Moravec and Teachout prove less adept at building dramatic tension, or characterizing through music. The ending, which departs from Maugham’s original, adds verismo appeal. Moravec, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and Teachout, the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, gave their adaptation, structured in eight scenes, some nice touches, including intermittent appearances by the murdered man’s ghost and a beguiling scene with a Chinese woman who brings the letter to light. Leslie Crosbie, the lonely wife of a British rubber plantation manager, shoots her faithless lover and, claiming self-defense, is acquitted at trial, despite implicating evidence in the form of the title missive. 3), despite Jonathan Kent’s handsome staging, Summers’ emphatic musical direction, and an assured performance by soprano Patricia Racette, registered as an earnest effort, though a largely forgettable one. Of the three productions I attended, The Letter (seen Aug. It’s a pity, then, that the 95-minute opera isn’t particularly compelling. In their notes, the opera’s creators said their aim was to create a new kind of American hybrid, blending the atmospherics of film noir with the visceral impact of Tosca. Based on a historic incident, the story has all the elements of classic melodrama. It has a proven track record: Maugham reworked it as a 1927 stage play, which was adapted twice for film, including the 1940 William Wyler version starring Bette Davis. Lackluster LetterĪt first glance, Maugham’s 1924 tale of lust and murder in colonial Malaya seemed a natural for operatic treatment. Santa Fe Opera has a long tradition of presenting new works, including the world premieres of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline (1996) and Bright Sheng’s Madame Mao (2003), as well as the American premieres of Thomas Ades’ Tempest (2006) and Kaija Saariaho’s operas L’Amour de loin (2002) and Adriana Mater (2008). Still, The Letter was the main attraction. A pair of recent San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow alums were featured in the Don Giovanni cast: Lucas Meachem in the title role, and Elza van den Heever as Donna Anna. Dessay and Brewer have made acclaimed San Francisco Opera appearances in recent years conductor Patrick Summers, a former Adler Fellow who returns as San Francisco’s principal guest conductor this fall, was in Santa Fe to conduct The Letter. Two additional productions, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Donizetti’s Elixir of Love, complete the lineup, continuing in rotating repertory through Aug. The season also included two significant role debuts: Natalie Dessay, singing her first Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, and Christine Brewer, in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste. Commissioned by Santa Fe Opera and based on a story by Somerset Maugham, the opera made its world premiere July 25. This year, the principal draw was The Letter, a new “noir” opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout. With five productions offered throughout July and August in the company’s 2,200-seat, open-air theater, the 2009 season - Charles MacKay’s first as general director - offered myriad musical rewards in a congenial setting. Santa Fe Opera has always exerted a powerful pull on opera lovers from the Bay Area and beyond, and this year was no exception.
0 kommentar(er)
