Entertainment
The Latest: Gender-bending opera ‘M. Butterfly’ set for 2020
The Associated Press
May 08, 2019 02:15 PM
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Santa Fe Opera General Director Robert Meya announces, Wednesday, May 8, 2019, in Santa Fe, N.M, the company will stage the world premiere in 2020 of the gender-bending story “M. Butterfly” from playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang. A minimalist painting from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, right, will serve as an emblem for the 2020 season.
Morgan Lee
AP Photo
SANTA FE, N.M.
The Latest on new works and performances at the Santa Fe Opera (all times local):
12:40 p.m.
The Santa Fe Opera will stage the world premiere in 2020 of the gender-bending story “M. Butterfly” from playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang.
Opera General Director Robert Meya announced Wednesday upcoming productions at the open-air summer opera stage.
The new operatic version of “M. Butterfly” is based on the Broadway play about a French diplomat’s affair with enigmatic opera star in China. It is scored by Chinese-born Huang Ruo, whose prior work “Dr. Sun Yat-Sen” ran in Santa Fe and was banned in mainland China.
The Santa Fe Opera also is preparing the premiere in 2021 of an opera set in Victorian England based in part on Bram Stroker’s “Dracula.” Meya says “Lord of the Cries” addressed issues of repression and human nature with contemporary touches that can appeal to younger audiences.
Updated electronic seatback translation equipment has been installed at the opera north of Santa Fe.
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9:30 a.m.
The Santa Fe Opera is announcing plans for the coming year at the open-air summer opera stage in the foothills of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Leaders of the opera company scheduled announcements Wednesday about the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Opera offerings this summer include a new fairy-tale thriller from a Danish composer who created an operatic version of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Poul Ruders’ composition titled “the Thirteenth Child” is inspired by a Brothers Grimm fairy tale.
In recent years, Santa Fe has been the backdrop for productions of an opera about the dawn of the nuclear age in 1940s New Mexico and a world premiere of a techno-infused opera about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
A casino operated by Tesuque Pueblo has taken its place adjacent to the opera.