Opera's 2009 season takes film noir turn

Hard-hitting adaptation of 'The Letter' features blood, sex and costumes by Tom Ford

Anne Constable | The New Mexican

4/30/2008 - 5/1/08

The Santa Fe Opera announced Wednesday that its 2009 season will include the world premiere of The Letter, an opera based on a 1927 stage adaptation of a W. Somerset Maugham short story.

The SFO commissioned the opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec and critic, biographer and blogger Terry Teachout.

Tom Ford, fashion designer and legendary former creative director of Gucci, whose new house atop Talaya Hill is still under construction, is making his debut as a costume designer for The Letter.

The 90-minute opera in eight scenes has "blood and sex, everything you want in opera," Teachout said.

Patricia Racette and Anthony Michaels-Moore star as an unhappy couple whose life in the jungle of Malaya is torn apart by adultery that leads to murder, blackmail and revenge.

Moravec said he and Teachout intend the opera to be as "fast, concise and hard-hitting as a film noir."

The characters in the opera are more likely to be wearing khaki or white duck suits (including one soaked in blood) than Ford's signature cowboy boots, blazers, unbuttoned shirts (and 5-o'clock shadows). But, Moravec said, "anything Tom Ford wants to do is fine with us as long as the labels aren't showing."

General director Richard Gaddes said the opera decided to commission the work after a friend in New York mentioned Moravec to him. After listening to some work by the composer, who won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in music for the chamber work Tempest Fantasy, is currently artist-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and professor at Adelphi University, Gaddes said, "I instantly knew I wanted to pursue the idea of Paul writing an opera for us."

When he called Moravec, Gaddes learned "not only was he interested, but he had a subject in mind" and a writer, his friend and neighbor Terry Teachout.

As it turned out, Gaddes rejected the first idea. Moravec and Teachout, neither of whom had ever written or composed for opera before, began thinking about other possibilities. They considered work by crime writer Raymond Chandler before settling on Maugham.

Teachout, drama critic for the Wall Street Journal, author of an upcoming biography of Louis Armstrong and popular music blogger, said he got a message from Moravec by e-mail containing three words — "What about Maugham?" He let out a yell. "You could just hear the click," he said.

Moravec began composing the music, keeping in mind he wanted to give the performers "good tunes to sing." As of this week, he has finished the first seven scenes.

Teachout has been keeping readers updated about the project on his Arts Journal blog. "Think Tosca or Carmen directed by Jacques Tourneur (horror films director), and you'll get the idea," he advised readers.

The Letter was filmed twice, the second time by William Wyler in 1940 with Bette Davis in the leading role.

Racette, one of the most popular performers with Santa Fe audiences, appeared most recently in Turandot in 2005. Michaels-Moore is singing the title role in this year's Falstaff.

Charles MacKay, who played horn in the Santa Fe High School marching band, presented the details of the 2009 season. He will be taking over as the third director of the company when Gaddes retires this fall. He played horn with the opera orchestra and for more than two decades was general director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Susan Morris, chairman of the Campaign for the Fiftieth, reported on progress toward the $30 million fundraising goal. She said the opera has raised 71.5 percent of the $20 million for the endowment portion of the campaign and 58.5 percent of the $10 million needed for bricks and mortar (a new cantina, two large rehearsal halls and six rehearsal studios). She said the Kresge Foundation has made a $1 million challenge grant that requires the company to raise $5.2 million by Oct. 1, 2009.

According to Gaddes, the opera has sold $5,428,000 (59 percent of capacity) worth of tickets to the 2008 performances, slightly ahead of last year.

And, he disclosed, the chandeliers fashioned from recycled plastic bottles that will sprout on the parking lot light poles will be part of a site-specific work of art by Japanese artist Hiroshi Fuji in connection with the Site Santa Fe biennial which opens June 22.

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.

• La Traviata, by Giuseppe Verdi, new production, with Frédéric Chaslin conducting, Laurent Pelly directing and Natalie Dessay as Violetta.

• The Elixir of Love, by Gaetano Donizetti, new production, with Corrado Rovaris conducting, Jerry Zaks directing, and three former apprentices (Jennifer Black, Dimitri Pittas and Patrick Carfizzi) in leading roles.

• Don Giovanni, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, last performed by the SFO in 2004, with Edo de Waart conducting, Chas Rader-Shieber directing and Lucas Meachem, who is making his SFO debut in this summer's Billy Budd, in the title role.

• The Letter, commissioned work by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout, based on stage adaptation of short story by Somerset Maugham, with Patrick Summers conducting, Jonathan Kent directing and Patricia Racette as Leslie Crosbie.

• Alceste, by Christoph Willibald Gluck, new production, first performance by SFO, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery, directed by Francisco Negrin, with Christine Brewer as Alceste.