fill positions crucial to the live running of productions.
Scenery handles changeovers of the, usually, very large and extensive opera sets on a daily basis. In the heart of the summer season, usually the month of July, this can potentially mean performance of a show on one night followed by a changeover to the morning's rehearsal set. After the following day's rehearsal, the scenery is often changed over again to that of the next night's performance. As a result, the scenery crew frequently works well into the early morning hours and can reach in excess of 120 hours of work in a week.
Similar to scenery, the electrics crew performs changeovers of all lighting elements between the five productions. This consists of changing between various practical lighting and special effects, such as fog, pyrotechnics, and practical effects such as chandeliers, wall sconces, lanterns, and anything else the production requires. Additionally, the electrics crew performs a daily "focus" call during which the 400+ plot of lighting instruments is custom tailored to each production. This crew also creates the lighting effects, often from scratch, to meet the design needs of the production. The electrics crew also operates the five followspots during productions and serves as deck electricians as needed. The electrics crew usually is second to scenery in the number of hours worked in a week, frequently topping 90 hours in the height of the season.
The properties and costume crews are also responsible for changing over between the various costume and properties elements required by each production. Because each show often requires a different orchestra configuration, orchestra services is responsible for that setup on a daily basis.
Changeovers on stage are frequently a relatively dangerous period of time, with electricians working overhead and large scenic elements being moved around, so all crews are required to wear color-coded hard hats. Scenery wears blue, electrics red, properties pink, and orchestra services yellow.
In addition to the running crews, there are various artistic apprentice positions in scenic art and properties construction and painting.
At the end of the summer, the apprentice crews are invited to apply for staff positions for the two weekends of "Apprentice Scenes," a showcase for the Apprentice Singers, and can serve as everything from costume and lighting designers, to lighting and stage supervisors, to followspot operators and assistant stage managers and more.
Apprentices who have gone on to major singing careers
Some of the major names in American and international opera who have been apprentices since 1957 include the sopranos Judith Blegen (1961), Ashley Putnam (1973 and 1975), and Celena Shafer (1999-2000); mezzos Joyce DiDonato (1995), Susan Quittmeyer (1978), and Michelle DeYoung; tenors Carl Tanner (1992,93), William Burden (1989-90), Richard Croft (1978), Chris Merritt (1974-75), and Neil Shicoff (1973); baritones David Gockley (1965-67; he went on to become general manager of the Houston Grand Opera and, since 2005, the San Francisco Opera) and Sherrill Milnes (1959); and basses Mark Doss (1983), James Morris (1969) and Samuel Ramey (1966).
Many of the former apprentice singers have returned to perform major roles with the company, notably in recent years, Joyce DiDonato in the 2006 Cendrillon, Chris Merritt also in 2006 in The Tempest, and Carl Tanner in the 2005 production of Turandot.
Theaters and other facilities
There have been three theaters on the present site of the Santa Fe Opera. Each has been located on a mesa, with the audience facing West toward an ever-changing horizon of sunsets and thunderstorms, frequently visible throughout many productions when no backdrops are used. Over the years, due to the first and second theaters’ exposure to the elements, rainstorms drenched both audiences and orchestra members (and threatened their instruments), requiring occasional cancellations, postponements, or extended intermissions. This fact (plus several others, such as the desire to improve acoustics, to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, to improve patron facilities, and to provide more seating) led to the need to reconstruct the third theater.
Three key features of each of the theaters has been the fact that, unlike a conventional theater, there is no fly system to allow for scenery to be lowered from above, there is no proscenium arch (and thus no curtain nor means of projecting surtitles), the sides of the house are open, and the rear of the stage may be completely opened to provide westward views.
Performances begin close to sunset, so that the lighting of the productions is not compromised by the sides of the theatre being open to the outside environment. More social aspects of the performance starting time include giving opera-goers the opportunity to observe New Mexico sunsets against the surrounding landscape and the tradition of tailgate dining.
Original theatre, 1957 to 1967
The totally open-air theater was designed to seat 480 and was built for $115,000 on a site carefully selected by Crosby and an acoustician friend, who fired off a series of rifle shots until they found the perfect natural location for an outdoor theatre. It was "the only outdoor theatre in America exclusively designed for opera". Audience members sat on benches. The architectural design calculations for the theatre were performed by structural engineer, Sergio Acosta, an immigrant from Panama who graduated from the University of Texas and was a resident of Albuquerque, NM from 1948 until his death at age 78.
This was the location of the inaugural performance on opening night, 3 July 1957. Madama Butterfly played to a sold-out crowd. By the end of the eight-week season, the 12,000 people who attended accounted for sales at 90% of capacity.
A mezzanine was added in 1965 but, on 27 July 1967, four weeks into the season, a fire demolished the theater, causing the company to move to a local high school for the remainder of the season. From the Sweeney Gymnasium, they created the "Sweeney Opera House", and completed the season, albeit without most of the original costumes or sets. A huge fund-raising operation took place, backed by Igor Stravinsky, and $2.4 million was raised to rebuild the theatre in time for the following season.
Rebuilt theatre, 1968 to 1997
The second theatre, a new open-air house seating 1,889, was ready for the start of the new season on 26 June 1968. Just like the company's opening night in 1957, it presented Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
The new theatre was designed by the Santa Fe firm of McHugh and Kidder. One of its principal features was the partial opening of the roof towards the middle of the orchestra section, provided by the curving, audience-facing slope of the stage roof and the thrust of the mezzanine and rear orchestra roof forward. Also, the auditorium’s sides were open, as was the rear of the stage (although sliding doors could be closed). It provided for spectacular Westward views - as well as giving some centrally-located audience members a view of the night sky.
Most of the new theatre's backstage facilities, including scenery construction and storage and costume and props production, were actually constructed below the stage level in order to preserve the open views to the West. A huge elevator, located immediately behind the stage, provides the means whereby scenery can be moved up from the construction shop one level below or down to the storage area, three levels below.
Present theatre, since 1998
Renamed “The Crosby Theater” (following the founder's death in 2002 and reflecting the contributions of both of his parents in supporting the opera festival), the present theatre was designed by the architectural firm headed by James Polshek of New York. It was built during extensive reconstruction, which followed the tearing down of the 1968 theatre right at the end of the opera season in late August 1997. The new theatre was completed in ten months for an early July 1998 opening of new season. Like the previous opening nights of 1957 and 1968, it featured a performance of Madama Butterfly.
With fewer storm-related problems (and, with a higher stage roof providing a better view of the Westward landscape), the theater now seats 2,128 plus 106 standees, although it has a strikingly intimate feel. It added a wider and more complete roof structure, with the new front and rear portions supported by cables and joined together with a clerestory window. This offers protection from the sky, but with the sides remaining open to the elements. The presence of wind baffles and Stieren Hall has helped improve exposure on the southern, windward side of the auditorium.
In 1999, as an alternative to translations by use of supertitles or surtitles, an electronic titles system was installed in the Crosby Theatre. Invented by Figaro Systems of Santa Fe, and only the second one after the Metropolitan opera's MetTitles installed in 1995, the system provides individual screens in front of each patron's seat, showing a translation of the sung text in either English or Spanish with the possibility of handling up to six other languages.
Stieren Orchestra Hall
Completed for the 2001 season under the patronage of Arthur and Jane Stieren, the hall fulfills the long-standing need for an orchestra rehearsal hall. Constructed on three levels with a total of , the building is also used for lectures, recitals, and social events. Its main level features a space which is the replica of the main stage and offstage wings, and is thus used for stage rehearsals. Large sliding doors provide access from the scenery deck level for fully-staged rehearsals.
Future expansion plans
Construction of the new cantina has been completed. It features an elegant arching roof that nicely matches the sweeping architecture of the main hall. The cantina supplies season-long food and drink for the staff and artists, as well as functioning as the location for pre-performance buffet dinners for the general public.
A $30 million capital campaign is currently underway for increasing the endowment fund ($20 million) and for improvements to and expansion of existing structures, many of which were part of the original 1950s ranch buildings on the company's grounds. In addition, new rehearsal studios are planned, adding to the smaller existing facilities and more closely matching the size of the stage.
Sources
- Huscher, Phillip, The Santa Fe Opera: an American pioneer, Santa Fe, New Mexico: Sunstone Press, June 2006. ISBN 0-86534-550-3
- The Santa Fe Opera - Miracle in the Desert, Santa Fe Opera Shop, 2003.
- Various authors, The Santa Fe Opera - 50th Anniversary supplement to The Santa Fe New Mexican, 28 June 2006. (An illustrated overview of the SFO's 50 years).
See also
External links
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