If you’ve ever wondered about the word “grand” in grand opera, look no further than the compelling production of Rossini’s tragic opera, Maometto II, now on view at the Santa Fe Opera.

Just ask Marc Neikrug, longtime artistic director of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, what he thinks about audiences here in the City Diff, and be prepared for a shock. "They are way, way better than in New York: more open, more engaged, more willing to be surprised," Neikrug says. "They really want to be here, and they’re loving everything the festival does."

When you stop to think about it, Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers is pretty much a silent movie, yes? Except with sound, of course. Consider the setting: ancient Ceylon à la MGM’s back lot. Consider the

If the great Austro-American film director and actor Erich von Stroheim famously became known as the man you love to hate, Puccini’s Tosca, opening the Santa Fe Opera’s 56th season last Friday, ma

Amy Franceschini wants to build a land bridge between art and activism. As a founder of the artist collective Futurefarmers spoke at Tipton Hall on the Santa Fe University of Art and Design campus Monday night, she explained that the more interactive site installations she creates to draw attention to issues surrounding farms and farming practice, the more the procedures of the art world seem to slow her down.

“Only in New Mexico.” That’s the motto emblazoned on the cover of the Santa Fe Opera’s 2011 season brochure.

Walking up the aisle at the Lensic Performing Arts Center during intermission at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s last concert of the season on Aug. 22, I heard startled comments everywhere: “Whew,” “Astonishing,” “Where’s that been all my life?”

Believe it: Summer’s on the wane. The kids are back in school; cottonwood leaves are falling into the Acequia Madre; and when you read this, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival’s 39th season will be history.

When Gyorgy Sándor thundered through Schumann’s “Carnaval” in Alamogordo’s public school auditorium a few decades ago, a little kid in the audience fell tumultuously in love with the piano. That would be me. And when Joyce Yang had her way with “Carnaval” at a recent Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival noon concert, Schumann plus Yang made that love affair seem like only yesterday.

A couple of years ago, a high-ranking local impresario opined that the Argentinean composer Osvaldo Golijov, after a promising career start, had gone commercial and sold out to mere popular taste.