A Heady ASCENT
Retiring General Director Charles MacKay started as an extra in the orchestra
SANTA FE — Ascending the backstage stairs of the Santa Fe Opera, Charles MacKay strode by a cascade of cherry blossoms and some extras twirling parasols.
After passing a rehearsal for “Madame Butterfly,” the retiring general director showed visitors the spot where he nabbed his first job as a “pit boy” arranging chairs for the musicians.
Back in his office, MacKay unfolded the thin and tattered remnants of his first SFO paycheck. He earned $31.71 in 1968.
“When I started 50 years ago, I was an extra horn player in the orchestra,” he said from his spacious office, the window showcasing stunning vistas of the Sangre de Cristos.
“My main responsibility was setting up the chairs in the orchestra pit,” MacKay continued. “I was 18 years old. I rose from being the lowest person on the totem pole to being the top banana.”
MacKay’s prime responsibility as general director has been to design the season, a task that can sometimes resemble Las Vegas gambling. He’s the one who decides to risk turning to new composers for premieres; he also must decide which well-worn “top
10” operas will be repeated for the purists. He selects singers with the help of advisers, mulling over whom to hire for what part, assuming they are available. One of his experts is Matthew Epstein, the assistant manager to famed mezzo-soprano Federica Von Stade.
It’s been a heady ascent, marked by stints with Italy’s Spoleto Festival and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. During his 10-year Santa Fe reign, MacKay shepherded such world premieres as “Cold Mountain” and the 2017 smash “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.”
When he took the head job, MacKay wanted to increase the Santa Fe Opera’s production of both Russian and French works, categories he thought had been neglected. He also added a piece by Vivaldi, whose operatic works are virtually ignored.
He placed the old favorites on eight- to 10-year rotations.
“I’ve really endeavored to fill in the blanks,” he said.
Soft-spoken and unassuming, MacKay lined up the pens at the edge of his desk like soldiers at attention.
“I don’t know where all my pens go,” he mused. “I must eat them.”
Santa Fe cemented his fate after he attended his first opera at age 9. He was bewitched by the sounds, the sets, the orchestra and, most of all, the singers.
“I felt this incredible sense of exhilaration, as though something plugged me into an electric plate,” he said.
“I grew up in a household where opera was standard fare,” he continued. “We listened to the Saturday broadcast of the Met.”
At 17, he nailed his first audition interview with SFO founding Director John Crosby through relentless phone calls.
MacKay played French horn, and his teacher had led him through rigorous rehearsals of the expected repertoire. He practiced four hours a day. Crosby sent him to the principal horn player, who asked to hear the opening bars of “Der Rosenkavalier,” the third act of “Tosca” and the opening notes of “Fidelio” from memory.
He got the job playing in the offstage orchestra, working with the pit crew and as a parking lot attendant. He was sometimes drafted to paint scenery.
Santa Fe Opera historian Ben Saiz has known MacKay for more than 40 years.
“Charles apparently came for an audition with Mr. Crosby,” Saiz said. “Mr. Crosby took me aside and said, ‘Do you know this young chap?’ Lo and behold, then he was in the orchestra.”
MacKay next became the comptroller’s assistant, counting the receipts and working with Crosby and Saiz.
“Mr. Crosby would type the checks, and I would use the Paymaster (stamping machine), and Charles would separate everything,” Saiz said.
They paid some bills later than others. MacKay started at the opera just a year after the devastating 1967 fire.
“It galvanized national support,” he said. “The Ford Foundation came through with a generous grant and the Mellon Foundation followed. I think people understood it was a trying time.”
He grew fascinated with what made the company tick behind the artistry.
Crosby sent him to the First National Bank of Santa Fe’s management training course. MacKay became the manager of the bank’s credit department, working part time as an opera ticket-taker or extra horn player.
By 1974, he was the box office manager. In 1979, the prestigious Spoleto Festival whisked him away to Italy as its finance and development director. He stayed for six years.
Then former SFO Director Richard Gaddes recruited him as executive director of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where MacKay helped launch the mezzo-soprano Susan Graham’s career with Barber’s “Vanessa.”
Gaddes succeeded Crosby as Santa Fe’s second general director in 2000.
In 2008, MacKay succeeded Gaddes at Santa Fe.
Today, the company’s influence extends well beyond the U.S.
“We are viewed as one of the most successful operas in the U.S. and the world,” MacKay said. “Most companies are struggling with red ink; we’re always in the black. I think this year we may set a record.”
Santa Fe was the first company to offer singers an apprentice program, now copied nationally.
Ticket buyers come here from all 50 states and from 20-30 foreign countries, MacKay said.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought I would end up running the opera,” he said. “I just felt happy to be here and to have a paying job doing something I love.”
Starting Oct. 1, Robert K. Meya will serve as general director of the Santa Fe Opera after working as its external affairs director since 2012.