Active voice
Charles MacKay’s final season as SFO general director hits all the right notes
The Santa Fe Opera’s 2018 season is putting a big smile on the face of SFO general director Charles MacKay.
“I’m really so proud of the lineup of the five operas,” MacKay says. “It includes major works in repertory but also includes works by two important American composers not previous seen in Santa Fe. There’s comedy, there’s tragedy, there’s satire, there’s mediative, existential work and there’s a world of fun and romantic lyricism.”
‘Candide’
The opera company opens its summer festival season June 29 with something special — Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide.”
The production is special because it’s the first time the SFO is staging “Candide” and because the opera company’s final performance of the opera this season is on Aug. 25, the centennial of Bernstein’s birth.
“Candide” began its life on Broadway in 1956 “and seems to have ended up in opera houses. Bernstein said in the end it was an opera and that was what he intended. But his goal was to make opera more popular, therefore it was on Broadway,” MacKay says.
“Candide” has long been performed as musical theater and its famous overture has been a staple in the concert hall.
The story is based on Voltaire’s 1759 novella, a satire about optimism.
“The creed is ‘all for the best in the best of all possible worlds,’” MacKay said. “It’s about Candide’s misadventures. In the end (he and Cunegonde) … accept the simple life together. Along the way it’s a lot of biting satire.”
The leads are tenor Alek Shrader in the title role, soprano Brenda Rae as Cunegonde with bass Kevin Burdette holding down four parts.
The conductor is Harry Bicket and the director and costume designer is Laurent Pelly.
The Santa Fe Opera will give 10 performances of “Candide.”
‘Madame Butterfly’
The second production of the season is Giacomo Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly.” June 30 is the first of its 11 performances.
“It’s an exotic masterpiece and a mainstay of the repertoire since its premiere” at La Scala in Milan in 1904, MacKay says.
The opera is the story of the ill-fated marriage of a teenage Japanese girl, Cio-Cio-San, and an American naval officer, Lt. Pinkerton.
“This is an important work and figures prominently in the history of the Santa Fe Opera,” MacKay says. “It was the first work performed by our company (in 1957). It opened the 1968 season when the theater was rebuilt after the fire. And again in 1998 (was staged) when the theater was remodeled to include the roof.”
The two leading roles in the production are double cast — Kelly Kaduce sings Cio-CioSan and A.J. Glueckert sings Pinkerton through July 20. Ana María Martínez is CioCio-San and Joshua Guerrero is Pinkerton July 30-Aug. 24.
John Fiore conducts and Matthew Ozama stage directs.
‘Doctor Atomic’
John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” has its SFO premiere in a new production that will receive six performances. The first is July 14.
“It’s significant for our company and for the piece,” MacKay says. “We just open the back of the stage and look out to the twinkling lights of Los Alamos, which is the setting of the opera. “It takes place in June and July 1945, leading to the detonation of the first atom bomb.”
MacKay says it is considered “one of the most important operas of the 21st century and is probably the opera that I’ve had the most requests for during my tenure at the operahouse.”
He is pleased that Peter
Sellars as stage director created a new production. Sellars directed the world premiere of “Doctor Atomic” in San Francisco in 2005, MacKay says.
Sellars, he noted, is also the librettist of the opera.
Adams, he says, is one of the most significant composers of our time.
“It’s a deeply philosophical work, a complex story with moral obligation and ethical conflict,” MacKay says.
Bass-baritone Ryan McKinny sings the part of Robert Oppenheimer and soprano Julia Bullock sings Kitty Oppenheimer. Bass Andrew Harris is Edward Teller and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch is General Groves.
Matthew Aucoin conducts.
‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’
Gioachino Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers,” returns to the SFO stage in a revival of the 2002 production designed by Robert Innes Hopkins. The first of five performances is July 21.
“It’s a visual feast and a musical feast,” MacKay says.
Rossini had set the opera, which premiered in 1813, in about 1805. The SFO updated its production to the early 20th century.
Instead of the lead character of Isabella arriving ashore after a shipwreck, she shows up as the pilot of a crashed airplane. She’s searching for her love, Lindoro.
It’s a madcap comedy that focuses on the strong-willed Isabella. She knows her way in a man’s world and thinks she can compete with men who are so sexist that they believe only their gender can be in charge.
Innes Hopkins’ imaginative unit set has been likened to a children’s pop-up book.
Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack sings Isabella, tenor Jack Swanson sings Lindoro, bass Scott Conner signs Mustafa and soprano Suzanne Hendrix sings the role of Zulma.
The conductor is Corrado Rovaris and the stage director is Shawna Lucey.
‘Ariadne auf Naxos’
Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” has, according to MacKay, one of the most beautiful scores of any opera.
The beauty of the score contrasts with the opera’s broad comedy.
Indeed, the opera’s theme is also about this kind of contrast — high and low art are at odds for public attention.
The first of five performances will be July 28.
Cast as The Prima Donna/ Ariadne is soprano Amanda Echalaz. The part of The Tenor/Bacchus will be sung by Bruce Sledge. Zerbinetta is soprano Erin Morley. And The Composer is soprano Amanda Majeski.
Conducting is James Gaffigan and directing is Tim Albery.
MacKay says the production continues the Santa Fe Opera’s longstanding tradition of presenting Strauss operas. Strauss was the favorite composer of John Crosby, the SFO’s founder and first general director.
New faces
This season is special for the Santa Fe Opera from an administrative viewpoint: It is the final season with MacKay at the helm, though he has been involved in the planning of the 2019 season.
MacKay, who grew up in Santa Fe, is stepping down at the end of September after 10 years as the SFO’s general director. However, he has a total of 20 years with the company.
MacKay’s announced successor is Robert K. Meya, who has been the opera company’s director of external affairs since 2012.
At the same time Meya takes over, Harry Bicket, the SFO’s chief conductor, is being elevated to the post of music director, and Alexander Neef will assume the newly created position of artistic director. Neef is general director of Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company.