John Stege
Stories by John Stege
Raise a Parting Glass
Gaddes will be remembered warmly as the man who respected the SFO’s traditions, extended its reach and expanded its artistic horizons.
Musical Hunters
The next time you’re waiting for things to happen in St. Francis Auditorium, courtesy of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, glance up at those three microphone lines elegantly looped and dangled above the stage. The refined, fine-drawn grace of the Calderesque lines characterizes the work of young Israeli pianist Benjamin Hochman.
the sound of the infinite
Noon-time chamber music concerts are a very good thing. They’re relatively informal, they’re untroubled by intermissions, and they set the audience free in plenty of time for a lovely lunch. The music can be pretty good too.
A World of Music
A chamber music program such as the one opening the current season in St. Francis Auditorium could never have happened in 1973. For one thing, this year’s opener alone required 14 artists—the total roster of 1973 for all six concerts. For another, the play-it-safe programming of then just isn’t on the agenda of now.
Mother's little helper
People will say, “Oh, so this is a feminist opera, then,” and having provided a neat label feel they’ve settled the matter. Or, again, “Oh, so this is an anti-war opera,” and provided yet another label that explains nothing. If Adriana Mater is about anything, and it is, it’s about birth.
Opera, seriously
Radamisto, Handel’s first opera seria for London and now on view at the Santa Fe Opera in an eye-filling, neo-baroque staging, was meant to astound audiences. It still does.
HEY THERE, SAILOR
The Santa Fe Opera's gleaming new production of Billy Budd justifies Britten’s arduous, hugely rewarding effort on nearly every level. First, there’s Teddy Tahu Rhodes, whose performance in the title role quite simply ranks among the most memorable SFO debuts ever. I’m thinking von Stade, te Kanawa, Terfel, for starters...
STARLIGHT
It became mighty clear in my annual pre-festival chat-up with artistic director Marc Neikrug that surprise and contrast play a major role in the way he’s planned many of this season’s Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival concerts.
FANTASTIC FIGARO
Call it some kind of iridescence if you like, the odd phenomenon that Gerard Manley Hopkins called a “shining from shook foil.” Mozart’s greatest operas have it in spades. You’ll never hear or see Le Nozze di Figaro twice. Not even Mozart did, in a literal, workmanlike sense of the word...
