On his journey, Inman meets Solomon Veasey, whom he stops from committing murder. Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to desert and return home to his beloved Ada. And this production is made of whole Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, art historian and arts journalist.Teague, the leader of the local Home Guard, is hunting down Civil War deserters. Like Frazier’s novel, the opera weaves together the strains of despair, dark beauty, humanity and hope. Were one to thread “Cold Mountain” into the tapestry of Santa Fe’s “Summer of Color,” it would be obsidian.
#SANTA FE OPERA COLD MOUNTAIN FULL#
When the villain Teague (tenor Jay Hunter Morris) and his predatory Home Guards brutalize deserters, Higdon marshals a full orchestral arsenal to sharpen tension and undergird a sense of menace. Particularly effective are duets with rhythmic overlapping lines, in which Inman and Ada yearn for the war to end. Higdon’s music has a distinctive, American sound that evokes Copland’s spacious open fifths and Barber’s streaming sonorities. Flashbacks to Ada and Inman’s courtship occur swiftly and sweetly, contrasting dramatically with the harsh realities of war. Shifts in musical textures indicate changes in time and place, aided by Elaine McCarthy’s subtle projections. Brutalities, small mercies and hope transpire among the blackened timbers. Pools of light illuminate spaces where flashbacks and ongoing episodes occur. Gigantic burned and broken timbers splay into space.
It’s a singular landscape of wartime despair. Robert Brill’s brilliant set provides the answer. One wonders how an opera might be staged to accommodate parallel stories. She must simultaneously survive the increasing hardships of the home front. Inman (baritone Nathan Gunn) walks out of an army hospital and begins a long walk back to North Carolina and his true love, Ada Monroe (soprano Isabel Leonard). “Cold Mountain” is an American retelling of the great Homeric epic, “The Odyssey.” Like the Trojan War of antiquity that triggered Odysseus’ 10-year journey back to Ithaca, “Cold Mountain” begins in the Civil War. Half the house has already been sold, so call (505) 986-5900 to reserve your tickets soon. 24 also will be a family night with special ticket prices. After its summer in Santa Fe, the work will travel to points east.Ĭreated by American composer Jennifer Higdon and librettist Gene Scheer, the work has been so enthusiastically received that the company has added a performance, no small decision for a house that seats 2,200. Deeply human, the opera has added emotional weight and dimension to the summer spectrum.īased on Charles Frazier’s National Book Award-winning novel, the opera has been co-commissioned and produced by SFO and two other companies, Opera Philadelphia and Minnesota Opera. This summer, the company is presenting the world premiere of “Cold Mountain,” a shimmering specimen of dark intensity. What about black? It’s conventionally thought of as the absence of color, but one could argue that Santa Fe Opera has added iridescent black to the palette as the exception. A $25 culture pass enables you to see as many exhibits as possible in the time available. “Blue: Indigo and Cobalt” fills the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art, while another more-inclusive show, “Colors of the Southwest,” sprawls through the New Mexico Museum of Art. “Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning” is smaller and more compact at the Museum of Indian Arts.
“The Red that Colored the World” is a huge exhibition at the Museum of International Folk Art.
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That’s the theme for a series of exhibitions and events that are linking New Mexico museums together in 2015.
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