One of our goals for the summer was to visit the
Santa Fe Opera, and we barely made it, seeing the second last production of the season on Friday.
We left on Thursday and after 6 hours in the car, we were overdue for a stretch and stopped at
Pecos National Historic Park. The visitor center and grounds were especially nice, thanks to the generosity of the Fogelson family. The property, including the
Forked Lightning Ranch, was previously owned by actress Greer Garson and her husband, E.E. Fogelson. We will have to do the ranch tour on another visit, but this day we enjoyed an afternoon stroll through the Pecos Pueblo ruins.
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| Susan in a restored kiva at Pecos Pueblo |
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| Kiva foreground with ruins of mission church in background |
The rest of the day we walked around historic
Old Town Santa Fe, the oldest capital city in the US. We enjoyed some live music at the Plaza and walked by the Governor's Palace, the oldest public building in the US. Later we enjoyed a good New Mexican food dinner and excellent Oatmeal Stout at the upstairs balcony of the
Blue Corn Cafe.
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| The streets of Old Santa Fe |
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| Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi |
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| Palace of the Governors in Old Santa Fe |
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| Native American vendors at the Palace of the Governors |
Saturday was a very full day, starting off with a very interesting and thorough backstage tour of the opera building itself as well as how the productions come together. Many costumes and wigs are made onsite, and we were fortunate enough to meet the head wig maker and learn a bit about the process. We saw sets, props, dressing rooms, control rooms, lifts and more in the three story building. We learned about the history of the outdoor venue, the location of which was selected selected due to the natural amphitheater and superior sound qualities. We highly recommend the tour experience to see for yourself, particularly since photographs are prohibited.
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| Santa Fe Opera entrance |
Next we toured the beautiful landscaped "ranch" grounds, originally a guest ranch now used for the benefit of cast and crew. We were also treated to a brief performance by an SFO apprentice in one of the rehearsal halls.
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| An opera company apprentice performed for our tour |
Mid-day we went back to Old Town and visited the
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum and the excellent
Andrew Smith Gallery, with two floors of photographs by, and mini-exhibitions about,
Ansel Adams.
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| A Georgia O'Keeffe quote Mike particularly liked |
After a short rest, we headed back up to the Opera for the preview dinner buffet, which included an interesting talk about
Mozart's,
The Marriage of Figaro. During our excellent meal we enjoyed delightful conversation with the other folks at our table.
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| The beautiful outdoor venue for our pre-opera dinner |
We left on Thursday and after 6 hours in the car, we were overdue for a stretch and stopped at Pecos National Historic Park. The visitor center and grounds were especially nice, thanks to the generosity of the Fogelson family. The property, including the Forked Lightning Ranch, was previously owned by actress Greer Garson and her husband, E.E. Fogelson. We will have to do the ranch tour on another visit, but this day we enjoyed an afternoon stroll through the Pecos Pueblo ruins.
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