Elegiac modernism: Richard Strauss's Capriccio at Santa Fe

Amanda Majeski in Capriccio (c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Joshua Hopkins, Amanda Majesk and Ben Bliss
(c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Richard Strauss Capriccio; Amanda Majeski, Susan Graham, Craig Verm, Ben Bliss, Joshua Hopkins, David Goversen, dir: Tim Albery, cond: Leo Hussain; Santa Fe Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Aug 5 2016
Star rating: 4.0
A stylish 1940's modernist setting for Richard Strauss' elegiac operatic swansong

For our final opera this year at Santa Fe Opera, on 5 August 2016, we caught Tim Albery's production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio designed by Tobias Hoheisel, a production which travels to Garsington next year. Amanda Majeski was Countess Madeleine, Susan Graham was Clairon, Craig Verm was the Count, Ben Bliss was Flamand, Joshua Hopkins was Olivier, David Govertsen was La Roche, Allan Glassman was Monsieur Taupe, Shelley Jackson and Galeano Salas were the Italian Singers, and Adrian Smith was the Major Domo. Leo Hussain conducted.

Hoheisel's spectacular set consisted of a modernist, Mies van der Rohe-style house with the panelling from an 18th century room at its centre, like a collected object. The rear wall was glazed and looked out onto a terrace with the views across the hills West of the Santa Fe Opera House. The weather denied us the spectacular sunset for which the set seemed to have been designed, but was striking nonetheless. Costumes were loosely 1940's with Amanda Majeski wearing a pair of extremely striking outfits.

Susan Graham and Joshua Hopkins  in 'Capriccio'
(c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera

The opera was sung in German, with the usual subtitles in the seat-back in front of you, but Tim Albery had clearly been concerned to bring out the meanings in this most text heavy of operas. The performance was highly gestural, with each performer bringing a vivid sense to their dialogue, though it has to be admitted that the German occasionally sounded a bit effortful. This very visual style seemed to encourage the audience to laugh; Albery had not directed it as a comedy as such, but the production style rather invited this. The problem for me was that the audience laughed at the jokes in the subtitles rather than at what the singers were saying, and I longed for the opera to be done in English. The cast were almost exclusively native English speakers, as was the majority of the audience and when Santa Fe Opera gave the USA premiere of the work in 1958 it performed it in English. Frankly, I feel that this is what they should have done this time.

In the second half of the opera, when the members of the house-party all gang up on La Roche for his rather over the top ideas for the theatrical event for the Countess's birthday, the gestural language rather pushed the piece into physical comedy. So that instead of being a witty dialogue about what theatre and opera really are, it became a comic set-piece which obscured the work's message. Capriccio is a work which treats a serious subject in a relatively light way, and getting the balance right is tricky, especially with a cast all of whom are having to work hard on the vast quantity of German dialogue.

Amanda Majeski looked stunning as the Countess, tall and elegant she wore her costumes well and epitomised the witty intelligence of the part. You really could imagine this Countess having long, intense and sometimes funny discussions about the nature of art.

Supremely tragic moments: Gounod's Romeo and Juliet in Santa Fe

Stephen Costello & Ailyn Pérez  in Roméo et Juliette (c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Stephen Costello & Ailyn Pérez  in Roméo et Juliette
(c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Gounod Roméo et Juliette; Ailyn Perez, Stephen Costello, Emily Fons, Raymond Aceto, Elliott Madore, dir: Stephen Lawless, cond: Harry Bicket; Santa Fe opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Aug 4 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Santa Fe channels Gone with the Wind in Gounod's elegiac telling of Shakespeare's tragedy

The second opera which we caught at Santa Fe Opera this year was Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, on Thursday 4 August 2016 in a production directed by Stephen Lawless and conducted by Harry Bicket. Stephen Costello was Roméo and Ailyn Perez was Juliette, with Elliot Madore as Mercutio, Emily Fons as Stéphano, Deborah Nansteel as Gertrude, Raymond Aceto as Frère Laurent, Nicholas Davis as Grégorio, Tim Mix as Capulet and Soloman Howard as the Duke. Designs were by Ashley Martin-Davis with lighting by Mimi Jordan Sherin, and choreography by Nicola Bowie.

Gounod's opera, written in 1867, was his biggest hit after Faust. The libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré stays relatively close to Shakespeare, but re-casts the piece as a French grand opera, complete with large-scale choral scenes, grand processions, and a ballet. Gounod wanted to use spoken dialogue but was overruled, and as a result the pacing of the recitative combined with the music for grand ceremonial makes the general pace of the opera quite stately. For all the great beauty of the four duets for Roméo and Juliette, you sometimes wish that Gounod had injected a bit more youthful elan and pace into the piece.

Deborah Nansteel (Gertrude) in Roméo et Juliette
(c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

That said, Harry Bicket kept the music flowing admirably, and there was little of the stopping too long to admire the melodic beauties which can impede the flow of the work. The production, set during the American civil war with the Montagues and Capulets as on opposing sides in this conflict, was full of telling moments and felicitous detail. Lawless' detailed direction added a layer of extra interest, with such moments as Juliette's swigging of illicit champagne at the Act One ball, and her nurse Gertrude's flirtation (and more) with the servant Grégorio during the balcony scene. And it was nice to see a period production where the importance of gloves (the putting on, and taking off) was recognised.

The period setting gave the women vast crinolines, which looked attractive though perhaps made the action a little more stately. And it was hard for Ailyn Perez to convey Juliette's youth when she was in a dress which made her look mature, still the evocation of Gone with the Wind was rather effective. Though perhaps less care had been taken with the men's tailoring and their trousers looked as if they had been bought by the yard, even Stephen Costello's were rather unflattering.

The opera started and finished in the same place, the Capulet mausoleum, a huge dark curving wall engraved with names. This formed the fixed set for the whole opera, with openings, staircases and balconies appearing. A central lift in the floor meant that a huge statue of Eros appeared for the balcony scene and also created the bier for Juliette. This was a neat piece of stagecraft as she faints during the wedding with Paris, is laid on the floor and remains in place as the central plinth rises to create a bier for the final scene.

Hollywood noir: Samuel Barber's Vanessa at Santa Fe

Zach Borichevsky (Anatol) and Virginie Verrez (c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Samuel Barber Vanessa; Erin Wall, Virginie Verrez, Helene Schneiderman, Zach Borichevsky, James Morris, dir: James Robinson, cond: Leonard Slatkin; Santa Fe Opera
Reviewed by Robert Hugill on Aug 3 2016
Star rating: 4.0
Samuel Barber's fascinating yet rarely performed opera in lush new production

Zach Borichevsky and Erin Wall in Vanessa
(c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016

Samuel Barber's 1958 opera Vanessa still has not quite found a place in the repertory, existing on the fringes. In London the opera has recently only appeared in concert so it was a delight to find Santa Fe Opera doing a production, the first time that the New Mexico festival has produced the opera. Interestingly Wexford Festival is also doing a production of Vanessa this year (directed by Rodula Gaitanou with Claire Rutter in the title role), so perhaps the opera's time has finally come.

We caught James Robinson's production on Wednesday 3 August 2016, an evening which was cool and cloudy with torrential rain, perhaps an apt environment for Gian Carlo Menotti's rather gothic libretto. Leonard Slatkin conducted, with Erin Wall as Vanessa, Virginie Verrez as Erika, Helene Schneiderman as the Baroness, Zach Borichevsky as Anatol, James Morris as the Doctor, Andrew Bogard as the Major-Domo and Andrew Simpson as the Footman. Sets were by Allen Moyer, costumes by James Schuette, lighting by Christopher Akerlind and choreography by Sean Curran.

Gian Carlo Menotti's libretto has its rather melodramatic side (someone once commented that he had written it using the Oxford Book of Cliches), and James Robinson's production built on this by staging the work in the context of a Hollywood Noir film, complete with a set inspired by Hollywood Regency designs. Apart from the costumes for the ball scene in Act Two, the entire production was in shades of grey with  Allen Moyer's striking box set, lit by Christopher Akerlind's lighting, having real sense of coolness about it. As light comes back into Vanessa's life, the set imaginatively fractured and expanded, but retreated back with Erika's retreat into solitude at the end. James Schuette's costumes were similarly stylish, all 1940's glamour.

The result was to give the production a lushness which matched Samuel Barber's music. At its best the production really made sense of the staginess of Menotti's text and the rather melodramatic quality to the story. But you felt that a more austere, critical production style might have brought out some more of the psychological depth of the piece, rather than simply echoing the gorgeous lush quality to the music. And there are interesting undercurrents, is Erika in fact Vanessa's daughter, how does the plot echo elements on Barber and Menotti's personal life, Vanessa's great affair with Anatol's father clearly took place whilst the man was married with at least one child.

The Ball Scene

Robinson took the piece at face value, and did not dig too much beneath the surface, and occasionally I kept wondering what a director like David Pountney would make of the opera.


The title role was written for a dramatic soprano capable of great lyric beauty. Erin Wall showed superb control and poise as Vanessa, and her opening aria 'Do not utter a word' was superbly controlled with a perfectly fine sense of line and intensity. Throughout the opera, Wall showed this combination of lush beauty of tone and sense of line, matched by the very stylish figure she cut on stage. I cannot think of ever hearing the role more beautifully sung, but I felt that a slightly more dramatic voice might have been able to dig a bit deeper into the psychological complexities of the piece and make Vanessa a rather more meatily intense character.

Santa Fe Opera - King Roger

Mariusz Kwiecien

Szymanowski's King Roger is an opera which still does not have the currency it deserves. There have been a few recent European productions and now Santa Fe Opera has made a very strong case for the work in Stephen Wadsworth's new production with Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien in the title role.

Szymanowski's score is lush, complex and richly allusive, but very compact; just three acts of 30 minutes each, which Santa Fe Opera played without a break. It is difficult to understand why the piece has not become more popular because the score is by no means as challenging as Berg's Wozzeck (which was written at the same time), though Szymanowski's multi-layered exoticism and luscious textures can seem a trifle rich to digest at first. But his style is not just about surface beauty, and the piece is highly dramatic and expressive.

Santa Fe Opera - Tosca

Amanda Echalaz

Stephen Barlow's new production of Puccini's Tosca at Santa Fe Opera(seen August 8)  is deliberately traditional but within this framework, both sets and staging introduced innovations. Yannis Thavoris's sets took elements of the real life locations (Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Palazzo Farnese and Castel Sant'Angelo) and re-cast them in a spectacular and non-naturalistic manner.

Rossini, Handel and more - Interview with Patricia Bardon

One of Patricia Bardon's criteria for choosing projects is that they are interesting and rewarding. On that basis, singing in a rare modern revival of Rossini's challenging opera Maometto II at Santa Fe Opera would seem a logical candidate. The Irish-born mezzo-soprano has been singing the role of Calbo in the opera and I caught up with her the day after the penultimate performance.

Santa Fe Opera - Maometto II

Isabella Colbran

Rossini clearly thought highly of Maometto II, unsuccessful at its premiere in Naples in 1820, he altered the piece and presented it in Venice, still to no great effect with the public. Finally he re-worked it entirely for Paris as Le Siege de Corinthe. Performances in the present day are still relatively rare and Santa Fe's new production of the opera, which unveiled a new critical edition, was a welcome opportunity to assess the piece on stage. The piece was written quite late in Rossini's Neapolitan career and the piece incorporates various structural innovations which perhaps did not appeal to the Neapolitan public.

Postcard from Santa Fe

Santa Fe as we know it was founded by the Spanish in the 17^th century, the town still preserves some of the adobe buildings dating from this period. Spanish rule was not untroubled, with a revolt in 1680 by the local population. The Spanish brought priests with them, with the intention of converting the locals. Adobe churches in the area are some of the earliest and most striking monuments to this, their distinctively styled exteriors married to lively painted interiors. The area contains the earliest buildings erected by Europeans in the USA. Santa Fe's history changed in the mid 19^th century when the are was annexed by the United States and became a territory.