It’s hard to believe that today was the final day of Classical KUSC’s Santa Fe Opera tour. We had a flexible schedule this morning. Quite a few people took in the museums in town, especially the Georgia O’Keeffe museum. It was incredibly satisfying to see her abundant artwork after visiting her homes in Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu.

We began our evening at Santa Fe Opera early, as Peter arranged a private backstage tour for us. We saw the prop room, the massive storage area for the sets as well as the shop where the sets are constructed. The highlight of the tour was a talk given by Costume Shop Manager David Burke. He explained how costumes are designed and the myriad steps involved in getting the costumes built, fitted and ready for performance.

We then adjourned to…the parking lot for a tailgate dinner. This was not your ordinary tailgate party. Tables covered with white cloths and colorful flower arrangements were just steps away from the opera house. We had a lovely meal with a spectacular view of the mountains. Minnie Prince, Classical KUSC’s Director of Major Gifts, handed out opera CDs and an Ipod to two lucky winners of the final day’s raffle.

  

The tour concluded with what many believed to be the finest performance of the week - Verdi’s La Traviata, starring Natalie Dessay. She was riveting, both as a singer and an actress. This was not “stand around and sing” opera. She, along with the rest of the cast (Saimir Pirgu as Alfredo; Laurent Nauori - Dessay’s husband in real life - as Germont) realistically responded to one another, and the audience responded in return. As soon as the last note drifted away, everyone in the house lept to their feet and showered a thunderous standing ovation upon the performers.

We couldn’t have asked for a better five days together. The music, the excursions, the meals, the camraderie - no one wanted the experience to end. To a person, the question was asked again and again - when is the next tour? We hope it will be very soon!

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Glorious sunshine greeted us on the fourth day of our tour, which our guide, Peter Straus, dubbed as our Hispanic day. Our excursion opened in El Santuario de Chimayo (The Shrine), where the “miraculous” crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found in 1816. For the last two centuries, thousands of people have flocked to the site on an annual basis seeking miracles and healing.

We then traveled to Chimayo to visit Centinela Traditional Arts, owned by nationally renowned weavers Irvin and Lisa Trujillo. Irvin comes from a long line of weavers, dating back to the 1600s. He is the seventh generation of weavers to live in Chimayo. Irvin’s father taught him every aspect of weaving: developing a design; washing, carding and spinning; dyeing the wool with natural dyes and making looms. In 2007, he was a National Endowment of the Arts National Heritage Fellow. Lisa began weaving when she met Irvin, whom she married after graduating from the University of New Mexico. Many of their pieces hang in museums all over the world, including the Smithsonian. Tour participant and fibre artist Laura Lawrence, owner of Dancing Threads, was thrilled to talk with the Trujillos about dyeing, which she hopes to incorporate into her own creations (which you can view on her website www.lauralawrenceart.com).

Our third stop this morning was the home of another nationally recognized artist, woodcarver Sabinita Lopez Ortiz , who lives in the small town of Cordova (population 600). She, too, learned her craft from family members. In her case, it was her parternal uncle who taught her the art of woodworking. She has passed on the family tradition to her own children and grandchildren. While regaling us with family tales, she whittled away on a piece of aspen wood, which turned into a mouse before our very eyes.

We were all famished after the morning’s activities, quenched by a splendid champagne brunch at Bishop’s Lodge. It is named for Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the first bishop in the Roman Catholic diocese of the American Southwest, created in the middle of the 19th century. Today, the lodge is a 450 acre retreat, and central to the space is the Bishop’s Lodge, a humble dwelling of three rooms: a bedroom, a receiving room and a small chapel, which we visited after stuffing ourselved with an array of delicious offerings.

After a couple of hours of rest, we gathered together to walk over to the Lensic Center for the Performing Arts for a recital courtesy of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The center is housed in a former movie theatre palace, built in 1931 and renovated seventy years later. In its 38th season, the festival presents world class music - and musicians - in a relaxed atmosphere. The recital opened with the charming flute sonata by Serge Prokofiev, expertly executed by flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. There were moments when it was difficult to distinguish who was playing what, as the flute sounded like the piano and vice versa. The first half of the concert concluded with the world premiere of George Tsontakis’ Stimulus Package, co-commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest (where the work will be performed again this Friday night). It was played by the ensemble Real Quiet, consisting of pianist Andrew Russo, cellist Felix Fan and percussionist David Cossin, who played an array of instruments. Like the Prokofiev, instruments often seamlessly blended into one another. Tsontakis’ Greek heritage pervaded the piece, which was warmly received by the audience. Following the intermission, six excellent musicians regaled us with Dvorak’s string sextet. The ensemble consisted of violinists William Preucil and Benny Kim, violists Steven Tenenborn and Ida Kavafian and cellists Eric Kim and Timothy Eddy. The musicians joyfully played off one another, smiling throughout Dvorak’s charming work.

It’s hard to believe that we have only one more day of activities, which we can’t to share with you!

After two whirlwind days in Santa Fe, most of us had the morning off. A lucky few spent the morning at the Farmer’s Market with chef Lois Ellen Frank, a culinary anthropologist who won the James Beard award in 2003 for her cookbook, Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations. Frank then made lunch from the food purchased at the market, and by all accounts, it was a fabulous meal.

We then took an excursion to Georgia O’Keeffe’s two homes near Santa Fe: Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu. O’Keeffe first set eyes on New Mexico in 1917 and instantly fell in love with the unique landscape. Much as she wanted to move to the Land of Enchantment, it would be another twelve years before she returned. She spent her first summer at the ranch in 1934 and eventually purchased a home from the property’s owner, Arthur Pack, in 1940. Five years later, O’Keeffe bought another home in Abiquiu. It took her ten years to purchase the property, which she first saw in the early 1930s, and another three to renovate it. She made Abiquiue her permanent home in 1949. We could have spent the entire day in O’Keeffe country, drinking in the landscapes that were such an important part of her creative life.

Our evening was free of planned activities. Some spent the evening by the pool, others dining at various area restaurants, and seven of the participants went back to opera to hear the work commissioned for Santa Fe Opera, The Letter by Paul Moravec. It’s been called “opera noir” for many reasons: it was based on the short story turned into a film in 1940 which starred Bette Davis; the sets and costumes reflect the period; and then there’s the story itself. A married woman, Leslie Crosbie, is having an affair. She kills her lover, Geoff Hammond, after discovering that he’s having an affair with someone else. The evening of the murder, she wrote a letter to Hammond asking him to visit her. The letter is in the hands of the Hammond’s mistress, Ong Chi Seng. Crosbie goes to trial for murder. Her laywer (and her husband’s best friend), Howard Joyce, finds out about the letter. Crosbie’s husband, Robert, shells out his entire fortune to purchase the letter, and Crosbie is acquitted. It is a fast-paced work, lasting about ninety minutes. Patricia Racette stars as Leslie Crosbie, and is as convincing in her portrayal as was Bette Davis. It’s one of the hottest tickets at Santa Fe Opera this season!

Our first full day in New Mexico began with a much-needed rain shower. Black and grey clouds provided a dramatic backdrop against soaring pink mountains, dotted with greenery. After an hour of driving through gorgeous landscapes, we arrived at Bandelier National Monument. People have lived in the area for over 10,000 years, and evidence of previous cultures dots the 33,000 acres. Ancient pueblo peoples lived in the cliffs themselves, carving the all ready existing holes into rooms and building adjacent structures outside the caves to create multi-storied homes. A few braves souls climbed up the ladders to sit in the caves!

We had a picnic lunch alongside the Frijoles creek, drinking in the greenery and smelling Ponderosa Pines, which our guide, Alan Osborne, told us smelled like vanilla - and he was right, of course!

On the way back to Santa Fe, we stopped at the home of internationally renowed potter, Dora Tse-Pe. She welcomed us into her living room and showed us many of the steps that go into making pottery. She does not use a potter’s wheel, nor a kiln. She shapes everything by hand, using stones and volcanic ash readily available near her home. Dora Tse-Pe made a small pot before our eyes. Then she painted another pot and used stones to polish it, all the while telling us about the influential potters in her life, her mother, Candelaria Gachupin, and her mother-in-law, Rose Gonzales. Dora Tse-Pe was informative, inviting and humorous, and more than one person bought a pot from the artist herself.

Tonight’s offering at Santa Fe Opera was Gluck’s Alceste. Many of us arrived early for a buffet dinner, which included a pre-performance talk courtesy of Desiree Mays, resident lecturer and storyteller for Santa Fe Opera. Following our meal (which concluded with baked peaches, cream and blackberries - mmm), we walked up the hill to hear the second of Gluck’s reform operas (the first being Orfeo et Euridice). Christine Brewer sang the title role, which was quite demanding, as she’s on stage for most of the three hour performance. She received thunderous applause for her portrayal of the wife who offers to give her life so that her husband, Admete, may live. Paul Groves brought power and pathos to the role of Admete, and the audience responded with vigorous cheering. Ana Yepes choreography effectively melded traditional ballet with modern dance. And the chorus, made up of apprentices at Santa Fe Opera, sang marvelously.

Flight 1306 left LAX yesterday morning with 25 excited opera lovers, thrilled to be spending five days in Santa Fe. We arrived without a hitch, and greeting us in Albuquerque was our guide for the week, Peter Straus. A luxury motor coach, expertly driven by Kathy Baca, provided a smooth ride to Santa Fe. We enjoyed lunch en route, complete with an exclusive Classical KUSC “radio” show of music that we’ll hear over the course of the tour. We had about five seconds to check into our rooms at the exquisite Loretto Inn, for a walking tour of Santa Fe was about to begin. Excellent weather greeted us, in addition to guide Alan Osborne, who regaled us with interesting information about the history of the capital of New Mexico, in addition to pointing out some of the city’s landmarks.

After freshening up, tour participants walked to dinner at the Santacafe, where we had a room all to ourselves for a delightful dinner. Baritone James Maddelena, who created the role of Howard Joyce in the Paul Moravec’s The Letter, joined us for dinner. He talked about the joy of being the first person to sing a role, which he has done many times over the course of his career. Many of the tour’s participants who had not signed up to see the opera receiving its world premiere in Santa Fe changed their minds and decided to attend after all!

And speaking of attending the opera, Mozart’s Don Giovanni awaited us. We couldn’t have asked for a more enticing Don in Lucas Meachem. He embodied the Don, warts and all, and kept the audience riveted. So did Elza van den Heever, the evening’s Donna Anna. Her warm, powerful voice portrayed the young woman’s sorrow at the loss of her father, as well as her desire for revenge. Revenge was also at hand for Don Ottavio, sung by Charles Workman, who received a plethora of applause for his portrayal of Donna Anna’s fiance. Another audience favorite was Kate Lindsey, whose Zerlina straddled the fence of innocence and newly-found desire.

By the time we arrived back at the Loretto at 12:30am, all were tired, but thrilled to finish our first day in Santa Fe. On to Bandelier and Gluck’s Alceste!

Kimberlea Daggy