SANTA FE, N.M. — There were, it’s true, some great whoops and enthusiastic applause Tuesday night after several big — and I do mean big — arias in Gregory...
L-R: Jennifer Johnson Cano , Michael Mayes and Elena Villalón in Santa Fe Opera's "The Righteous."SANTA FE, N.M. — There were, it’s true, some great whoops and enthusiastic applause Tuesday night after several big — and I do mean big — arias in Gregory Spears’ new operaI was not.
And it was more of the same in the second half. Three hours, with one intermission, felt like five. I kept checking my watch.A summer favorite of the Dallas-Fort Worth opera crowd — indeed, with a major national following — Santa Fe Opera has a long and distinguished history of world and American premieres. Yet another of the festival’s commissions,in a schedule running through Aug. 31. Performances are in the hilltop Crosby Theatre, a few miles north of the city. Every new opera is a risk, and the greatest composers have had their flops. Even after tryouts in workshops, there’s no knowing how a new opera will work before it’s presented complete for a live audience. Some operas initially misunderstood, even hated, later become classics.tale of power hungry men and women aching for affection and meaning has potential. And much about its 1979-91 timeframe remains timely: unholy alliances of business, politics and religion; epidemics of drug abuse and crime; clergy affairs; second-class treatment — and worse — of women, minorities and LGBTQ people. The opera’s sociopolitical critiques will not be lost on anyone on the lookout for “woke” sentiments.with seven previous operas, large and small, in his oeuvre. An extensively published former U.S. poet laureate, librettist Tracy K. Smith is a Harvard professor of English and African American studies.Advertisement Spears often scores important syllables in singers’ lower ranges, where they tend to disappear, but conductor Jordan de Souza too often let, or encouraged, the orchestra to play too loudly to balance. Much of the orchestral writing generically thuds and pulses beneath gently unsettled dissonances, except when it whips up Hollywood climaxes. Big brassy explosions sometimes seem gratuitous fillers, and they were certainly loud and raw Tuesday night. Greer Grimsley supplies the right boom and bluster for the cynical oil tycoon Paul, who gets himself elected governor. Marilyn, Paul’s sturdy, long-suffering wife, is vividly portrayed by Wendy Bryn Harmer. First as a preacher, then as governor , David craves power at whatever cost to morality. With a hefty baritone, Michael Mayes embodies the energy and veneer of sincerity that wins David two wives in succession. Each soon realizes she has become a mere pawn.David marries into Paul’s money and power via his daughter Michele, powerfully incarnated by mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano. Sheila, deeply religious but frustrated by long absences of her army husband Eli, begins an affair with David, then marries him after they’ve both dispensed with their previous spouses. Elena Villalón gives her a clear soprano as impressive for high subtleties as for passionate delivery. Casting Paul’s gay son Jonathan as a countertenor arguably reinforces unfortunate cliches, although Anthony Roth Costanzo gives the role considerable complexity. He summons power in upper ranges, but lower-range writing is sometimes swamped by the orchestra. Tenor Brenton Ryan is CM, Paul’s friend and enabler. Tenors Andrew Turner and Nicholas Newton are ardently effective as, respectively, Eli and the pastor Jacob. Sopranos Jazmine Saunders and Natasha Isabella Gesto are aptly contrasted as Suzanne, daughter from Sheila’s marriage to Eli, and her college roommate Deirdre.The chorus, prepared by Susanne Sheston, supplies stirring religious sentiments, but also unsettling offstage murmurs. The opera ends with cast and chorus joining in a grandly poetic peroration on life and wisdom. Oh dear. Designer Mimi Lien frames the stage in reconfigurable giant fins of blond wood, on Tuesday sometimes opening onto a pastel sunset in the distance. Smartly lit by Japhy Weideman, shifting settings are evoked with bits of walls and props slid on and off the stage. Video designer Greg Emetaz makes effective use of individual and clustered TV screens, the latter flickering among Reagan-era videos. Devario Simmons dresses the cast in period clothes, with even a couple of big-hair wigs.Scott Cantrell , Special Contributor. Former staff classical music critic Scott Cantrell continues contributing as a freelance writer on classical music and art. His classical music reporting is supported by the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. The News makes all editorial decisions.
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