Opera Warhorses

[The following interview took place in conjunction with Susan Graham's participation in New Mexico's Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival .] Wm:  This summer and for several months afterwards, you will be concentrating on concerts and presentations of song cycles at festivals, rather than operatic performances. Do you find it rejuvenating to spend several months in [...]

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Santa Fe Opera, which in its 54 year history has performed 13 operas by Richard Strauss, several in multiple seasons, has seldom mounted works by 19th century French composers, beyond Bizet’s “Carmen”. Thomas’ “Mignon” was done in 1982, and Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” (actually a 20th century work) was performed twice in the 1970s, and [...]

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Here’s a guest article by our friend Arthur Bloomfield, whose new e-book on the styles of the great oldtime opera and symphony conductors has just been posted at www.morethanthenotes.com. Click on that link and you’ll find essays on 64 conductors (Furtwaengler, Knappertsbusch, Serafin, etc.), 36 illustrations, and four and a half hours of sound clips [...]

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