The performance got off to a roaring start with a clever staging by Kathleen Clawson from Jonathan Dove’s opera FLIGHT, featuring a dazzling performance by countertenor  John Holiday,who was this year’s winner of the Dallas Opera Guild’s Vocal Competition.  It is a beautiful voice and he was very good “on stage.”

The Saint Sulpice scene from Massenet’s MANON boasted the best performance of the night, with Danielle Pastin’s seductively sung “Manon” in very effective staging by Candace Evans.  Danielle had stepped in earlier this week to replace an indisposed Ana Maria Martinez as “Mimi” in LA BOHEME, so this has been quite a time for this talented young artist.  I expect we will be hearing much more about her andin the not too distant future.

Another delightful surprise was a scene in the second half of the program from Sondheim’s SWEENEY TODD, with Alissa Anderson and Alan Dunbar belting their way through one of that dark work’s most brilliant duets.

Another highlight of the evening was a scene from Strauss’s CAPRICCIO, also wonderfully staged by Candace Evans, and showcasing a  very promising young soprano from Houston’s Rice University named Mary-Jane Lee ( perhaps not the most operatic of stage names, but with a  lustrous voice and a charming stage presence.)

The last scene (a large chunk of Act IV of Verdi’s RIGOLETTO) had very good singers in all five roles,  but the standout was the “Gilda” of soprano Sara Heaton.

This was a wonderful way to spend my final evening in Santa Fe, and I now have a whole new crop of promising young singers of whom I will now be keeping track!

Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet

I had lunch yesterday with Jeanne-Michele Charbonnet, who returns to Dallas in February  as “Isolde” in our production of TRISTAN.  She has just returned home to Santa Fe for a couple of weeks following an engagement in Barcelona, and is heading back to Europe  on Sunday.

She is looking forward to reuniting with Clifton Forbis, who will be our “Tristan.”  The two of them were last in Dallas together as “Siegmund” and “Sieglinde” in DIE WALKUERE, so it promises to be an exciting reunion.

Jeanne-Michele looks great (see photo) and is excited to be coming back to Dallas for her fifth production  with our company.

I had dinner with stage director and choreographer Candace Evans,  who is in Santa Fe this summer to work with the apprentice artists.  She has directed three scenes for the Apprentice Concerts, and is preparing for a busy fall season which includes new productions of EUGENE ONEGIN and CANDIDE, and a debut at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires for THE MERRY WIDOW, in the same production she staged in Dallas a few years ago.

Last night’s opera was Gian Carlo Menotti’s THE LAST SAVAGE, which was being mounted as a tribute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth and was being done for the first time since it was given at the Metropolitan Opera in 1964.

The opera is a comic trifle–imagine if Rossini had based an opera on a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie and is about a willful young rich girl who fancies herself an anthropologist and goes looking for a “primitive man” in the jungles of India to bring back to Chicago society and “tame.”.

The production was simply delightful, wonderfully and imaginatively directed by Ned Canty in incredibly. clever designs by Allen  Moyer.

The cast featured marvelous comic performances by Anna Christie as the spoiled heiress and Daniel Okulitch as her caveman.  Dan was last in Dallas as Mozart’s FIGARO, and it was great to  see him in something so completely different.

In fact, it was great to see him in anything at all, considering that he was in a very serious automobile accident in Los Angeles last spring from which he was lucky to walk away.   He was in the hospital for a while and was still wearing a neck brace up until rehearsals started here (he had to cancel a DON GIOVANNI in Saint Louis earlier this summer.)

Sean Panikkar (“Cassio” in TDO’s OTELLO) was very good as the Maharajah’s son, as was Jamie Barton as the Maharanee, but almost stealing the show was Kevin Burdette as the wealthy father of the over indulged socialite “anthropologist.”

This souffle was whipped up from the pit by George Manahan who was obviously having as much fun with the score as everyone on stage and in the audience.

Backstage after the performance I ran into David Alden and Jon Morrell, who will be directing and designing a new production of Rossini’s MAOMETTO II for Santa Fe next summer and who were in town for a production presentation.  It was great to see them and commiserate in person over the cancellation of their production of KATYA that was to open in Dallas in October.  They were both very gracious about it and understanding of the necessity to cut back this season, and both hope to be invited back to Dallas soon.

(Photo by Dallas Opera Production Photographer Karen Almond)

The latest acclaim for this marvelous revival comes from the international media: Canada’s highly regarded music magazine, ”La Scena Musicale.”  Here’s the review by Paul E. Robinson, who wrote: “…the production was excellent: the cast was first-rate; the sets and costumes by the late Jean-Pierre Ponnelle were just right; the stage direction by Candace Evans was full of fun; and conductor Stefano Ranzani did his work with efficiency and charm.”

So, what are you waiting for?  Only two performances left this weekend – and that’s that!

Suzanne Calvin, Manager/Director Media and PR

Newest podcast on TDO site.

Host of Inside The Dallas Opera, Suzanne Calvin, interviews Candace Evans and previews The summer event series of The Dallas Opera presented by One Arts Plaza - Figaro in Flip-Flops. The events series focuses on the opera DIE FLEDERMAUS in July . Candace Evans is the choreographer for DIE FLEDERMAUS. She has been working with The Dallas Opera for many years. She previously directed THE MERRY WIDOW for The Dallas Opera.