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| Entrance to the Santa Fe Opera House |
Today is Libbie's birthday. As luck would have it, her favorite Opera was being performed at the Santa Fe Opera, "The Tales of Hoffman". In December of 2009 we went to the Metropolitan opera HD performance of Tales of Hoffman starring mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey as the poet Hoffman's muse. We didn't get enough of it in December so we returned to the theater in January when the Metropolitan Opera was doing an Encore performance of "The Tales of Hoffman". A few months later I found that "Tales" was going to be performed in Santa Fe with none other than Kate Lindsey. WooHoo!!! I immediately went to the Santa Fe website and checked on ticket availability. They were available. Score! I bought the tickets and then started planning the trip around this event not knowing how any of this was going to meld together. Would Libbie and I fly to Santa Fe for the performance? Would we then rent a car and drive it to Huntington Beach taking in some National Parks along the way? Can we leave the car at LAX and fly home? None of the above. After looking over many scenarios this trip was planned. I would drive to Santa Fe and Libbie would fly.
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| View of the countryside from the Santa Fe Opera parking lot |
The Santa Fe opera is located high on a mountain top. The theater is quite unique in that even though all seats are under cover, the sides of the Opera House are open to the surrounding mountains. It's quite common to sit in the opera and watch a thunderstorm in progress on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
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| Santa Fe Opera House |
The Opera House itself looks like a satellite tracking station. Once up close to it though, it is apparent that the walls are covered with opera poster of the current season. This is not a satellite tracking station but is an institution playing some of the finest music ever written.
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| The 2010 Season denoted by Opera house posters |
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| Closeup of the Opera House |
Unknown to us, tailgating is a tradition at the Santa Fe Opera. Oh what a tailgate it is. We saw tablecloths, fine stemware and buckets with wine or champagne. This is a whole new leverl of tailgating done Santa Fe Opera style.
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| Tailgating at the Opera |
Remember those thunder storms mentioned earlier? We experienced one on our mountain during the Opera. It was pretty neat. People attend Opera performances dressed and coiffed. From our orchestra seats we could look out across the audience and see people's hair blowing in the wind which was coming from the open air sides. In no way did it detract from the performance. We thoroughly enjoyed the music, the performance, Kate Lindsey and the unique effects supplied by Mother Nature which can only be experienced in a semi open air Opera House. Despite the calendar telling us it was July, a mountaintop during a thunderstorm can get quite chilly. We were warned in advance that temperatures could drop into the 50's or worse and so were prepared as was most of the audience. This was an experience we surely will repeat again soon. Nedra Matteucci in the day and glorious Opera at night. This a combination that can't easily be beat.
