Santa Fe Opera Weekend with Carl Grapentine August 3 - 6, 2008

Download Brochure   /  Download Registration Form  /  Contact our Tour Specialist

Due to the popularity of these events, the entire city of Santa Fe is sold out, so we need your registration as soon as possible to assure your place. Registrations will be on a first come, first served basis.

Price includes: Airfare, 5-star Hotel, 2 operas, 1 choral concert, lectures, private reception, two group dinners, breakfast daily, tips, airport transfers and porterage.

Performances include: Sun, August 3 •  Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival •  Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2 •  Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36 Mon, August 4 •  Santa Fe Opera •  Verdi: Falstaff Tue, August 5 •  Santa Fe Opera •  Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro “Please join me for this special weekend of worldclass opera at the SantaFe Opera. As always, I will provide lectures, background information, and anecdotes on the performances and musicians.” - Carl

SANTA FE OPERA

Falstaff: Music by Giuseppe Verdi, Text by Arrigo Boito
Verdi amazed the musical world when he crowned a lifetime of operatic tragedies with this richly comic portrait of Sir John Falstaff,
the earl of excess.  The score features a flood of melodies, inexhaustible rhythms, and a quicksilver orchestral palette.
Verdi’s librettist, Arrigo Boito, may have put it best when he said, “We got all the juice from that Shakespearean orange, without
any of the seeds.”

Paolo Arrivabeni makes his American debut as conductor and Kevin Newbury is the stage director.  Laurent Naouri and Anthony
Michaels-Moore share the title role, with Naouri singing the first four performances and Michaels-Moore the remaining six.
Franco Pomponi, a 1994 Santa Fe apprentice, sings Ford; British soprano Claire Rutter is Ford’s wife, Alice; and Italian soprano
Laura Giordano is their daughter, Nannetta.  Nancy Maultsby and Norman Reinhardt, both of whom performed in the 2007 SFO
season, return as Mistress Quickly and Fenton, respectively.

The Marriage of Figaro: Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Text by Lorenzo da Ponte
Figaro and Count Almaviva are locked in a manly test of strength to see which one of them will be the first to enjoy the pleasures
of 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 a finale with multiple marriages and a properly chastened lord of the manor.
Kenneth Montgomery, who led the very successful productions of Cinderella in 2006 and Daphne in 2007, conducts.  This new
production is staged by acclaimed British director Jonathan Kent, whose most recent SFO credit is The Tempest in 2006.  Italian
bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni makes his company debut in the title role; the young English soprano Elizabeth Watts is Susanna.
Mariusz Kwiecen, who played Don Giovanni in 2004, returns as Count Almaviva, with SFO apprentice alumna Susanna Phillips
as the Countess. Isabel Leonard, a young American making her Metropolitan Opera debut this coming season, is Cherubino.

SANTA FE CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
Since it started in 1972, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival has become one of the world's preeminent music festivals,
guided by a visionary spirit and dedicated to artistic excellence and innovation.  Contributing to its magic is the Festival's unique
Santa Fe setting, nestled amid timeless splendors of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.  Festival concerts take place in the intimate,
historic St. Francis Auditorium.

Since 1980 Festival ensembles have also been touring nationally, visiting New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco,
Philadelphia, Portland, Santa Barbara, Minneapolis, Seattle, and others.

Beginning in 1981 Festival performances regularly have been broadcast on national radio networks, including the WFMT Fine
Arts Network, American Public Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, and national Public Radio (NPR). Radio series have ranged
from 13-week, hour-long broadcasts to selections on NPR's Performance Today.

The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival has garnered enthusiastic acclaim not only from music lovers, but has also from art
aficionados with its 20-year series of collectible posters and program book covers of Georgia O'Keeffe paintings.  The tradition
continues with other artists, including Dan Namingha, William Lumpkins, Harry Fonsecca, Nils Hogner, Laura Gilpin, and William
Penhallow Henderson.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe has charmed visitors since the early sixteenth century as well as being a vibrant home to Pueblo Indians for more than a thousand years. Ever since 1957, The Santa Fe Opera has been the summer oasis for internationally acclaimed operatic talents and opera enthusiasts!   Northern New Mexico provides visitors a cornucopia of natural and worldly pleasures that include 19 nearby Indian Pueblos; 44 National and State Parks, including 10,000-year-old archeological ruins, 13,000-foot mountain peaks, 650-foot canyons, lakes and deserts; world-class art galleries and restaurants; and some of the world’s finest hotels, spas and bed & breakfasts.

Santa Fe’s performing arts encompass dance, theater, opera, choral and chamber music.  The Santa Fe Opera invites you to let your dreams run wild when you visit for the first time or return to make new discoveries in the “Land of Enchantment.”