The mezzo Isabel Leonard vividly projected the heartbreaking war-weariness of a shattered Confederacy, and mezzo Emily Fons was just right for the no-nonsense role of Ruby, the woman who teaches Ada the art of survival. The Santa Fe Opera has given this production a world-class cast, with Nathan Gunn, the reigning baritone of the moment, singing Inman with a clarity that elucidates every poetic turn of Scheer’s libretto. “If I had put the whole book in there, I would have had a Ring Cycle,” she said. Higdon joked that she had to compress the sprawling novel to turn it into a two-act opera.

With the power of music and the impact of a stunning set, the new opera makes the story more compact and more compelling than the prize-winning 1997 novel by Charles Frazier or the 2003 Nicole Kidman/Renée Zellweger movie adaptation. Inman, a Confederate deserter in the last months of the Civil War trekking across the Blue Ridge to reach Cold Mountain, N.C., and the arms of the long-suffering Ada Monroe. In “Cold Mountain,” composer Jennifer Higdon - one of the most popular figures in contemporary classical music - and her librettist, Gene Scheer, have embraced the saga of W. So it is a delight to report that the newest manifestation of this oft-told tale - the opera version of the best-selling novel “Cold Mountain,” just given its world premiere in Santa Fe - captures all of its adventure, romance and pathos in a fresh, vibrant musical idiom. The odyssey of the battle-scarred warrior making his precarious way back to a lover waiting at home is the oldest story in Western literature - the stuff of epic poems, plays, novels, movies and many operas.

Santa fe opera cold mountain