Our Own Sra. Flora del Rio, benevolent rhinemaiden of the Rio Grande, shimmered into a press conference at  Santa Fe this morning and quickly shimmered out, there being but modest news to report on SFeO Season 2010. However, Flora sent this grist for your mills: Madama Butterfly, The Magic Flute, The Tales of Hoffmann, Life is a Dream and Albert Herring.  

There were touches of “St . Louis West,” with Leonard Slatkin and Stephen Lord, announced as conductors, and Kelly Kaduce as Cio-Cio San, and St. Louis regular Sig. Jovanovich as Ben Pinkerton, as the zippy opera of the high desert called in its nearest and dearest to hear  word of season 2010.  For Stephen Lord’s Offenbach, the Michael Kaye edition will be employed, in French, and Paul Groves is advanced for the title role, Erin Wall to sing the three sopranos, and Gidon Saks the bad guys. C. Alden will sing the direction while Constance Hoffman (no relation) warbles the costumes.   Surprise!  They are reviving The Magic Flute; oh well, the guys have to sell tickets. C.  Castronovo and E. Siruina will essay Tamino and Pamina. TBA will be Queen of the Night.

Who has heard of Lewis Spratlan? In the mid-1970s he was hired by New Haven opera to set the 17th C Spanish play, La vida es sueno by Pedro Calderon de la Barca – “a dark and powerful meditation upon the nature of humanity and reality,” Santa Fe avers.  It’s never been fully produced, the New Haven company having gone out of business long since, though the second act was performed at Amherst (where Spratlan served for years as music professor), and Yale in 2000, and that year it won a Pulitzer Prize (!)  Slatkin will conduct, Kevin Newbury will direct and John Cheek and Roger Honeywell will sing. Anyone know Spratlan’s music?  Comments?

Finally, a premium ensemble cast conducted by Sir Andrew Davis and directed by resourceful Paul Curran will produce Ben Britten’s adorable and disturbing Albert Herring.  What good news!  And if you think Lady Christine Brewer would be an ideal Lady Billows, well she will! And Opera News ‘centerfold’ tenor Alek Shrader will be Albert (I thought it would be Toby Spence, but I was wrong), and other names to reckon with are: Celena Shafer, Jill Groves, Kate Lindsey, Judy Christin, Anthony Laciura, Joshua Hopkins, Wayne Tigges and Dale Travis.  How’s that for a double handful of good singing actors! Shafer as Miss Wordsworth should be so fine! Jill Groves as Florence Pike, yay!  Is Josh Hopkins cute enough to be Sid? Youbetcha!

And that’s all, folks!