As an operatic soprano, Patricia Racette is used to portraying women who are victims of tragedy, women who yearn for love, or both. Their stories wring audience hearts, especially when told by a vocally luminous, dramatically acute artist such as she.

Racette's signature roles include Cio-Cio San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Liù in his Turandot, and both Mimi and Musetta in La bohème. Then there are the titular heroines of Janácek's Kátya Kabanová and Jenufa, as well as Tobias Picker's Emmeline — a role Racette created for Santa Fe Opera in 1997.

Other touching women Racette has played are Roberta Alden in Picker's An American Tragedy, Ellen Orford in Britten's Peter Grimes, and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. She also has taken on such afflicted-by-fate Verdi heroines as Luisa in Luisa Miller, Desdemona in Otello, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, and Violetta in La traviata.

Racette is set to bring another tragic character to life this summer at SFO, but not another ll girl, snubbed daughter-in-law, courtesan, or misunderstood queen. In composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout's The Letter, she creates the part of Leslie Crosbie, an apparently subdued Englishwoman living in colonial Malaya between the two world wars.

A respectable, quietly dressed lady of means, Leslie spends her time supervising her servants, making a comfortable home for her husband, and netting lace; yet inside, she boils with the passion that consumed Phaedra and burnt Troy. She is the pivot of a love triangle without hope and, in the end, the bane of her lover's and husband's lives as well as her own.

Racette has been working with Moravec and Teachout throughout the opera's creative process. She spoke with Pasatiempo about the experience while she was at Washington National Opera, performing in Peter Grimes.



Pasatiempo: Were you familiar with the W. Somerset Maugham short story that inspired the opera or the real-life murder case behind that?

Patricia Racette: Not at all. But I've now seen the movie [with Bette Davis]. I think it's going to be really interesting.

Richard Gaddes [former SFO general director] thought I was best for the project and the character, and we moved things around in my schedule to make it work. It's a whole different type of character for me. I'm thrilled.

Pasa: What has it been like, being part of the creative process?

Racette: A phenomenally rich experience. Terry and Paul, they've been a dream. They were supremely collaborative with me dramaturgically, musically.

She's a tricky little character; she can come across as a monster. We want the audience to be sympathetic. I felt there were moments I just didn't believe, at first; it didn't feel like it was fully fleshed out and complex enough for the character. So I would talk with Terry about text choices.

Paul was terrific on the vocal level. I said, "Here's what you should avoid, and here's what you should go for." It fits me like a glove. I did have them add an aria [for Leslie] in Scene 8, because I wanted her to be able to see inside herself. I said, "You're going to want an aria for your protagonist, and you want people to be able to excerpt it." It's a defining moment for her and for the audience.

Pasa: What about Terry's use of language?

Racette: It's very accessible. I think it tells the story well. Generally speaking, I think singing in one's native tongue is a very important exercise. It's self-instructing. It shows you how much subtext and layering you need to bring to it; and it reminds you how much work you need to do to communicate well in a foreign language.

Pasa: You must have been learning the part for some time.

Racette: I've already learned the majority of it. They've been incredibly organized. I've had the music for some time. We've been in touch via e-mails, and Paul has been sending me stuff. I don't expect any huge surprises, though anything like this is always a work in progress.

It's not been easy to find the time to work it into my voice, with such a heavy performance schedule and so many Butterflys. It doesn't leave you a lot of time for plain old practicing! That's my next step.

I've done Butterfly a gazillion times, and you know how nice it is to return to a role where it feels second nature? You get spoiled. Then with new pieces, you want them to have the layering and nuance right away. It's almost impossible; it takes time. That's the sort of tortured existence we singers all lead.

Pasa: Aside from character as portrayed through words and melody, Leslie seems to be a restrained character in terms of her social position, her appearance, her clothing, her conversation, and so on.

Racette: Yes, she is restrained; but don't forget, I begin by shooting a gun, emptying six bullets into my lover! I always welcome such overt qualities in a character. Men get it all the time, they get to play out overt characteristics. Women have to play vulnerability, generally speaking. They don't get it often, especially with my voice type.

Pasa: You've done a lot here at Santa Fe Opera. How do you feel about coming back home, as it were?

Racette: I'm really excited about the new administration. I think the world of [general director] Charles MacKay. It will be nice to be back doing a project that's really engaging. I'm beside myself to be working with Jonathan Kent. He's tremendous. We became such fast friends when we did Kátya.

Everything points to an absolutely thrilling experience. You can't tell with new works till they happen, but I have great confidence.

Pasa: You seem to run to characters who do things with their hands. Have you noticed? In Emmeline you had to mime running a mill loom. In American Tragedy you played a factory worker. Mimi in Bohème is a seamstress and does embroidery. Besides impersonating Leslie in your voice and walk and attitude, are you going to learn to net lace like she does?

Racette: I do know how to knit — I display that most magnificently as Ellen Orford. You should see the stitches I've dropped! She [Leslie] crochets, does lacework. So I will take a few lessons. I like to be authentic.