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CAU > Seminars and Study Tours > Opera in Santa Fe

Opera in Santa Fe

August 13-18, 2006

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As music lovers everywhere know, the Santa Fe opera festival has long marked one of the highpoints of the international musical calendar. Not only do the Western, Hispanic, and Native American traditions and the splendid mountain backdrop of northern New Mexico not detract from opera—they enrich it. After all, like opera, Santa Fe creates its marvelous effects by stimulating all the senses. The city and the opera are both stages for grand performances, one by day, the other under the stars. We intend to experience and enjoy both.

August 2006 will mark the fiftieth year of the Santa Fe Opera, and the anniversary will be celebrated with a gala program of five entirely new productions, including the American premiere of an important new opera. We'll see four of these, a wonderful mix of old favorites and the new: Bizet's Carmen (international superstar Anne Sofie von Otter will make her Santa Fe debut in the title role); Mozart's The Magic Flute; Strauss's Salome; and Thomas Adès's The Tempest, an adaptation of Shakespeare's play that had its world premiere at Covent Garden in 2004 and received the Laurence Olivier Award as the "Outstanding Opera Production" of the year.

Our mentor and guide will be CAU favorite Arthur B. Groos, Jr., professor of German studies, medieval studies, and music at Cornell, founding co-editor of the Cambridge Opera Journal, and past leader of numerous CAU seminars. Each morning we'll prepare for and discuss the evening performances we'll enjoy in the Santa Fe Opera's newly redesigned amphitheater. Afternoons will be devoted to exploring Santa Fe and its surroundings, including a specially arranged demonstration/firing of traditional Native American pottery by world-famous artists Robert Tenorio and Gilbert and Paulita Pacheco at Santo Domingo Pueblo.

Our home for the week will be the very pleasant Inn of the Governors, perfectly located in the historic center of Santa Fe. The program fee of $2,695 (per-person, double-occupancy) includes all lodging, most meals, best-in-the-house seats at and transportation to all performances, all taxes and gratuities, full escort services, and the full educational program. The supplement for single occupancy is $515. Participants will be responsible for their own travel to and from Santa Fe. This is not a strenuous program, but we will be doing some walking, and climbing steps. Weather this time of year should be delightful, though a stray shower is always a possibility.