Turandot was performed by the Santa Fe Opera on August 24th. All concerned were very insistent that the final “t” be pronounced. American opera companies have been daft about that consonant for the past generation or so. I’ve heard many reasons for this tempest in a t-pot, but none satisfactory. Anyway, Turandot is another example of Santa Fe’s move towards bigger works. I was doubtful about the wisdom of the company’s plan to mount Puccini’s final opera because any house that can’t afford a curtain probably isn’t ready for anything as grand as Turandot, but they did it 11 times this season. Now that they’ve covered the hole in the roof perhaps they should get a curtain.

 Dr Neil Kurtzman

There are a lot of reasons why this production shouldn’t have worked. The stage isn’t very big. Director Douglas Fitch, who with Adam Stockhausen designed the sets, solved the problem by having people pop out of steps from below the stage and by putting brass players atop a wall stage right. The chorus (apparently all locals) was too small, but they sang like a multitude. You need three great singers to bring the opera off – Santa Fe had one and a half. Nevertheless, the performance worked and all left happy - well, it was okay.

The title role was sung by Jennifer Wilson, who recently sang the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Ms Wilson has a voice which though large is not mobile. She took the world’s longest fermata before the first high note in “In questa reggia” – it must have been a full five seconds – while she wound up to deliver the note. She reminded me of Rip Sewell getting ready to throw his eephus pitch¹. The high note was on pitch and loud, but not very attractive. Labored and loud were the two distinguishing characteristics of her performance.

Patricia Racette is a regular at the Santa Fe Opera. She provided the best singing of the evening with the exception of the pianissimo concluding high note of “Signore ascolta” which was unsupported and almost inaudible. She is a fine artist and made the most of the touching music Puccini wrote for the love struck slave girl.

Carl Tanner started out like he was Ben Heppner before the vocal crisis. In the first act he displayed a big voiced tenor with ringing high notes. When the hammer broke after his first strike at the gong at the end of the act he smacked the thing the remaining two times with the palm of his hand. I thought he was going to turn out to be a real find. But he omitted an optional high note in the second act. He was seemingly tired in the final act requiring a breath in the final “vincero” at the end of “Nessun Dorma.” If he can find some vocal stamina he could be a good spinto tenor. Samson, Cavaradossi, and Dick Johnson are in his repertoire.

Kevin Langan was appropriately blind but audible as Timur. Hyung Yun, David Gangelosi, and Keith Jameson did the best they could with the tiresome Ping, Pang, and Pong. I suspect Puccini would have severely cut their parts had he lived to complete and revise the opera. Their costumes were what Salvador Dali might have worn to Mardi Gras. Toffer Mihalka, Altoum, was seated so far back stage in the third act that he might as well have been in the left field bleachers at a Little League game.

What made the performance work was the outstanding playing of the orchestra under the direction of Alan Gilbert. He brought out of the color and passion of Puccini’s eclectic score that, eclectic or not, could only have been written by the master from Lucca. The chorus which is as important to the opera as the leading singers sang with beauty and power even if some of them were wearing costumes borrowed from “The Student Prince.”

You know the Barber is not going to cut it when the best singing is from Berta. August 25th was the last performance of Rossini’s wacky masterpiece by the Santa Fe company. If the audience isn’t laughing a lot during the Barber it’s the performer’s fault. I’ve seen the opera work with great singers and in a student performance. Cyril Ritchard directed a great production of the opera at the Met in the fifties that had a great singer in every part: Roberta Peters, Cesare Valletti, Robert Merrill, Fernando Corena, and Cesare Siepi. They managed great singing and wild comedy with equal aplomb. Twenty years later I saw a student performance in Chicago in English that managed to be successful without great voices. The audience, which contained a lot of children, were laughing themselves silly. Alas, not a guffaw, not a chuckle, not even a smile during Santa Fe’s moribund mounting of the classic.

The production, directed by Stefano Vizioli, seemed clever enough but nobody laughed. That the singing wasn’t very good compounded the misfortune. The first act seemed endless even though it has most of the big numbers. The second act was better maybe because it’s shorter.

Brian Leerhuber was vocally underpowered in the title role. “Largo al factotum” made no impact. Bruce Sledge was Almaviva, a role he has sung at the Met. He has a thin voice tenorino with dry high notes. Dale Travis was not up to the challenge of “A un dottor della mia sorte.” His patter singing was almost inaudible. He also appeared too young for the part. Similarly, Wayne Tigges did nothing with “La calunnia.” While the men were all inadequate, the women did better. Ana Martinez, though not as impressive as she was as Fiordiligi two seasons ago, did well as a high voiced Rosina. Her voice is on the small side, agile, and well produced. Her perky stage presence contrasted with dreary deportment of the men. Also dreary was the lethargic conducting of Kenneth Montgomery. As mentioned above, Berta was best performed part of the evening. Mary Jane Johnson who must be desperate to spend the summer in Santa Fe took time out from Elektra to portray Bartolo’s housekeeper. She likely is the biggest voiced soprano ever to sing the role. The audience was very appreciative.

Both these operas exemplify Santa Fe Opera’s biggest problem. They usually don’t have the voices to do the operas they mount. They sometimes have a major singer, but she’s (the major artist is almost always a woman) not surrounded by other major voices. This lack of outstanding voices becomes more acute as the company moves into a heavier repertoire. How General Director Richard Gaddes deals with this problem will determine whether the company remains America’s premiere summer opera or just gets by as a picturesque stop for affluent tourists taking in the beauty of Northern New Mexico.