The Santa Fe opera celebrates over 50 years of founder, John Crosby’s vision: to create an opera house exposed to New Mexico’s air and stars, it’s dusky blue mountains and sun stained hills—offering what nature itself could not: music as spectacular as the view. By combining familiar operas with rare and unusual works, this year’s repertory promises to be innovative and entertaining.

The theater’s striking profile represents the dramatic marriage of architecture and engineering in the service of musical art. The facility has evolved through the years into a contemporary venue open to nearly 360 degrees of breathtaking views under a stage roof designed to deliver acoustic reflections of sound from the stage to the audience.

This season opens with Giuseppe Verdi’s richly comic, Falstaff, followed the next evening with Mozart’s, The Marriage of Figaro. Experience Benjamin Britten’s tale of a young sailor’s fall from grace in Billy Budd, George Frideric Handel’s beautiful but rarely heard Radamisto, and the American premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater.

The Santa Fe Opera is an international gathering of singers, instrumentalists, directors, designers, and craftsmen from across the globe, united in an atmosphere unlike any other. The 2008 season runs from June 27 through August 23. Tickets are priced from just $26 each. For more information:www.santafeopera.org