Santa Fe Opera


Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the Opera Association of New Mexico in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newly acquired former guest ranch of. The company has presented operas each summer festival season since July 1957, and is internationally known for introducing new operas as well as for its productions of the standard operatic repertoire. Five operas are presented each season during the summer.
Since its inception, Santa Fe Opera has staged 45 American premieres and 19 world premieres, including Emmeline, The Tempest, The evolution of Steve Jobs, Adriana Mater, and Cold Mountain.

General history

John Crosby, who was a New York-based conductor, founded the company in 1956, initially with the financial support of his parents, who helped in the acquisition of the land and the building of the first opera house. One goal was to give American singers the opportunity to learn and perform new roles while having ample time for rehearsal and preparation in the context of a summer festival situation with the presentation of five operas in repertory. Its first season began on July 3, 1957, with a performance of Puccini's Madama Butterfly with a seating capacity of nearly 500.
Crosby remained as general director until 2000, the longest general directorship in US opera history. Richard Gaddes served as the company's general director from 2000 through 2008. In November 2007, SFO named Charles MacKay the company's third general director, effective October 1, 2008. In August 2017, the company announced the intention of MacKay to stand down as its general director after the 2018 season.
In addition to being the opera company's founding general director, Crosby had simultaneously served as its de facto first principal conductor. Alan Gilbert became the company's first music director from 2003 to 2006. Kenneth Montgomery, a regular guest conductor starting in 1982, served as interim music director for the 2007 season. In July 2007, Edo de Waart was named as chief conductor, effective October 1, 2007, with an initial contract of four years. He was the first conductor to hold that title with the company. However, in November 2008, the company announced that de Waart stepped down from the post before the end of his contract, with de Waart citing health and family reasons for this decision. In May 2010, the company announced the appointment of Frédéric Chaslin as the company's next chief conductor, effective October 1, 2010, with an initial contract of three years. However, in August 2012, Chaslin resigned as the Opera's chief conductor. In April 2013, the company announced simultaneously the appointments of Harry Bicket as its next chief conductor, effective October 1, 2013, and of Montgomery as conductor laureate for the 2013 season. In November 2016, the company announced the extension of Bicket's contract as chief conductor through September 30, 2020.
In February 2018, the company announced the appointments of Robert K. Meya as its next general director and of Alexander Neef as its first-ever artistic director, and the elevation of Harry Bicket from chief conductor of the company to its music director, with the three appointments effective as of October 1, 2018. In October 2018, the company announced the extension of Bicket's contract as music director through the 2023 season. Neef stood down as artistic director in 2021, following his appointment to the Opéra national de Paris. In February 2021, the company announced the appointment of David Lomelí to its newly created post of chief artistic officer, a combination of the past posts of artistic director and director of artistic administration, effective May 1, 2021.

Programming and organizational philosophy

From the beginning, certain characteristics of what was to become a typical season emerged. It runs annually from late June or the beginning of July to the third week of August, with five operas presented in rotating repertory.
Generally, from the time of Crosby's inception of the company, two popular operas opened the season. An American premiere was generally in the program and these included works commissioned by the company. A lifelong lover of the operas of Richard Strauss, Crosby regularly scheduled one and presented many American premieres of the composer’s work, an example being the 1964 U.S. premiere of the 1938 Daphne. Finally, the fifth opera was often a rarely performed work. The same philosophy continues to the present day. For modern works, US premiere productions of contemporary operas include Thomas Adès' The Tempest, Tan Dun's Tea: A Mirror of Soul, Kaija Saariaho's Adriana Mater, the July 2009 world premiere of The Letter by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout, and the first full production of Lewis Spratlan's Life Is a Dream in July 2010. World premieres have included Theodore Morrison's Oscar, Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain., and Mason Bates' and Mark Campbell's The evolution of Steve Jobs, and also M. Butterfly a re-envisioned and socially updated telling of Madama Butterfly. In a recent 2018 world premiere, Doctor Atomic was presented. The opera tells the story of the day before the atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity Site just a couple hundred miles south of Santa Fe and the man who helped to create it, J. Robert Oppenheimer. Their most recent world premiere was Gregory Spear' and Tracy K. Smith's "The Righteous," which explores the tension between genuine faith and the fraught world of politics in the 1980s. The story centered on a preacher named David and his rise through the political sphere. They are also scheduled this summer to premiere another opera in America called "Lili Elbe" in 2026.
Santa Fe Opera House declared it would open its 2021 season in July. This post-pandemic decision led them to introduce a new position: Covid Compliance and Safety Manager. With a lead from Mike VanAartsen, the Santa Fe Opera began to build protocol surrounding the pandemic, working towards their upcoming season. Their COVID-safe protocols book pulls from VanAartsen's experience with OSHA, federal COVID and Emergency regulations, and suggestions from the AGMA. Pushing to maintain their audience and keep appealing to the younger generations, simulcasts of the dress rehearsals and shows were broadcast outside as a drive-in theater. In the 2021 season, Santa Fe Opera put on four productions and returned to five the following year.

Leadership

General Directors
  • John Crosby
  • Richard Gaddes
  • Charles MacKay
  • Robert Meya
Conductors in leadership positions
  • John Crosby
  • Alan Gilbert
  • Kenneth Montgomery
  • Edo de Waart
  • Frédéric Chaslin
  • Kenneth Montgomery
  • Harry Bicket

    Apprentice programs

In his first season, Crosby created the Apprentice Singer Program, whereby eight young people were to be given living expenses and paid per performance to be members of the chorus and to cover major roles. Unusual for its time in America in the 1950s, the Apprentice Singers Program helped young singers to make the transition from academic to professional life. To date, over 2,000 aspiring opera singers have participated. As Crosby noted:
The Apprentice Program for Technicians was added in 1965.
The program has formal academic goals in addition to the "hands on" experience provided by the preparation for and participation in professional productions. Seminars and master classes are conducted; singers receive coaching in voice, music, body movement, career counseling, and diction. Technical apprentices are provided with instruction in stage operations, stage properties, costume and wig construction, scenic art, wigs and make up, music services, and stage lighting.
The Apprentice Program for Singers and Technicians continues at The Santa Fe Opera today. Typically, about 1,000 aspiring young singers and 600 technicians apply; in 2025, almost 40 singers and 85 technical apprentices worked at the opera. The Santa Fe Opera offers the only technician apprentice program at an opera house with a budget larger than $15 million in the U.S.
The singers act as the chorus for each opera, as well as performing small roles. In addition, apprentices "cover" some leading roles, and on occasion have been known to have performed, replacing contracted singers who have been indisposed.
The Technical Apprentices perform a variety of backstage functions. They are divided into five separate running crews: costumes, scenery, electrics, properties, and production/music services. These five crews perform the majority of work on the daily changeovers between the five operas of the summer season and also fill positions crucial to the live running of productions. At the end of the summer, the apprentice crews are invited to apply for staff positions for the two weekends of "Apprentice Scenes", a showcase for the apprentice singers, and can serve as everything from costume and lighting designers, to lighting and stage supervisors, to follow spot operators and assistant stage managers and more. There is even an apprentice technicians' program for young local high school students who can use what they've learned in school and bring it to a worksite.

Notable past apprentices

Some major American opera singers who have been company apprentices include the sopranos Sylvia D’Eramo, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Susanna Phillips, Judith Blegen, Celena Shafer and Ashley Putnam ; mezzos Kate Lindsey, Joyce DiDonato, and Susan Quittmeyer ; tenors Michael Fabiano, Brandon Jovanovich, Carl Tanner, William Burden, Richard Croft, Chris Merritt, and Neil Shicoff ; countertenor John Holiday ; baritones Michael Chioldi, David Gockley, and Sherrill Milnes ; and basses Mark Doss, James Morris and Samuel Ramey.
Many former apprentice singers have returned to perform major roles with the company. These have included Mark Doss in the 2011 Faust; Joyce DiDonato in the 2006 Cendrillon ; Chris Merritt also in 2006 in The Tempest; Carl Tanner in the 2005 production of Turandot; and Joyce El-Khoury In recent seasons, Michael Fabiano appeared in Carmen in 2022; Rachel Willis-Sørensen returned in 2024 for Der Rosenkavalier, and Michael Chioldi as the title character in Rigoletto in 2025. Sylvia D’Eramo appeared in La bohème in 2025 and will return in 2026 for the American premiere of ''Lili Elbe.''