Librettist, Director ? Began in Santa Fe'

Apr 07, 11:58 AM

Current Headlines: By Craig Smith, The Santa Fe New Mexican

Apr. 7--RICHARD GADDES

Santa Fe Opera general director

Colin Graham, a worldrenowned librettist and director who worked frequently at the Santa Fe Opera, died early Friday morning at a St. Louis hospital of respiratory and cardiac arrest. He was 75 and had been battling ill health for some years. "His operatic career really began in Santa Fe," SFO general director Richard Gaddes said.

"It was in 1973. He came and did the American premiere ofOwen Wingrave," an opera originally written for television by Benjamin Britten.

"He had been in San Francisco a few weeks previously to that, doing something there with the English Opera Group," Gaddes recalled. "But essentially, his career began here."

Graham's Santa Fe work included what Gaddes called "an astonishing number" of important American premieres, including the world premiere of Bright Sheng's Madame Mao in 2003, for which Graham also wrote the libretto.

Other landmark American premieres in Santa Fe were Leos Janacek'sThe Cunning Little Vixen(1975), Steven Oliver's TheDuchess of Malfi (1978), Alban Berg'sLuluin its three-act version (1979), Richard Strauss'

Die Liebe der Danae (1982), and Ingvar Lidholm's A Dream Play(1998), for which Graham provided the English translation.

He also directed SFO productions of Verdi's Falstaff (1975, 1977), Umberto Giordano's

Fedora(1977), Tchaikovsky's

Eugene Onegin (1978, 1980), and Strauss'Daphne (1981).

Graham enjoyed working at the Santa Fe Opera not only because he could direct both standard and unusual pieces but also, Gaddes recalled, because he loved the house and the stage.

"Colin was better with stages that required resourcefulness and ingenuity than the standard kind of stage," Gaddes said. "He wasn't the kind of stage director who liked very decorative scenery, which, of course, our stage doesn't lend itself to."

After Gaddes founded Opera Theater of St. Louis in 1976, he named Graham as the company's first director of productions in 1978. Graham was named the St. Louis theater's artistic director in 1985 and was planning future seasons until a few weeks before he died.

"I always think of detail when I think of Colin," Gaddes said.

"I've rarely worked with a stage director who was so utterly prepared, who knew everything he wanted to do, before he had a first rehearsal. He was always in complete control and knew what he wanted, and my goodness, he was going to have it."

But Graham was strict, not harsh. "Singers loved to work with him because he was so efficient in rehearsal," Gaddes said. "He was very good at working with people who were having problems. He was a great teacher, and he was also very patient. He elicited a huge respect from everybody, because he always knew his subject."

According to Opera Theater of St. Louis, there will be no funeral. The date of a memorial service in St. Louis will beannounced.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Santa Fe New Mexican

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