Opening night of Lewis Spratlan’s Pulitzer Prize winning opera, Life is a Dream, was somewhat of a subdued affair. Unseasonably cold and wet weather loomed, as did a sense of trepidation, in my opinion, as to how the opera would be received. In a world where Nobel Prize Awards, Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, a dizzying […]

Not really sure what I am seemingly complaining about in the title of this post. We rehearsed Hoffmann at the ‘Santa Fe Opera standard’ of 3 weeks or so. But it was nothing short of amazing what Christopher Alden has done in that short amount of time for such a large scale work.  And this, […]

Well, imagine showing up to your first orchestra dress to discover that one of the main players in your cast has decided to leave the production….after working and rehearsing for almost 4 weeks!!  Well this is exactly what happened as Gidon Saks decided he was not up to the task of singing the ‘Four Villains’ […]

The first run through of Hoffmann onstage today (July 10) was a bag of mixed emotions.  Less than 24 hours earlier I returned to the home in Santa Fe to which I was assigned, to find it had been broken into and robbed rather thoroughly.  Paul Groves wondered why I hadn’t returned to his house […]

Having just arrived a few days ago here in Santa Fe for their 2010 summer season; I am reminded of the last time that I was here…three summers ago.  At that time, I was singing the same production of The Magic Flute that I am now covering for this summer.  Opera company production scheduling can […]

The past months of April and May were spent in the wonderful city of Dallas, Texas, working with the Dallas Opera.  The only thing that could have trumped the world premiere of Jake Heggy’s much touted (and rightfully so) Moby Dick, and the wonderful remount of Francesca Zambello’s Madame Butterfly was the actual continuation of […]

Interview with William H. Burnett: OPERAWARHORSES.COM www.operawarhorses.com January 4th, 2009 As a reviewer of substantial numbers of operatic performances, one comes to appreciate that a truly successful performance requires much more than good singing by the singers in the lead roles. Often, a good performance becomes a great one when the opera’s storyline is enhanced […]