Tickets and Season Info

• Falstaff
• The Marriage of Figaro
• Billy Budd
• Radamisto
• Adriana Mater
• Apprentice Showcase Scenes

The 2008 Festival Season

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  Falstaff

  Verdi amazed the musical world when he crowned a lifetime of operatic tragedies with this richly comic portrait of Sir John Falstaff, featuring a flood of melodies, inexhaustible rhythms, and a quicksilver orchestral palette. Verdi’s librettist, Arrigo Boito, put it best when he said, “We got all the juice from that Shakespearean orange, without any of the seeds.”
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  The Marriage of Figaro

  Figaro and Count Almaviva are locked in a duel of wits to see which will be the first to enjoy Susanna’s bridal boudoir. Well, that’s what they think, anyway. Susanna and the Countess know that the women are really the ones who are pulling the strings, ensuring the best of all possible finales.
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  Billy Budd

  Five years after Peter Grimes, Benjamin Britten returned to sagas of the sea in Billy Budd, the tale of a seraphic young sailor’s fall from grace. Teddy Tahu Rhodes makes his Santa Fe debut in the title role, with Peter Rose as the malignant John Claggart and William Burden as “Starry Vere,” the naval commander who must make life’s ultimate choice.
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  Radamisto

  Handel set a new standard for Italian opera with Radamisto, a musico-military spectacular that also celebrates the power of fidelity in marriage. This gorgeous and rarely heard work features a famously challenging title role, which will be sung by countertenor David Daniels, one of the world’s great Handelians, in his Santa Fe debut.
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  Adriana Mater

  Adriana Mater reunites composer Kaija Saariaho, librettist Amin Maalouf, and director Peter Sellars, whose L’Amour de loin, was such a success here in 2002. Their new work takes place in an unnamed country at war, and its themes—revenge, forgiveness, and redemption—touch the consciousness in profound ways. The New York Times said of its 2006 Paris premiere, “Saariaho has succeeded in forging a work on an emotional scale only occasionally heard in contemporary opera.”
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  Apprentice Showcase Scenes

  These two evenings of fully-staged excerpts from favorite operas now feature Opera Titles! Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children (must be six or older). Our Apprentice Scenes have been the launching pad for many stellar operatic careers. Discover for yourself the rising young singers who will shine in opera's future.
  
  NEW THIS YEAR:
  These performances offer reserved seating rather than General Admission as in previous years, so feel free to select your favorite section.