Tuesday, August 20, 2019

The Thirteenth Child, Santa Fe Opera

My review of Poul Ruders's new opera, The Thirteen Child, is now posted at SFCV. As you will see, I found it unimpressive, with a weak libretto, unmemorable music, and mediocre conducting.

Some reviewers felt similarly:
  • Heidi Waleson, WSJ (She mentions the falsetto business, which I didn't bother with, and she's right about how unconvincing it is. There's an explanation in Zachary Woolfe's review.)
  • Zachary Woolfe, NY Times
  • Maria Nockin, Broadway World
  • William, Opera Warhorses

In addition:

I'd heard a while back that The Handmaid's Tale is coming to SF Opera; the program's bio for Ruders gives the year (2020) and the new Opera Magazine gives away that Sasha Cooke is cast as Offred. This opera has gotten strong reviews elsewhere, so I'm looking forward to it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa,

My wife and I went to Santa Fe for the first time last week. Back on May 13, 2018, we had read your post "Jenufa, Then and Now" and we decided to book our first trip so that we could see Patricia Racette as Kostelnička.

We attended Jenufa on 8/15 and Pearl Fishers on 8/16 and really enjoyed both performances and of course, loved the open air opera house. Over the weekend, we attended the Indian Market, rode horses on the Ghost Ranch and visited Georgia O'Keeffe's house in Abiquiu.

Your blog post inspired our trip and I just wanted to thank you. Thank You!

Lisa Hirsch said...

You're so welcome! And I heard from Mark Rudio today that you were there last week. We were also at the Aug. 15 Jenufa - wasn't it fantastic??? I'm so sorry to have missed you!