The stage is set: 'La Traviata' to kick off the 2024 Santa Fe Opera season

Jun. 7—New productions of "Don Giovanni," "La Traviata" and "Der Rosenkavalier," and a revival of "The Elixir of Love," cap a 2024 Santa Fe Opera season spiced by a world premiere.

SFO executive director Robert Meya announced the lineup, along with the debut of "The Righteous" by Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith and composer Gregory Spears, on Wednesday.

Santa Fe Opera commissioned "The Righteous" five years ago, Meya said. The opera opens on July 13.

"It's one of the first operas where the generations who are creating this piece are looking back at the American history we grew up in — the '70s, the '80s and '90s with perhaps a different lens of self-awareness and political retrospective," he said.

The libretto spans three presidencies, the AIDS crisis and the recession.

Spears is known for composing 2016's "Fellow Travelers," based on the McCarthy era and the persecution of gays in the CIA.

"Gregory has really established himself as one of the emerging young composers," Meya said.

Spears' longtime collaborator Smith is a professor of English and of African and African American studies at Harvard University.

"They say it's influenced by the story of King David in the Bible," Meya said. "A televangelist sells his soul and turns to politics. It's an extraordinary statement to be making. It's set in West Texas oil country."

Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata" opens the season June 28 and is set in the late 1930s by the Vienna-based director Louisa Muller in her company debut.

"She's one of the most sought-after stage directors," Meya said.

The opera is set in Paris on the eve of World War II. Acclaimed Armenian soprano Mané Galoyan sings the role of Violetta. Uzbeki tenor Bekhzod Davronov is Alfredo.

Mozart's masterpiece "Don Giovanni" follows on June 29 in a new interpretation by director Stephen Barlow following his production of Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville." Bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green debuts as the lecherous nobleman; recent SFO apprentice singer Teresa Perrotta sings Donna Anna. The production draws parallels between the notorious seducer and the character in Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" who chases pleasure and eternal youth.

The opera is set in Victorian London during the 1880s.

While most opera fans think of "Don Giovanni" as tragic, its composer thought differently, Meya said.

"Mozart referred to it as a drama with some humorous elements. It's a cautionary tale infused with humor."

Richard Strauss' romantic comedy "Der Rosenkavalier" opens on July 20 in a nod to the legacy of SFO founder John Crosby.

"He did the American premieres of six operas by Strauss," Meya said. "It's a wonderful legacy for us. It has a lot of romantic music in it. We haven't done it since 1992."

Most productions use the orchestra's 58 musicians; "Der Rosenkavalier" requires 79. Santa Fe is co-producing the piece with the Garsington Opera (near London) and the Irish National Opera.

Karina Canellakis,chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, will make her SFO debut. Four former apprentice singers: Rachel Willis-Sørensen (Marshallin), Paula Murrihy (Octavian), Zachary Nelson (Faninal) and Megan Marino (Annina) head the ensemble cast.

"All of the reviews when it premiered in London said it was the most beautiful 'Rosenkavalier' they had ever seen," Meya said.

Gaetano Donizetti's comic "The Elixir of Love" opens July 27 in a revival from 2009.

"It's a very accessible crowd-pleaser," Meya said.

The show is set in post-World War II Italy. Tenor Jonah Hoskins will sing the part of Nemorino, a role he recently debuted at the Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim. Hoskins is a former SFO apprentice singer.

Crosby founded the apprentice program, the first of its kind in the U.S., in 1957.

"We are the launch pad for opera singers of the future," Meya said.

The 67th festival season showcases 20 debuting artists, 35 returning artists and more than 120 young singers and technicians from the opera's apprentice programs.

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