Santa Fe Opera announces 2025 season lineup

Kathaleen Roberts, Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
Updated ·4 min read

May 16—The 2025 Santa Fe Opera season features a trio of top 10 productions, blended with a more obscure piece, bookended by Richard Wagner.

The opera will stage familiar favorites "La bohème," "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Rigoletto" alongside "The Turn of the Screw" and "Die Walküre."

The classics "La bohème" and "The Marriage of Figaro" will open the season on June 27 and 28, said general director Robert Meya.

The opera is "taking a breather" from world premieres, he said, "although it's no less ambitious artistically."

Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" opens on July 12, with Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw" opening on July 19. "Die Walküre" opens July 26.

Giacomo Puccini's "La bohème" is set in Paris around 1830 and explores the Bohemian lifestyle of a poor seamstress and her artist friends.

"It's the timeless magic of the music," Meya said. "Everybody remembers the scene with Cher in 'Moonstruck.' " The SFO is setting the work in the 1920s. Puccini wrote it between 1893 and 1895.

"It's that age of artistic fervor and excitement in Paris," he added. "That will be referenced in the scenes and costume design. The hallmark of this piece is the cast, which is very young and accomplished."

Former SFO apprentice Sylvia D'Eramo will sing the role of Mimì, with Chinese tenor Long Long playing Rodolfo. D'Eramo sang the role of Micaëla in Santa Fe's 2022 production of "Carmen."

"The Marriage of Figaro" is a revival from Santa Fe's 2021 production of the Mozart comedy.

"It was challenging at the beginning because we couldn't get people to Santa Fe because of COVID and visa restrictions," Meya said.

At the time, director Laurent Pelly led the piece by video from Paris because he couldn't get a visa. This time, he will direct it in person.

The opera outlines the way the servants Figaro and Susanna succeed in getting married, foiling the efforts of their philandering employer Count Almaviva to seduce Susanna and teaching him a lesson in fidelity.

Set on a turntable, the opera will span 24 hours in the characters' lives, with a pair of clock hands serving as the scenic design. Santa Fe Opera conductor and Mozart specialist Harry Bicket will conduct.

Santa Fe will set Verdi's "Rigoletto" in a mix of Renaissance and contemporary design.

A tragic story of jealousy, vengeance and sacrifice, the work features some of opera's most immediately recognizable music, including "La donna è mobile (Women Abandon Us)."

Director Julien Chavaz was the assistant director on Santa Fe's 2018 production of "Candide." Elena Villalón, who plays Gilda, sang the role of Nannetta in 2022's "Falstaff." Former SFO apprentice singer Duke Kim plays the Duke.

"The Turn of the Screw" is a 20th-century English opera composed by Benjamin Britten. The SFO last staged it in 1983.

"It's long considered to be a chamber opera, largely because of the size of the music," Meya said. "But the production will be full-scale."

The opera uses just 14 — 16 musicians.

Based on the 1898 novella by Henry James, the piece is a haunted house story centering on two parentless children, Miles and Flora, and their unnamed Governess, who is convinced that the children are being menaced by ghosts.

The SFO is bringing the piece from the Canadian Opera Company.

"It becomes a psychological horror story," Meya said. "The music is what's contemporary about it."

Wagner fans may flock to "Die Walküre," the second of the composer's famed "Ring Cycle."

"There seems to be a strong appetite for Wagner here," Meya said. "I think it's everything to do with the music. The sound is so rich and full of meaning. It's all written in very specific meter and rhyme."

Wagner based the libretto on Norse mythology. The Volsung twins Sieglinde and Siegmund, separated in childhood, meet and fall in love. This union angers the gods, who demand that Siegmund must die.

"He does so much out of history," Meya said. "He revolutionized the way operas were produced and performed," adding smoke and lighting effects.

In Santa Fe, the production will feature projections and possibly video, he added.

"It's hard to sing from the standpoint of stamina," Meya continued. "You're on the stage for hours and singing at full volume."

Tamara Wilson, who also sang in 2022's "Tristan and Isolde," will sing the role of Brünnhilde. Tenor Jamez McCorkle is Siegmund. Bass baritone Ryan Speedo Green is Wotan.

"He's in demand by opera companies all over the world," Meya said.