Opera on tap

The Santa Fe Opera’s annual Spring Tour will be in Tucumcari on Tuesday with a performance of Menotti’s “The Telephone.” After a morning performance for students there will be a free public concert at 7 p.m. Both performances will be at the Tucumcari High School Auditorium.

In the evening, they will perform Susanna and Figaro’s first act duet from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Gian Carlo Menotti’s short operetta, “The Telephone.”  The second half  will feature arias and songs by American composers.

and George and Ira Gershwin.

The daytime performances for students will be an adaptation of Menotti’s The Telephone.  The plot centers on a young man whose attempts to propose marriage are thwarted by endless interruptions from the telephone.  In adapting the piece for the tour, director Kathleen Clawson has set it during a rehearsal for The Marriage of Figaro with Ben and Lucy as opera singers who are portraying Figaro and Susanna.  During a break in the rehearsal, the action moves into The Telephone.

Ms. Guarrine and Mr. Darling will be members of the Apprentice Program this summer.  Ms. Guarrine was a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program where she sang Veronique in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s Hotel Casablanca.  As a resident artist with the Minnesota Opera she performed Rose in Lakme, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, and returned during the current season for the American premiere of Reinhard Keiser’s The Fortunes of King Croesus.  Mr. Darling, a graduate of Indiana University, served as a resident artist with the Palm Beach Opera where he performed Haly and Taddeo in The Italian Girl in Algiers and Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly.

Kirt Pavitt begins his twelfth year as Music Director and Pianist for the Spring Tour.  His ability for assembling interesting programs well-tailored to each year’s artists ensures varied, informative and friendly concerts.  Pavitt believes that in presenting music which is appealing to a large cross-section of audiences, programs should look neither up nor down at those who return year after year to these concerts but be entertaining and beautiful.  Pavitt takes pride that after many years, the tour is welcomed each season in as many towns and cities it is possible to visit. 

The 2008 Spring Opera Tour is supported by The Guilds of The Santa Fe Opera, Inc.; New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs; the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission-1% Lodgers’ Tax; and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 For information about daytime performances for students, contact Education Director Andrea Walters at 505 986 5928 or HYPERLINK “mailto:awalters@santafeopera.org”awalters@santafeopera.org.  The annual Spring Opera Tour is a project of The Santa Fe Opera’s Education and Outreach Department.