People living in Colorado and the surrounding region have more access to nearby summer opera than probably anyone else in the country.
Consider that this state alone boasts two important sets of annual offerings, beginning with the Central City Opera, the fifth-oldest company in the United States. It presents three top-level productions in a picture-perfect historic setting.
The Aspen Opera Theater Center, which operates under the auspices of the Aspen Music Festival, also presents three fully staged productions. It features promising young, pre-professional singers, who in the past have included Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw and Barbara Hendricks.
Offering lighter fare is CU Opera in the Summer, a student program sponsored by the University of Colorado at Boulder. This year’s lineup pairs Gilbert and Sullivan’s perennially popular operetta, “The Mikado,” with “The King and I.”
A little farther away but still within comfortable driving distance is the Santa Fe Opera, which is consistently touted by international critics as one of the country’s best companies in the summer or any other time.
Five works, usually including at least one world or American premiere, are presented in a specially designed amphitheater atop a mesa outside the historic Southwestern city, with spectacular views in all directions, especially at sunset.
Here is a look at some of the season’s most noteworthy productions:
July 2-Aug. 7, “Vanessa,” Samuel Barber, Central City Opera: Few American operas have established themselves in the standard repertory, but this one comes close. It was composed in 1956-57 and revised in 1964 by Barber, who is most widely known for his oft-performed “Adagio for Strings.” Soprano Emily Pulley, a Central City regular, takes the title role.
July 16-Aug. 6, “Paul Bunyan,” Benjamin Britten, Central City Opera: This rarely produced operetta was originally conceived as a work that could be performed by an American high school and later evolved into its present unconventional form. The music has echoes of Kurt Weill’s American works, and some of its arias seem to presage “Oklahoma!”
July 16-Aug. 10, “Lucio Silla,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Santa Fe Opera: Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, who is splashed across the cover of the latest issue of Gramophone magazine, headlines the cast for a rare presentation of this early Mozart opera. Bernard Labadie, who was recently in Denver with Les Violins du Roy, will make his Santa Fe conducting debut.
July 23-Aug. 17, “Peter Grimes,” Britten, Santa Fe Opera: This work was an immediate hit at the time of its 1945 premiere at Sadler’s Wells in London, and it has remained Britten’s most popular opera since. Tenor Anthony Dean Griffey will make his Santa Fe debut in the title role with veteran soprano Christine Brewer as Ellen Orford.
July 30-Aug. 26, “Ainadamar (Fountain of Tears),” Osvaldo Golijov, Santa Fe Opera: Little will be traditional about the expanded and revised version of this recent opera by one of the hottest composers in the world. It will feature Upshaw and staging by Peter Sellars, who oversaw the company’s landmark 2002 production of “L’Amour de Loin.”
Aug. 15-20, “Giasone,” Franceso Cavalli, Aspen Opera Theater Center: Although it doesn’t crack the top 10 today, this tragicomedic take on the mythological tale of Jason and the Argonauts was the most popular opera of the 17th century. Fast-rising English conductor Harry Bicket will lead a period-instrument pit orchestra for this production.
