Overly complex Die Walküre – though with a sensitive streak

There is a lot going on in director Melly Still’s busy, eye-catching and insightful staging of Wagner’s Die Walküre, seen and heard in the second of six scheduled performances at Santa Fe Opera. So much happens visually that it sometimes distracts from the extraordinary singing and the glorious work from the orchestra conducted by James Gaffigan.

Gaffigan’s often-subtle approach to the score yields one terrific moment after another, both musically and dramatically. As famous as the bigger moments are (‘Ride of the Valkyries’, the fiery Prelude to Act I and the ‘Magic Fire Music’ at the end), the intimate moments take precedence in this presentation. They are, after all, the heart and soul of the personal dramas that make the opera so compelling. One seldom hears such a hushed orchestra underlying the Act I scene when Sieglinde and Siegmund discover their connection, or the later scenes when Wotan wrestles with his own missteps in scenes with Fricka or his disobeying daughter, Brünnhilde. With a delicate touch in these moments, the ensuing bigger, louder moments became even more moving.

If the semi-outdoor setting – Santa Fe’s Crosby Theatre has a roof and no sides – sometimes clipped the resonance of the orchestra’s outcries compared with an enclosed theater, the rumbles of thunder as actual storms passed at a distance during this performance added aptly to the atmosphere.

Still’s production put extra layers on Wagner’s already complex story and built-in connections to the music, with mixed results. The setting and costumes reference different eras and times. Hunding’s house has mid-twentieth century furniture and kitchen appliances, and the eight Valkyrie sisters are in clothes associated with various famous women. Wotan wears a generalissimo’s military uniform, and Valhalla is represented by a platform enclosed with red ropes from which the gods can observe what is going on below. The characters emerge through vertical ropes that make up the walls, as if in response to a character’s reference to them in the story, which populates the stage with interesting visuals. Erda is especially striking as she appears, a nude figure that looks formed from the greens and browns of the earth, to interact with Wotan in his epic narration of how things got to this stage. There is Loge, his hands red with fire, when he is mentioned, and Alberich can be seen lurking in the shadows with his pregnant consort.

One payoff for all this is a final tableau in which Sieglinde, carrying the nascent Siegfried, and Alberich’s pregnant consort, carrying Siegfried’s eventual nemesis, Hagen, stand on opposite corners gazing down at Brünnhilde trapped by fire (though that may only be meaningful to those who actually know how Die Walküre fits into the Ring cycle.) As much as I found all this fascinating, it was also distracting when the orchestra and singers were giving us their all in scene after scene.

In Act I, an exhausted Siegmund turns up after fleeing a battle with Hunding and his men, and everything focuses on the delicately evolving relationship with Sieglinde. Tenor Jamez McCorkle and soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė portrayed their mutual attraction both visually and musically. McCorkle’s rough demeanor was softened by his warm voice, and Miknevičiūtė, lithe in figure with a voice capable of every level of intensity from rich to light, was able to catch all the angles of the character. Scenes with Hunding crackled with foreboding, Soloman Howard’s resonant bass having an elegance that added depth to his muscle.

The end of the first act blossomed into spring, with gorgeous work by the tenor and soprano in the final scene when the sense of caution finally gives way to love (and lust). McCorkle’s ‘Winterstürme’ was passionate, and Miknevičiūtė’s ‘Du bist der Lenz’ was an appropriately gorgeous response.

From the first moments of Act II, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, in a role debut as Wotan, portrayed the troubled god as if he had been doing it for years. Sensitive to every singer around him, he delivered one great moment after another in his rich baritone, as silky as it is powerful. His bickering with his wife Fricka (Sarah Saturnino) and daughter and titular Valkyrie Brünnhilde (Tamara Wilson) laid out the conflicts that trigger the rest of the opera’s story and had layer upon layer to savor.

The scenes between Green and Wilson, the most heart-tugging of the opera, were stunning. They were quick to respond to every flicker of emotion from the other. When Wotan shares his quandary with Brünnhilde (having been reprimanded by Fricka, the goddess of marriage, for allowing the incestuous fervor of Siegmund and the married Sieglinde), the musical and dramatic arc was gripping.

Soloman Howard (Hunding), Ryan Speedo Green (Wotan) and Jamez McCorkle (Siegmund) at the climax of Act II © Curtis Brown In the final half hour, it was easy to get caught up in the playing-out of the consequences in some of the most intimate and glorious music in the opera. Green and Wilson seemed to be sharing secret cues on how to tug at the other’s soul as they sang: Wilson’s a cappella ‘War es so schmalich’ was a treasure, and Green’s ‘Leb’ wohl’ felt totally natural. At the end of a long night of singing, his voice rose over the full orchestra to nail the last words in the opera – ‘Wer meines Speeres Spitze fürchtet durchschreite das Feuer nie!’ A stunning moment.

Saturnino’s Fricka held her own in the scenes with Green and hovered as a presence over other scenes from her Valhalla perch in a distinctive white Victorian dress crisscrossed with red lines (echoing the ropes bordering the elevated platform).

Earlier, the big set piece of the opera, ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’, sounded great from the octet of singers, mostly drawn from artists currently singing in one of the four other operas on offer this summer. In addition to the motley costumes, the scene was puzzling too as the fallen warriors they had brought back to Valhalla played some sort of game with rope loops – another example of a director trying to do too much.

In sum, the musical and individual dramatic values had to overcome some confusing and overly complex staging, but they prevailed and did so brilliantly.

Harvey Steiman | 02/08/2025

The spirit of exploration is vividly reflected in the vision of British director Melly Still

As its track record of world premieres and off-the-beaten-path repertoire proves, Santa Fe Opera has never shied away from adventurous undertakings. But with this new Die Walküre—its first venture into the Ring and only its third Wagner staging since 2022—the company takes a striking step into territory long left unexplored.

That spirit of exploration is vividly reflected in the vision of British director Melly Still. Best known for her directorial work with the Royal Shakespeare Company but new to Wagner, Still approaches the opera with a fresh theatrical sensibility. Visually saturated and in constant motion, the production layers thought-provoking juxtapositions atop Wagner’s narrative.

Leslie Travers’s set, steeped in the brooding, dystopian glow of Malcolm Rippeth’s lighting, consists of a two-level structure operating almost like a split screen: above the lower platform where most of the action unfolds is an elevated rampart punctuated by vertical metal bars and threaded with blood-red cords that stand for the Norns’ rope of fate. Reading as a defensive perimeter for Valhalla, it also serves as a vantage point for silent observers like Fricka, who keeps watch even before her fateful exchange with Wotan.

Nor is she the only voyeuristic presence. Surveillance becomes a persistent motif, with characters from Das Rheingold hovering, spy-like, in the background. As Wotan wrestles with his own contradictions in his vast second-act monologue, we glimpse the future he fears: Alberich prowls the scene with the woman he has bought with his gold, now heavily pregnant—a grim reminder that Hagen is already on his way, destined to come of age in parallel with Siegfried. Erda, encased in a mummy-like bodysuit, emerges from the shadows, a spectral witness to the unraveling future she once sought to forestall.

This visual layering finds a responsive counterpart in the notably youthful cast, whose physical energy and emotional directness give the production a sense of urgency. In his first-ever Walküre Wotan, Ryan Speedo Green portrayed a god not yet weary but shaken by emerging self-doubt. Dressed in a general’s uniform—Travers also designed the costumes—he embodied the ‘war father’ invoked in the libretto: volatile, suspicious and increasingly enraged by awareness of his flaws. This set the stage for combustible confrontations with both wife and daughter. Sarah Saturnino underscored Fricka’s argument with a formidable yet chillingly clear-eyed fury that lent her case moral authority.

With her bright-edged soprano, Tamara Wilson’s Brünnhilde matured from buoyant bravado to fierce defiance, and ultimately to a moving vulnerability. Her phrasing homed in on the emotional core of Wagner’s lines with unwavering expressive focus. Wilson voiced the Valkyrie’s defence in the third act with a wrenching pathos that was beautifully matched by Green’s palpable anguish as Wotan faced the unfathomable wreckage left by his own choices.

Brünnhilde’s Valkyrie sisters, each costumed as a different historical archetype of female strength—from Joan of Arc through the centuries—sang with thrillingly vivid ensemble. In one of Still’s quirkiest decisions, their horses were shown in stylised combat, with choreography by Tinovimbanashe Sibanda, as the Valkyries struggled to restrain them.

In her US debut, Vida Miknevičiūtė was a standout as Sieglinde, conveying both the aftershocks of trauma and a steely resilience. Her soprano soared with incandescent power in a cry of astonished awe on learning she is pregnant with the future hero Siegfried. She projected a deeply felt chemistry with Jamez McCorkle, who imbued Siegmund with a lyrically ardent warmth—a quality made all the more poignant by the drab modern setting of Hunding’s home, rendered here as a kitchen with rundown appliances and incongruously featuring a dead tree trunk with the sword hidden by a dishtowel.

With a menacing sense of entitlement, Solomon Howard brought more dimension than usual to Hunding—imposing and cruel, but also disturbingly self-assured, even calculating in his control.

Under James Gaffigan’s baton, the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra played with remarkable nuance and clarity, exploring the countless passages of chamber-like textures but pulling out all the stops for the score’s surging climaxes. If the first act felt overly restrained, its pacing often too uniform, Gaffigan brought a knowing dramatic hand to the cosmic sweep of what followed.

It remains unclear whether Santa Fe Opera is laying the groundwork for a complete Ring. But with this thoroughly involving production, the company has shown that it’s ready to take on the challenge.

Thomas May | August 4, 2025

Valkyrie Vibes

In a recent interview on New Mexico PBS’ ¡COLORES! program, conductor James Gaffigan says he would like audiences not to be intimidated by composer Richard Wagner’s operas and to simply lose themselves in the music. Gaffigan conducted the Santa Fe Opera’s 2022 premiere of Tristan und Isolde, and returns this season for its premiere of Die Walküre, the second opera in Wagner’s Ring Cycle.

Director Melly Still expresses a similar sentiment in her SFO interview with Michael Clive, noting that “it’s immensely rewarding to come to Die Walküre ‘clean,’ without heaps of Wagner baggage.”

In other words, you don’t need to have attended the daylong Wagner symposium the opera recently held to appreciate the German composer’s work. And if the opera’s length seems intimidating (about 41/2 hours with two intermissions), that’s what caffeine is for.

Of course, attending is one thing. Staying is another. This year’s premiere will keep most people in their seats.

In his discussion of Die Walküre and the “epic nature” of Wagnerian composition, Gaffigan references other epic tales, including Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Star Wars. Indeed, the story involves a ring, a magic sword, immortal beings—some of them nefarious—and, like all mythologies, an all-powerful father figure with a dubious moral center.

Fans of Norse mythology will recognize the characters. Fans of Greek mythology will relate to the opera’s preoccupation with destiny and fate. And fans of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer won’t be surprised when they don’t get a happy ending (as I noted in my review of Tristan und Isolde a few years back, Wagner held Schopenhauer’s pessimistic stance about human will in deep regard, and found it both fascinating and alarming).

Back to The Lord of the Rings.

Spectacle abounds in Still’s production (her Santa Fe Opera debut), with vertical and horizontal split-screen staging showing multiple characters in multi-storylines; special effects (think fog machines, projections and rope-play); and an occasional hint of steampunk aesthetic meets Bladerunner. Scenic and costume designer Leslie Travers, Lighting Designer Malcolm Rippeth and Wig and Makeup Designer David Zimmerman all have long histories at the Santa Fe Opera, and that experience combined to create a lush cinematic experience. Choreographer Tinovimbanashe Sibanda, in her SFO debut, imbued the stage with near-constant movement and energy, and the supernumeraries (operatic extras) enhance the rising tension and dramatic moments.

Admittedly, I found myself occasionally unable to heed Gaffigan’s missive to sink into the music. The music was phenomenal—every singer, every instrument—but so much was happening on stage throughout, it was hard not to ponder and analyze those choices as the story unfolded. Speaking of which.

In Act 1, Siegmund (tenor Jamez McCorkle in his SFO debut) enters a home built around a giant tree where, unbeknownst to him, his long-lost sister Sieglinde (the dazzling soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, also in her debut here) resides with her husband Hunding (bass Soloman Howard, who also sings Colline in this season’s La bohème). Siegmund, it’s soon discovered, has killed Hunding’s relatives so he will have to kill Siegmund come morning. Sieglinde, however, drugs her husband and alerts her unexpected houseguest to the sword stuck in the aforementioned tree (covered up until now with a dish towel). Turns out Siegmund’s father put that sword there and, as his son, he is the only one who can extract it. Speaking of relatives, Sieglinde and Siegmund are brother and sister and now—mere mortals that they are—have fallen in love.

Their father, head god Wotan (bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, who may inspire you to come see the production twice), tells his supernatural Valkyrie daughter Brünnhilde (soprano Tamara Wilson, who debuted here in 2022 as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde to much acclaim and is funny and moving and mesmerizing in this production) to protect his mortal son Siegmund. Not so fast, says his wife Fricka (the wonderful mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, a former SFO apprentice). Supporting Siegmund and Sieglinde will undermine the larger goal of securing the gods’ stature (there’s some back story here involving a cursed ring and a dwarf). Wotan reverses course and tells Brünnhilde she needs to defend Hunding instead. But once Brünnhilde experiences the depth of Siegmund’s love for his sister/lover, she changes sides and defies her father. Siegmund dies anyway, but Brünnhilde rescues Sieglinde, her unborn child and pieces of Siegmund’s magical sword.

As one might expect, none of this goes over well with Wotan, who strips Brünnhilde of her immortality and consigns her to sleep but, at her bequest—and having learned of yet another heir on the way—he calls upon the god of fire to encircle his favorite daughter so that only a true hero can awaken her. To be continued! (Spoiler alert: Siegmund and Sieglinde’s son Siegfried wakes her up in the third opera in the Ring Cycle, Siegfried).

Despite my cheeky recap, Die Walküre is a serious opera, but its cast and creators have gone to great lengths to make its heft accessible and even propulsive (I stole the title for this story from the Valkyrie cast’s Spotify playlist, which includes “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper and “Love Is A Battlefield” by Pat Benatar).

Don’t like spectacle? Close your eyes and just enjoy the music.

Julia Goldberg | July 29, 2025

A spectacular “Walküre” led by Tamara Wilson

Tamara Wilson’s Brünnhilde
In her debut season, Illinois soprano Tamara Wilson was the first artist in Santa Fe Opera history to sing the Wagnerian dramatic soprano role of Isolde. She now adds the first performance of the “Walküre” Brünnhilde to this prestigious achievement

Wilson performed the role of the valkyrie Brünnhilde, favorite daughter of Wotan, ruler of the gods. Brünnhilde first appears in the second act of “Walküre”, the second opera of Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung”. The character’s emotional journey is a major theme of Wagner’s epic “Ring”.

Wilson possesses the powerful dramatic soprano voice required for the role, and has the important quality of conveying to an audience the emotional turmoil that so often faces this iconic character. Brünnhilde is the daughter, confidante and enabler of the king of the gods. She wrestles with what she understands is her obligation to obey his every command. Simultaneously, she advocates for what she believes Wotan really desires, rather than what Wotan feels compelled to require.

Wilson projected Brünnhilde’s emotional journey in a beautifully sung, persuasively acted, performance, She sang the role’s showpiece passages authoritatively. Her ‘Todesverkundig’ aria informs Wotan’s son Siegmund that, instead of being victorious in a battle with Hunding, that he would die. Another highlight of the evening was her heart-wrenching final duet with Wotan. She persuades him to alter her punishment for disobeying his orders.

My first opportunity to attend a Wilson performance was 18 years ago in the Verdian dramatic soprano role of Amelia [Review: Vargas, Podles Brilliant in Puzzle Box “Ballo” – Houston Grand Opera, November 2, 2007] and later as Verdi’s Elisabetta di Valois [Review: Brandon Jovanovich Triumphant in Historic “Don Carlos” Production – Houston Grand Opera, April 13, 2012]. I also saw her performances as the ghostly Miss Jessel in Houston and Los Angeles.

Ryan Speedo Green’s Wotan
Virginia bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, whose role debut as the chief god Wotan took place four days earlier, demonstrated a mastery of this central role in Wagner’s ‘heldenbariton’ repertory. Green conveys power, not just vocally, but by his physical presence.

Wagner’s libretto and music set up the complex situations that the artists performing the “Ring” must interpret for the audiences. In the two “Walküre” acts in which Wotan appears, his master-plan for effecting the world’s future, utilizing his offspring, the Wälsungs (Siegmund and Sieglinde) crumbles. It is destroyed by Wotan’s wife, Fricka, who demonstrates that Wotan’s master plan contradicts his godly responsibilities. When his daughter Brünnhilde seeks to salvage Wotan’s plan against her father’s instructions, Wotan sees it as defiance to his authority, punishable by death.

Like Shakespeare’s plays, Wagner’s words and music require artists of great sensitivity to each character’s motives and emotions. Green performed the music as Wagner intended. Importantly, he was a convincing actor in portraying Wotan’s original motivations and the anger his character felt when forced to abandon what had been Wotan’s central purpose.

This was my second opportunity to attend a Green performance. In the previous Santa Fe Opera season, he showed his bel canto skills as Don Giovanni [Review: Stephen Barlow Creates an Elegant New “Don Giovanni” Production – Santa Fe Opera, June 29, 2024.] Praiseworthy performances of both Don GIovanni and Wotan by this internationally sought-after artist.demonstrate Green’s vocal flexibility that enables him to engage in such a wide-ranging repertory.

Jamez McCorkle’s Siegmund
Louisiana tenor Jamez McCorkle portrayed Siegmund, the Wälsung son on whom Wotan had pinned his hope for a heroic agent to further his long-term objectives.

McCorkle embodied the emotional highs and lows of this conflicted character. McCorkle’s Siegmund was full of joy at finding his long-lost sister Sieglinde, who guides him to victory in wresting a magic sword from a tree. McCorkle excelled at Siegmund’s aria ‘Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemont’ in which the male Wälsung makes clear his incestuous intentions regarding his Wälsung sister, Sieglinde. Siegmund goes where no other operatic character goes, with full knowledge that higher powers are pinning their hopes on him and his sister.

The tenor portraying Siegmund’s joy must also be convincing in the disaster that is to occur to him. His joy is dashed by his immortal half-sister Brünnhilde’s revelation that he would perish in his fight with Sieglinde’s cruel husband, Hunding. Siegmund’s pleading convinces Brünnhilde to disobey Wotan’s command, with fateful consequences. McCorkle (and Wilson) vocally and dramatically achieve what Wagner intended – believability.

Like Ryan Speedo Green, McCorkle’s repertory spans a diverse operatic repertory. McCorkle’s assignments include such tenor roles besides Wagner’s Siegmund as Tamino in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. As an example of McCorkle’s contemporary repertory, I had first observed McCorkle’s vocal and acting skills in the opera “Omar”, in whose title role he excelled.

Vida Mikneviciute’s Sieglinde
Lithuanian soprano Vida Mikneviciute performed the role of Sieglinde. This was my first opportunity to hear her. She had made her North American debut only four days earlier.

Mikneviciute is petite in height, a feature especially noticeable when standing next to McCorkle or Howard, the artists performing the roles of Siegmund and Hunding. So it was a pleasant surprise when she produced a voluminous sound that confirmed a Wagnerian soprano of the first rank.

Mikneviciute proved to be an engaging actor as well. Her passionate physicality was obvious, especially in her interactions with McCorkle’s Siegmund, who would lift her off the floor while embracing her.

The only member of the cast to appear in all three acts, Mikneviciute drew audience synpathy, first as Hunding’s battered spouse and second as a refugee pregnant with the hero whom we will come to know as Siegfried.

Sarah Saturnino’s Fricka
California mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, in the role of Wotan’s wife, Fricka, displayed yet another voice of power and beauty. As the god protecting marriage, Fricka was deeply offended by Siegmund and Sieglinde’s incestuous lovemaking, and Sieglinde’s simultaneous infidelity to Hunding.

The confrontation between Saturnino’s Fricka and Green’s Wotan was one of the evening’s many highlights. A turning point in the opera’s plot, Fricka’s fury dislodges Wotan from his decades-old strategic plan. Fricka’s clever tactic, insisting that anything that dishonors Wotan’s wife, dishonors Wotan as well, creates a schism between Wotan and his most trusted ally, Brünnhilde.

Saturnino, a Metroplitan Opera National Auditions winner, received training both as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice and a member os Los Angeles Opera’s young artists’ program.

Soloman Howard’s Hunding
District of Columbia bass Soloman Howard’s majestic voice proved to be most appropriate for a Wagnerian villain. Howard gave a masterful performance as an abusive husband. His characterization of the brooding Hunding was sufficiently treacherous to win audience sympathy for Sieglinde’s turmoil.

Since I have noted that the cast’s two other male principals have borh Mozart and Wagner roles in their repertories, it is appropriate also to cite an excellent appearance by Howard as Mozart’s Sarastro.

The Eight Valkyrie Sisters
The costuming of the individual valkyries, the production creator (Melly Still) explains, is meant to represent the time and place that each valkyrie was born (in this production, the earliest in Celtic times, the latest at a time Wagner was still alive). The activities in which the valyrkies engage when they assemble at the beginning of the third act are both frantic and mostly remote from view, so there is little chance to absorb the significance of the individiual dress styles.

Visiting artists who performed valkyrie sisters were Iowa soprano Jessica Faselt (Santa Fe Opera debut) as Grimgerde; California soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer as Ortlinde; Missouri mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano as Schwertleite and Virginia mezzo-soprano Gretchen Krupp as Waltraute.

2025 Santa Fe Apprentice artists performing valkyries were, as Gerhilde, Virginia soprano Jasmin Ward; as Grimgerde, Illinois mezzo-soprano Lauren Randolph; as Rossweisse, Missouri mezzo-soprano Deanna Ray Eberhart, and, as Siegrune, Oregon mezzo-soprano Aubrey Cole.

Maestro James Gaffigan and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra
New York conductor James Gaffigan led the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra in an authoritative reading of Wagner’s score, in which the the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra sounded brilliantly. This is my third Santa Fe Opera performance review of Gaffigan’s strong presence in the German opera repertory, preceded by a masterwork of Richard Strauss [Review: Santa Fe Opera’s Delectable New “Ariadne auf Naxos” – Santa Fe Opera, July 28, 2018] and the 2022 season’s “Tristan und Isolde”, referenced above.

Melly Still’s Production and Leslie Travers’ Scenic Design
This production of “Walküre” is English director Melly Still’s Santa Fe Opera debut, although I have reviewed her work elsewhere [See Review: Powerful Performances by Martinez, Jagde in “Rusalka” – Houston Grand Opera, January 29, 2016]. Still has explained her general philosophy on this work, that the story itself can be appreciated not only by the Wagner opera aficionado, but also by a person seeing the work for the first time. I concur with her statement and believe she succeeded in producing a clearly understandable presentation of the story line.

Still’s production incorporated the physical sets created by the brilliant English designer Leslie Travers, whose past work that I have admired includes operas of Richard Strauss, [Review: Penda, McKinny, Brubaker, Jagde Impress in Daniel Slater’s Psychiatrically Searing “Salome” – Santa Fe Opera, July 31, 2015 and Mozart [Review: A Captivating “Marriage of Figaro” Opens San Diego Opera’s 54th Season – October 20, 2018] as well as the 2016 Houston Grand Opera “Rusalka” with Melly Still referenced above.

Some details did not work for me. Still explains why Hunding’s house has early 20th century kitchen appliances. (She says it makes us feel the humanity of the first act’s three mortals – the Walsung twins and Hunding). I’ve previoussly mentioned the incongruity of the valkyrie costumes. Notably, neither Sieglinde’s kitchen appliances nor the valkyrie costumes are visible for very long.

Leslie Travers sets have three main parts. The first is ithe central stage floor. The second is a permeable backwall that separates the world of the gods from the world of humans. The backwall is made of strands of a material through which the gods can pass into the mortal world. We in the audience can see and sometimes identify characters going about their business. The third part is an upper balcony. From the latter, Fricka can determine whether mortals are correctly observing her rules of marriage. “Ring” experts might have a great time guessing what each image behind the backwall or on the balcony they see is meant to represent. But none of the backwall or balcony activities or dark shadowy shapes one sees from time to time slows down or detracts from the presentation of the story.

Recommendation
I strongly recommend this cast and production both to the veteran opera-goer and the person new to opera.

William Burnett | August 4, 2025

At Santa Fe Opera, Creative Direction Steals the Show

At Santa Fe Opera, the sunset starts the show. Perched on a hilltop with the back of the stage open to the purple vista of New Mexico’s Jemez Mountains, the Crosby Theater reaches into infinite space. The distant western horizon becomes an additional character in the drama.

This spectacular natural setting confronts directors with unique opportunities and challenges: Performances start at 8 p.m., just as the sun begins its slow multi-colored descent, flooding the partially-covered auditorium with light. An hour later, the house and surroundings are plunged into darkness. Cooling (at times even cold) breezes flow across the orchestra seats from the open sides of the amphitheater.

Some nights, violent thunderstorms erupt— fatefully so. On Jul. 30, a cloudburst that besieged the theater during Santa Fe Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s tempestuous Die Walküre could not have been better planned.

For many years, this company has presented passionate performances from some of the most talented singers around. During its 68th Festival season in July, longtime patrons said the programming was among the organization’s most artistic, successful, and varied.

I viewed three productions during Santa Fe’s 2025 season— Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto, Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre, and Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Each opera handled the Crosby Theater’s challenges in different ways. In his Santa Fe Opera debut on Jul. 29, Director Julien Chavaz incorporated the view into the opening scenes of his dusty pink production of Rigoletto. Natural light flooded the stage and heightened the opulent Renaissance mood enhanced by multicolored lighting around the proscenium. Scenic Designer Jamie Vartan’s concept marked a refreshing departure from the gloomy stagings of Rigoletto that have been de rigueur in most opera houses. Yes, Rigoletto is a tragedy, but Vartan gave us something different — a Rigoletto lite.

After 34 Wagner-less years, SFO has staged three productions of Wagner operas over the last four seasons including Tristan and Isolde in 2022 and The Flying Dutchman in 2023. This year’s production of Die Walküre was an enormous achievement for the company — it was more than twice as long as the other productions and boasted an enormous orchestra and a cast double the typical size.

Also making her Santa Fe debut, director Melly Still opted to shut out the natural backdrop for her hermetic, provocative, and cerebral interpretation of Die Walküre. Scenic and costume designer Leslie Travers supported Still’s vision by creating a world enclosed by fences, ropes, and barriers, symbolizing the entanglements that bind and constrict the relations between mortals and gods in the second opera of Wagner’s tetralogy. The halves of the set opened and closed only occasionally to allow entrances and exits from the rear.

When Wotan, the king of the gods (bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, surrounded his wayward daughter Brünnhilde (veteran Wagnerian soprano Tamara Wilson with a protective ring of fire in the opera’s pyrotechnic finale, the scene took place at center stage around what looked like a backyard barbecue. Opening the stage to the post-midnight sky would have taken the action to the higher cosmic plane the music demands. Call me old-fashioned, but I was almost yearning for Otto Schenk’s traditional Met production, with its humble huts, open skies and fairytale atmosphere. Still’s production was an inside-baseball Die Walküre for the cognoscenti.

For devoted Wagnerians, the stellar cast was a dream come true. Green dominated the stage as Wotan, singing with clarion intensity and lyricism, and radiating power and paternal wisdom. Few singer-actors could have so convincingly pulled off his striking (and here, entirely appropriate) bare-chested appearance in Act III.

Wilson illuminated her character’s complicated relationship with a well-meaning but controlling father through stunning changes in phrasing, volume, and demeanor— a portrayal that matched Green’s in power, presence, and artistry. The pairing of these two epic voices kept us riveted to the end despite the damp chill and very late hour (12:45 a.m.). She illuminated her complicated emotional relationship with a well-meaning but controlling father through stunning changes in phrasing, volume, and demeanor.

The acoustics at SFO don’t favor the orchestra. Under conductor James Gaffigan, the orchestra provided sensitive accompaniment for the singers but sounded underpowered at times, with some tentative playing from the soloists.

Four cast members made their Santa Fe Opera debuts, including fast-rising Lithuanian-born soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė, and American singers were well-represented in the cast. Fast-rising Lithuanian Vida Miknevičiūtė made abused housewife Sieglinde a deeply sympathetic character, cowering by the refrigerator in a shabby 1950s kitchen. Her voice is a marvel, rich, expressive, and full of pathos and awakening love.

As Sieglinde’s crude husband Hunding, bass Soloman Howard sang with carefully controlled musicality. Tenor Jamez McCorkle was a tender Siegmund, and Sarah Saturnino’s gleaming mezzo made Wotan’s nagging wife Fricka into a more appealing and engaging character than she often appears.

Harlow Robinson | August 19, 2025