The first orchestral dress rehearsal of The Letter began in a rainstorm. Even after the rain stopped, there was fog throughout the area. That’s not an inappropriate effect for an opera noir, though I would have preferred lightning. Fortunately, the Santa Fe Opera‘s Crosby Theatre, while it’s an open-air house, is shielded more or less effectively from the weather, so the rehearsal started on time–immediately after sunset–and proceeded without incident.
I don’t want to court the wrath of the theater gods, but I can’t deny what everyone seems to be saying this morning, which is that last night’s rehearsal went extraordinarily, even phenomenally well. All of Monday’s minor glitches cleared themselves up as if by magic, and everyone in the cast rose to the occasion and performed as though their lives depended on it. On Monday we got to see what the show looked like for the first time, and now we know how it will sound with all the design elements in place and fully functioning. Not to put too fine a point on it, but The Letter looks like a movie, sounds like an opera, and plays like a play. It is, in short, everything that Paul Moravec and I had hoped for it to be, and we’re thrilled beyond words.
No rehearsal tonight! Mrs. T has arrived, and the two of us are going to take the evening off and see Don Giovanni after Paul and I talk to an Associated Press reporter and give a presentation on The Letter in downtown Santa Fe. The final dress begins at nine o’clock sharp tomorrow night. I can’t wait….
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
