City Different - Santa Fe Falstaff

, Program 19th Season 1975

July and August mean opera in Santa Fe, and my wife and I have been attending performances since the first season, 1957. The amphitheater just north of town has always meant much to us. As ex-New Yorkers, relocation to Santa Fe in 1954 was precisely where we wanted to be, and still want to be, but nevertheless missed cultural attractions afforded by life in Manhattan. We greeted founder John Crosby's amphitheater north of town and its initial season with enthusiasm and support, and remain grateful to this day for the immeasurable wealth of music he brought to our town. We've gained life-long friends from cast members with the opera, two of our children were in productions of La Boheme and Wozzek, we've enjoyed countless world and US premieres of works which have greatly challenged and enriched our appreciation of music.

Among its five productions this year, the Santa Fe Opera is presenting Verdi's Falstaff. My introduction to the work was in 1975 with SFO's supremely unforgettable roster of talents convincing me that I'll never experience the singing and staging done better. With much respect for this year's artists, whose performance I attended, I vividly recall the magic of the earlier Falstaff and his merry wives of Windsor.

Conducted by Edo De Waart, directed by Colin Graham, with scenery by Allen Charles Klein, costumes by Suzanne Mess, and lighting by Georg Schreiber, the '75 Falstaff expertly captured the essence of Shakespeare's disreputable but lovable once-companion to young Prince Hal. This is no easy feat since Arrigo Boito's libretto and Verdi's music, if lacking the essential pathos as well as humor written in word and melody, can make of the "fat old knight" simply a dirty old man. Baritone Thomas Stewart as Falstaff brought warmth and sensitivity to the character that won thunderous praise not only from Santa Feans but was echoed by critics from across the nation who saw his performance. How mischievous and graceful his Quand'ero poggio and simpatico, even heart-breaking, his Mondo lardo. This was a Falstaff which seen has never been forgotten, which still on nights at the Santa Fe Opera is lovingly referred to by long-time patrons of that fabulous hilltop temple to music.

Stewart was superbly supported by the stellar cast, Helen Vanni as Alice Ford and Jean Kraft as Meg Page. Brent Ellis, who'd started out as apprentice with SFO but would go on to top opera houses of the world, was Ford. And Betty Allen gave us a Dame Quickly who imbued every word of the libretto and every note of music with true intent of the composers.

We're now into the second half-century of Santa Fe Opera. For some of us who've been with it from the beginning, compromised mobility and late hours make nights at the amphitheater a bit more challenging. Yet I see a lot of familiar, if weathered, faces in the subscription-night audiences. Santa Feans who can't imagine summer without music in the air, without still one more new interpretation of an old war-horse or the exciting premiere of a contemporary work.

Cominciamo !