Some wags were calling it Crosby’s curse—that super-colossal opening-night thunderstorm at the Santa Fe Opera.

If you hadn’t noticed, “The operas of Strauss and Puccini are false through and through.” This willfully intemperate statement appeared in Joseph Kerman’s must-read Opera as Drama, first published just a year before John Crosby inaugurated the Santa Fe Opera in 1957 with Madame Butterfly.

Any interview with the Santa Fe Opera's John Crosby, founder and general director until his retirement in 2000, tended to be an Event. Press shy, Crosby didn't much like playing interviewee. The odd smile might break forth, but the atmosphere remained courteously reserved.

Two compelling concerts in eight short daystake note of this really, really big finale to Santa Fe New Musics 2009- 2010 season thats winding up this week. Numero uno: a 4 pm program on June 19 at the New Mexico History Museums intimate auditorium featuring the music, world premiere included, of Missy Mazzoli.

Sure. I know. High noon on a hot June Sunday may not shout “concert time” to Santa Fe chamber music mavens. Except, maybe, this coming Sunday when at noon, June 13, cool St. Francis Auditorium hosts the third season of an exhilarating concert series dubbed “Creative Dialogue.”

Go ahead. Call the just-concluding season at the Santa Fe Opera the summer of the three (in alphabetical order!) divas: that would be Christine Brewer, Natalie Dessay and Patricia Racette. So why not call the just-concluded season at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival the summer of the three pianists?

Samuel Johnson’s remark about Paradise Lost—“None ever wished it longer than it is”—came to mind twice at the Aug. 10 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival concert in St. Francis Auditorium. First time: hearing Marc Neikrug’s new work for piano quartet, “Green Torso—Green Torso Too.” Second time: enjoying the program’s main event, Franz Schubert’s generously scaled “Octet, D. 803.”

So far this summer we’ve heard quintets in various configurations by Claude Debussy, André Caplet, Gunther Schuller, Carl Maria von Weber, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ludwig van Beethoven, Walter Braunfels, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Carl Nielsen. Yet to come in the two weeks remaining of the festival: more of the same by Anton Bruckner, Robert Schumann, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Mozart again and Franz Schubert. Wow.

The terms “noble” and “sublime” get tossed about with reference to Alceste. Sometimes that’s code for “slow” and “static.” But given the right conductor and an intent, vigorous orchestra, this needn’t be the case. Kenneth Montgomery, whose alliance with the SFO goes way back, could always be relied upon to conduct a reliable, four-square account of any score he’s led here. No departures from that norm now, although not a great deal of excitement, either.

Inon Barnatan, a 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant winner, delivered the goods in one of the most exciting debut recitals Santa Fe has heard in a long while. A glance at the program showed the man meant business: Thomas Adès’ “Darkness Visible,” Maurice Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” and Franz Schubert’s immense “Sonata No. 21, D. 960.”