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The result was to give the production a lushness which matched Samuel Barber's music. James Schuette's costumes were similarly stylish, all 1940's glamour.

As light comes back into Vanessa's life, the set imaginatively fractured and expanded, but retreated back with Erika's retreat into solitude at the end. Apart from the costumes for the ball scene in Act Two, the entire production was in shades of grey with Allen Moyer's striking box set, lit by Christopher Akerlind's lighting, having real sense of coolness about it. Gian Carlo Menotti's libretto has its rather melodramatic side (someone once commented that he had written it using the Oxford Book of Cliches), and James Robinson's production built on this by staging the work in the context of a Hollywood Noir film, complete with a set inspired by Hollywood Regency designs. Sets were by Allen Moyer, costumes by James Schuette, lighting by Christopher Akerlind and choreography by Sean Curran. Leonard Slatkin conducted, with Erin Wall as Vanessa, Virginie Verrez as Erika, Helene Schneiderman as the Baroness, Zach Borichevsky as Anatol, James Morris as the Doctor, Andrew Bogard as the Major-Domo and Andrew Simpson as the Footman. We caught James Robinson's production on Wednesday 3 August 2016, an evening which was cool and cloudy with torrential rain, perhaps an apt environment for Gian Carlo Menotti's rather gothic libretto.

Interestingly Wexford Festival is also doing a production of Vanessa this year (directed by Rodula Gaitanou with Claire Rutter in the title role), so perhaps the opera's time has finally come. In London the opera has recently only appeared in concert so it was a delight to find Santa Fe Opera doing a production, the first time that the New Mexico festival has produced the opera. Samuel Barber's 1958 opera Vanessa still has not quite found a place in the repertory, existing on the fringes. Zach Borichevsky and Erin Wall in Vanessa Samuel Barber's fascinating yet rarely performed opera in lush new production Samuel Barber Vanessa Erin Wall, Virginie Verrez, Helene Schneiderman, Zach Borichevsky, James Morris, dir: James Robinson, cond: Leonard Slatkin Santa Fe Opera

Zach Borichevsky (Anatol) and Virginie Verrez (c) Ken Howard for Santa Fe Opera, 2016