MEMETERIA

Icon

Arts writing by Thomas May

August 19, 2026 • 12:41 am 0

A Less-Familiar ‘Madama Butterfly’ at Santa Fe Opera

Jarrett Ott (Sharpless), Karen Chia-ling Ho (Cio-Cio-San), Stephen Costello (Pinkerton) and ensemble; © Bronwen Sharp for the Santa Fe Opera

Here’s the fifth of my individual reviews of the 2026 Santa Fe Opera season, covering all five productions this year:

Madama Butterfly did not spring fully formed into the world as the repertory staple we know today. Bachtrack’s 2024 statistics ranked it the third most performed opera, yet Puccini’s convoluted revision history means that even this most familiar of works survives in markedly different forms. Musical and dramatic details, character relationships and even aspects of Cio-Cio-San herself changed across those revisions, until the 1907 Paris version emerged as the standard…

continue

Filed under: conductors, Puccini, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 14, 2026 • 11:15 am 0

Portrait of an Artist, Evolving: ‘Lili Elbe’ at Santa Fe Opera

Lucia Lucas (Lili Elbe), The Santa Fe Opera Chorus, by Bronwen Sharp for the Santa Fe Opera

My review of Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe, which is receiving its American premiere this summer at Santa Fe Opera, is now up at Musical America Worldwide. Picker’s opera, with a libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman, tells the story of the Danish painter Lili Elbe, one of the first people known to have undergone gender-affirming surgery, while placing her relationship with the artist Gerda Wegener at the heart of the drama.

continue

Filed under: American opera, new opera, review, Santa Fe Opera, Tobias Picker

August 13, 2026 • 11:41 pm 0

‘Rodelinda’ at Santa Fe Opera

Rodelinda at Santa Fe Opera (Photo: Bronwen Sharp)

Another highlight of my week at Santa Fe Opera: the R.B. Schlather production of Handel’s Rodelinda, featuring a fantastic cast and led brilliantly by Harry Bicket. My review for Opera Now:

R.B. Schlather’s first-rate Santa Fe Opera production of Handel’s Rodelinda makes the opera’s imposing succession of da capo arias feel anything but static. The political ground keeps moving beneath the characters, while Rodelinda’s devotion to Bertarido remains fixed –Fidelio is just around the corner. Schlather treats the arias as windows into each character’s private world, filling them with telling gestures and reactions while simultaneously often keeping other characters active.

continue

Filed under: Handel, Opera Now, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 11, 2026 • 11:13 am 0

Olga Kulchynska Anchors a Dream-Haunted Eugene Onegin in Santa Fe

Olga Kulchynska (Tatyana); © Bronwen Sharp for Santa Fe Opera

Another of my reviews of the 2026 Santa Fe Opera season has been posted on Bachtrack – some thoughts on the Alessandro Talevi production of Eugene Onegin:

Olga Kulchynska made Tatyana the emotional center of Santa Fe Opera’s Eugene Onegin. She established Tatyana’s vulnerability from her first appearance, singing with a secure, expressive soprano and finely responsive phrasing. In the Letter Scene, her initial tentativeness gradually opened into growing confidence and daring, making Onegin’s subsequent rejection all the more crushing….

continue

Filed under: directors, Puccini, Santa Fe Opera, Tchaikovsky

August 6, 2026 • 8:40 am 0

‘The Magic Flute’ Re-enchanted

Santa Fe Opera’s joyous new production of Mozart’s beloved opera restores its sense of wonder and sheer fun. My review for Opera Now:

Being so familiar and beloved makes The Magic Flute unusually difficult to encounter free of the clichés and received ideas that have accumulated around it. The real magic of Christopher Luscombe’s new production at Santa Fe Opera lies in how effectively it recovers what makes the opera special in the first place. 

continue

Filed under: directors, Mozart, review, Santa Fe Opera

July 31, 2026 • 10:06 am 0

“We are all siblings”: Tobias Picker on bringing Lili Elbe to the American stage

Lucia Lucas as Lili Elbe at the world premiere of the opera in 2023 at Theater St Gallen (Photo: Edyta Dufaj)

For Opera Now, I wrote a preview feature on Tobias Picker’s Lili Elbe at Santa Fe Opera, where the opera receives its North American premiere in August. I spoke with the composer and with Lucia Lucas, the American-born, Germany-based trans baritone for whom the title role was written, about the opera’s love story, its historical subject, and its journey to the American stage.

more

Filed under: new opera, Santa Fe Opera, Tobias Picker

July 29, 2026 • 10:12 am 0

A Fresh ‘Appalachian Spring’ Closes Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Party

James Ehnes and colleagues in Appalachian Spring; photo © Jena Poppe

And thus ends what Seattle Chamber Music Society bills as “the world’s largest chamber music party” – some thoughts for Bachtrack on the final concert of the 2026 Summer Festival:

The final concert of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2026 Summer Festival capped an unusually eventful stretch. Owing to summer renovations at Benaroya Hall, its usual venue, the organisation found a number of alternate spaces to perform in, while also expanding its reach through free events in parks and other public spaces across the region…


continue

Filed under: Aaron Copland, James Ehnes, review, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Shostakovich, Shostakovich chamber music

July 22, 2026 • 8:50 am 0

‘A cellist who is essentially a one-man band’: Jessie Montgomery on writing for Abel Selaocoe

Jessie Montgomery and Abel Selaocoe at the North American premiere with the Toronto Symphony; photo: Allan Cabral, courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

I had a chance to do a Strad interview Jessie Montgomery about her new cello concerto These Righteous Paths – a work shaped by Abel Selaocoe’s multifaceted artistry and rooted in the poetry of her late mother, Robbie McCauley.

American composer Jessie Montgomery’s These Righteous Paths enters the world with the momentum of a major international concerto. Written for the South African cellist Abel Selaocoe and created in close collaboration with him, the work has had an unusually broad launch…
continue

Filed under: cellists, Jessie Montgomery, The Strad

July 14, 2026 • 1:29 pm Comments Off on Sound For Sore Ears: Ravinia Festival Pavilion Gets A Major Makeover

Sound For Sore Ears: Ravinia Festival Pavilion Gets A Major Makeover

Pop star and classically trained flutist Lizzo teamed in an arrangement of the “Flower Duet” from Delibes’ ‘Lakmé‘ with flutist Kaylee Johnson, a six-year member of Sistema Ravinia.

My report for Classical Voice North America on opening weekend of Ravinia Festival 2026, as Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra put the rebuilt Hunter Pavilion through its first major test:

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. – The birds made themselves at home during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s opening concert of its 90th summer season at the Ravinia Festival on July 11. Led by chief conductor Marin Alsop, the performance also officially inaugurated the festival’s renovated pavilion…

continue

Filed under: Chicago Symphony, Classical Voice North America, Marin Alsop, music news, Richard Strauss

July 13, 2026 • 2:34 pm Comments Off on Four Hands, 32 Strings, and Shared Fire at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Opener

Four Hands, 32 Strings, and Shared Fire at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Opener

James Ehnes leads Mendelssohn’s Octet; photo: Jenna Poppe

My review of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s opening concert of the 2026 Summer Festival for Bachtrack:

Seattle Chamber Music Society’s month-long summer ritual began in the familiar place – the intimate, 536-seat Nordstrom Recital Hall inside downtown Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. Also familiar was the air of anticipation in the packed room, filled with listeners eager for the kind of high-level chamber music-making that violinist and artistic director James Ehnes continues to assemble in Seattle.

continue

Filed under: George Gershwin, James Ehnes, Mendelssohn, review, Seattle Chamber Music Society

Archive

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.