The commission was awarded to the New York firm of Polshek and Partners, which had renovated New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1987. Still, the structure’s original and distinguishing exposure to the sky and the weather were intentionally left untouched.Īn unusually rainy summer in 1991 changed this thinking and led to the decision to build a more enclosed and protected house. Modifications carried out four years earlier, including extensions to the stage roof and the two-story curved loggia, had begun to address these issues, but the new building introduced additional changes the public spaces were expanded, and the stage, back stage, and working spaces were all improved. According to McHugh, the need for a greater seating capacity had already become apparent, along with a desire for some form of weather protection. Performances began at sunset and were often interrupted during the summer monsoon months by torrential thunderstorms that drenched both the audience and the cast.įollowing its destruction by fire on July 27, 1967, the theater was rebuilt to a new design by McHugh and Kidder, working again with Jack Purcell. The site’s natural acoustics were enhanced both by redwood fences and an expanse of poplar trees planted around the building, and by a reflecting pool in front of the orchestra pit, which refracted sound outward and upward toward wooden baffles extending from the roof. The stage was a simple enclosure without a proscenium arch or fly loft, and panels behind the stage could slide away to reveal a dramatic view of sky and mountains. Seating an audience of 480, the auditorium had no sidewalls and opened to the sky beneath a canted roof on the sides. Sited in a basin with natural acoustic properties, the arc-shaped theater responded to the contours of the landscape. McHugh and Van Dorn Hooker designed the first structure, working with the acoustical engineer Jack Purcell of Bolt, Beranek and Newman (Boston and Los Angeles). He established the Santa Fe Opera in 1957. Crosby, for an open-air house that would take advantage of Santa Fe’s “ideal climate, natural beauty, and interest of the public in the great southwest.” Crosby, an army veteran turned musician and composer, came to New Mexico in 1943 seeking a cure for chronic asthma. It fulfills the vision of its founder, John O. The Santa Fe Opera overlooks the Tesuque Highway from its mesa top site, and faces west toward the more distant Jemez and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Defined as much by the surrounding high desert landscape as by programmatic requirements, the opera house has continued to offer a convincingly modern interpretation of New Mexico’s regional identity. Rebuilt three times, each successive structure has retained the footprint of the previous building. The Santa Fe Opera is the only open-air opera house in the United States.