|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Hard-Driving Judith
| Article
# : |
18085 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1990 |
1,658 Words |
| Author
: |
Philip Kennicott
Philip Kennicott, based in New York, is a writer on
performance arts. |
Along time ago the Santa Fe Opera found an elixir that enabled it to survive more than thirty years in the windswept desert highlands of northern New Mexico. Its formula combines frugality and fearlessness, tradition and trailblazing. Survival, the Santa Fe Experience suggests, demands a repertoire with a precise balance between the popular classis and more challenging, lesser-known new works. Thus a typical season includes standard selections - Puccini, Verdi, Mozart - plus and obligatory music drama by Richard Strauss, and finally, a premiere of major new twentiteth-centurey work. Santa Fe's 1990 repertoire was no exception: Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and Puccini's La Boheme packed the house while Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and the American premier of siegfried Mathhus' 1988 Judith brought out the hard core. This fine-tuned programming not only works financially, but it has kept Santa Fe in the forefront of major opera companies, giving it an international reputation for business acumen and intelligent, through-provoking productions.
The Santa Fe Opera is the brainchild of its founder and general director, Johan Crosby. Opened in 1957, the opera was then a small, upstart summer company with a 480-seat theater and an ensemble of less than seventy members. It nevertheless attracted the attention of the music world's luminaries and a within a year it had presented this country's first professional performance of Strauss' Capriccio and the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Wuthering Heights. Stravinsky and Hindemith both visited in the early years, assisting with productions of their works. And, perhaps most importantly, the oper began an apprentice artists program that continues to this day. Offering young singers, technicians, and scenic artists practical hands-on experience, the program is still a prestigious step in
... (2000 of 10123 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
