The highlight of the season is the premiere on July 30 of a new production of Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar ("The Foundation of Tears"). Dawn Upshaw reprises the role she sang in the world premiere at Tanglewood in 2003; Peters Sellars is the director; Miguel Harth-Bedoya, the music director of the Fort Worth Symphony, conducts.

The season also includes productions of Rossini's The Barber of Seville; Mozart's Lucio Silla; and Britten's Peter Grimes, with Christine Brewer as Ellen Orford and Anthony Dean Griffey in the title role.

Founded in 1957 by John Crosby, Santa Fe Opera is a center for new music, having presented ten world premieres and dozens of American premieres. The company has performed at the open-air Santa Fe Opera Theater since 1998.