Santa Fe 2

Hey all,

Saw Verdi’s FALSTAFF the other night.   I must admit, I think it is — musically — one of the most clever pieces of music ever written.  The story of the opera combines parts of both THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR and HENRY IV and is basically Verdi’s only pure comedy.  While it was a fun evening, perhaps not the best of Santa Fe Opera’s offerings.  To the company’s credit, they had to replace the title role (It’s not uncommon in large companies to change lead roles at some point in the run of performances.  The reason being that the world’s finest performers are quite busy and often can’t hang about for two or more months.)  It clearly changed the energy for the entire cast.  My inside sources tell me the conductor was also incorporating some faster than normal tempos that night which would have put the entire cast on edge.

The title role was performed by Anthony Michaels-Moore.  He’s a Brit and this is one of his signature roles.  Falstaff is a huge and difficult role.  It requires amazing acting skills and the ability to sing at all extremes of the voice as well as to make some unusual sounds.  He did all very well.  Again, while my inside sources tell me that the artist who performed the first part of the performance run was better, Mr. Michaels-Moore did an wonderful job.

Standouts of the evening were probably the Dame Quickly played by Nancy Maultsby and Fenton played by Norman Reinhardt.   The former is a vocally thankless role that requires the performer to run around the stage more than the rest of the cast put together and the latter requires a lighter but still romantic vocal quality.  Mr. Reinhardt played the role as virile as I have ever seen it.

The physical production (sets, costumes and lighting)  was pretty straightforward.  It incorporated a number of moments where we watched the set changing (called: a vista) which helped solve a number of the challenges of the piece (it moves from one location to another while the music is playing…also, Santa Fe Opera chose to combine acts one and two and thus having one intermission rather than two).  No big revelations; just a physical production that mostly facilitated and — perhaps most importantly — got out of the way of the music and interaction between the singers rather than steal any kind of focus or make a “statement.”

All in all a lovely evening.

This is the weekend that Santa Fe Opera invites opera company general/artistic directors and agents from around the world not only to see the shows, but also to hear the young artists in audition. Today we heard half of the forty apprentice artists participating in this summer’s festival (we hear the remaining artists tomorrow).  There was much good singing to be heard.  I was particularly impressed that a few of them are still finishing up grad school which means there are some good talents coming up to us.

Yesterday I met with an agent who represents some of the most famous singers in the industry.  He’s been a good friend for a number of years and has an excellent pair of ears. He also understands how to work with different sized companies including the Met as well as Utah Opera and much smaller companies.  If you saw DON GIOVANNI, the Donna Anna (Susanna Phillips) is one of his up and coming clients.  I look forward to bringing her back to Utah in 2010.   Oh yes, Renee Fleming is another.  Anyway, we had some really good discussion about casting for our upcoming seasons and I’m excited for what might happen in the future.

This morning we had breakfast with the casting person from Houston Grand Opera and the Director of the Metropolitan National Council Auditions (e.g. the Met Auditions).  In addition, our own Carol Anderson joined us (she works for Santa Fe Opera in the summers along with our own chorus master, Susanne Sheston) and the new up and rising soprano star: Heidi Stober.  Heidi is enjoying her second summer in Santa Fe and we’ll see her perform in the Handel opera, RADAMISTO tomorrow night.  Heidi is an alum of our own Ensemble Program for young artists.  She went on to the Houston Grand Opera Studio program and this fall will be singing with Deustsche Oper in Berlin.  This is an amazing opportunity for Heidi to perform with an international company which — trust me on this — will lead to MANY more international performing opportunities.  I’m fairly sure this one is going to be a star.  And her beginnings were with Utah Opera!