SF Opera unveils 61st season
SANTA FE OPERA’S 2017 SEASON includes world premiere of ‘The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs’
The emotional arc of the inventor of the iPhone, a Scottish bride gone mad and a waltz of mistaken identities star at the 61st season of the Santa Fe Opera.
Two of 2017’s offerings — “The (R) evolution of Steve Jobs” and “Die Fledermaus” — will be sung in English. Seat-back titles are available in both English and Spanish for the Italian- and Russian-averse. The main parking lot has been repaved for the first time since 1968, doubling the amount of picnic space for tailgaters, with improved lighting.
The season waltzes in on Friday, June 30, with Johann Strauss’ classic “Die Fledermaus.” Hedonistic Vienna fully embraced the dance in 1816, despite warnings from The Times of London that it signified the apex of sin. Flush with instantly recognizable melodies, Strauss’ music features a lively hymn to champagne.
“‘Die Fledermaus’ to me is the best first-time opera in the repertoire because it is so accessible and fun and lighthearted,” SFO General Director Charles MacKay said.
The scene turns darkly dramatic when “Lucia Di Lammermoor” opens July 1. Set in Scotland, the story orbits around a woman being forced to marry a man she doesn’t love. The opera has often been called the Scottish “Romeo and Juliet.”
Lucia’s mad scene hinges on the behavior of her brother, who plots the marriage to save the family fortune.
“There was a convention in the bel canto tradition for the heroine to go crazy so the soprano could have a big scene with flashy notes, and runs and trills, all with a dramatic purpose,” MacKay said. “Of course, she’s secretly in love with their archenemy.”
“It has some of the most famous music in opera,” he continued. “Our star Brenda Rae is singing phenomenally. She’s having a very big career in Europe.”
Rae sang the role of Violetta in 2013’s “La Traviata” and will return to Santa Fe in 2018 in “Candide.”
Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely performed “The Golden Cockerel” emerged as a thinly disguised political critique when it was rejected by the czar in 1907.
“It was a real political statement when he wrote this opera right after the disastrous 1905 war between Russia and Japan,” MacKay said. “Czar Nicholas was kind of disgraced by this defeat. The story depicts the czar who goes off to war, falls in love with and marries a princess, and is tempted by a sorcerer, so of course, there was a parallel between the czarina and Rasputin.”
The Russian soprano Venera Gimadieva will join bass-baritone Eric Owens as the king and queen when the opera opens on July 15. Owens is a major star at the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago’s Lyric Opera and the San Francisco Opera.
Both music and technology fans have been buzzing about “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs,” composer Mason Bates’ tribute to the late technology giant, opening July 22, a 90-minute work sans intermission. But technophobes can rest assured the story is not about downloads and devices. The music mixes electronics with a traditional symphonic score.
“It’s simply not an opera about technology,” MacKay said. “It’s an opera about human relationships and human foibles, and the triumph of the human spirit. There’s quite a dramatic arc to the life of Steve Jobs –– from triumph to failure, from complexity to tragedy with his early death.”
The piece joins other operas based on the lives of great men and women –– Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, even Anna Nicole Smith, MacKay said.
“Steve Jobs, to me, is a largerthan-life figure,” he said. “This is a very approachable story with a very approachable score.”
The co-commission will move to Seattle in 2019 and San Francisco in 2020.
On July 29, Santa Fe shifts back from the contemporary to the baroque with Handel’s “Alcina.” A sorceress captures and mesmerizes victims on her very own enchanted island. South African soprano Elza Van Den Heever waves the magic wand.
“She just had a huge success at the Metropolitan Opera,” MacKay said.
“Many people consider this to be (Handel’s) finest work,” he continued. “Even for opera, this is one of the craziest plots ever. It’s an absolutely gorgeous score by the composer we know for ‘The Messiah.’”