The Santa Fe Opera Seeks 20 New Volunteer Docents
The Santa Fe Opera Seeks 20 New Volunteer Docents to lead Backstage Tours in the 2024 Festival Season
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Santa Fe, NM — The Santa Fe Opera is seeking twenty new volunteer Docents to conduct Backstage Tours during the 2024 Festival Season. This is the first time in three years that new Docents have been admitted to the program. New Docent training will be conducted at the Santa Fe Opera over seven days in late April and early May.
Training centers on in-depth information about the Santa Fe Opera’s history, production facilities, and designs for the five 2024 Season productions including La traviata (Verdi), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss), The Elixir of Love (Donizetti), and the company’s 19th new opera, The Righteous (Spears/Smith). One veteran Docent described the training as, “A mini graduate course in the collaborative art of opera production.”
Volunteer Tour Docents are required to attend all relevant training sessions and to conduct at least eight tours per season. Backstage Tours are offered six days a week in June, July and August each summer. Tours begin at 9 am and last for approximately 45 minutes. Docents are invited to attend final dress rehearsals for most productions and receive 10% off in the Opera Shop.
One Docent who recently celebrated her 10th Anniversary with the program recounted, “I was new to Santa Fe. Volunteering as a Backstage Tour Docent has become one of the highlights of my summers. I can share my enthusiasm for this fabulous art form in one of the world’s most beautiful venues, and I have made friends with other Docents.”
Applications are due by January 30, 2024, and are available at the Santa Fe Opera’s website: SantaFeOpera.org/community/volunteer/docent-application/. In-person interviews will be conducted in February and staffing decisions will be announced in March. For more information, please contact Santa Fe Opera Volunteer Liaison Marissa Aurora at maurora@santafeopera.org.
The 2024 Season — Scheduled in the Santa Fe Opera’s 67th Festival Season are 38 performances including two evenings of Apprentice Scenes. The company holds to its mission and time-tested programming model: a balanced and varied repertory of new, lesser-performed and standard works. Opening on June 28 and 29 are new productions of Verdi’s La traviata directed by Louisa Muller and Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by Stephen Barlow. On July 13, the opera will present its 19th world premiere, The Righteous, by composer Gregory Spears and U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Tracy K. Smith in a production by Kevin Newbury. Next in the season’s offerings is an international co-production: Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier opens July 20 in a highly-acclaimed staging by Bruno Ravella seen at Garsington Opera and Irish National Opera. Rounding out the festival from July 27 is Stephen Lawless’ beloved production of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. Tickets are on sale at santafeopera.org, with the best pricing available now.
About The Santa Fe Opera — Named “Festival of the Year” by the International Opera Awards, the Santa Fe Opera annually draws 85,000 people from New Mexico and around the globe. Nestled atop a mountain vista in northern New Mexico, the company’s iconic Crosby Theatre is open on three sides, allowing visitors to enjoy performances complemented by the elements. Since 1957, the company has presented over 2,000 performances of 179 operas by 91 composers spanning five centuries of opera, creating a legacy of 45 American premieres and 18 world premieres.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility at the Santa Fe Opera — Opera has the power to speak truth, broaden perspectives and invite empathy. The Santa Fe Opera is committed to the continuous work of becoming an antiracist and anti-oppressive organization and incorporating the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Our goal is to create a joyful and engaging environment in which a diverse community of artists, staff, volunteers and audiences alike belong.
The mission of the Santa Fe Opera is to advance the operatic art form by presenting ensemble performances of the highest quality in a unique setting with a varied repertory of new, rarely performed, and standard works; to ensure the excellence of opera’s future through apprentice programs for singers, technicians and arts administrators; and to foster an understanding and appreciation of opera among a diverse public.