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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…

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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.

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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.

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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….

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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. 

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

July 31, 2026 • 10:06 am Comments Off on “We are all siblings”: Tobias Picker on bringing Lili Elbe to the American stage

“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.

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

November 2, 2025 • 5:22 pm 1

Hongni Wu: Musical America’s New Artist of the Month

Hongni Wu; photo: Ed Choo

Here’s my profile of mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu, Musical America’s New Artist of the Month for November:


When Hongni Wu bounded across the stage as Cherubino in Santa Fe Opera’s Marriage of Figaro last summer, she seemed to compress a teenager’s swirl of conflicted emotions into a single breath. …

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Filed under: Musical America, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, singers

August 8, 2025 • 11:29 am 1

Perfect Timing: ‘Figaro’ in Santa Fe

Liv Redpath as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro at Santa Fe Opera; image: Bronwen Sharp

My Musical America review of Laurent Pelly’s Nozze at Santa Fe Opera:
SANTA FE—The plot of The Marriage of Figaro can feel like a dizzying maze of deceptions and deferred revelations—its intricate turns threatening to overwhelm the human stakes. But in Santa Fe Opera’s ingeniously paced production, directed by Laurent Pelly, every complication slips neatly into place with the precision of a fine timepiece, allowing the machinery of the plot to bring the messy human entanglements that drive the drama into…

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Filed under: Mozart, Musical America, review, Santa Fe Opera

August 5, 2025 • 11:58 am Comments Off on Blood Ropes and Broken Gods: ‘Die Walküre’ in Santa Fe

Blood Ropes and Broken Gods: ‘Die Walküre’ in Santa Fe

Ryan Speedo Green (Wotan), Back: Tamara Wilson (Brüunhilde), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

Nothing like seeing Die Walküre accompanied by lightning and storm clouds @Santa Fe Opera. My review for Opera Now:

As its track record of world premieres and off-the-beaten-path repertoire proves, Santa Fe Opera has never shied away from adventurous undertakings. But with this new Die Walküre—its first venture into the Ring and only its third Wagner staging since 2022—the company takes a striking step into territory long left unexplored.  

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Filed under: Santa Fe Opera, Wagner

August 5, 2025 • 11:52 am Comments Off on Still Bohemians After All These Years

Still Bohemians After All These Years

L – R: Long Long (Rodolfo), Szymon Mechliński (Marcello), Emma Marhefka (Musetta), Sylvia D’Eramo (Mimì), photo by Curtis Brown for the Santa Fe Opera

You think you’ve gotten over La bohème. Then a performance comes along and shatters your defenses, breaking your heart again…

My review of James Robinson’s new production spans the length of the 2025 Santa Fe Opera season is online here:

James Robinson’s new production of Puccini’s ubiquitous classic opened Santa Fe Opera’s 2025 season in June and will close it later this month. With its finely observed details and an emotional realism that doesn’t coast on sentimentality, it makes a fitting bookend to a summer that has balanced tradition with reinvention …

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Filed under: James Robinson, Puccini, Santa Fe Opera

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