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Exploring the gardens
OPERA REVIEW
SFO’s ‘traviata’ has ups, downs
A butterfly visits a sprig of lavender Sunday at the newly opened botanical gardens.
Hundreds turn out for public opening of Museum Hill site
By James M. Keller The New Mexican
L
a traviata returned to The Santa Fe Opera on Saturday night in a performance underpinned by strong musical contributions from three of its participants, all of them appearing in their company debuts. Two Americans proved laudable in their roles as the lovers whose love must not be: as the courtesan Violetta Valéry, soprano Brenda Rae, whose engaging voice and scrupulously constructed technique propelled her through a role that has sunk many a contender; and, as Alfredo Germont, tenor Michael Fabiano, whose virile, warm-hued instrument draws together tonal richness and dramatic edge even though it still floats buoyantly in the
Please see TRAVIATA, Page A-4
Brenda Rae stars as courtesan Violetta in The Santa Fe Opera’s new production of La traviata. COURTESY KEN HOWARD/SANTA FE OPERA
Bob White of Santa Fe takes photos of the plants at the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill on Sunday. PHOTOS BY JENNIFER WEST/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Adele Oliveira The New Mexican
Fire losses shine light on risky building Taos County strives to educate property owners about dangers in woods By J.R. Logan The Taos News
TAOS — In the wake of the 1996 Hondo Fire that burned 33 structures, Lama resident Celina Stumpp described the extent of the destruction wreaked on her family’s home. “It’s a two-story house reduced to a wheelbarrow worth of stuff,” Stumpp told a reporter with The Taos News just days after the blaze erupted. Places like Lama — rural communities tucked up against national forests — have always been at risk to wildfire. But in the 16 years since the Hondo blaze, the West has seen a dramatic increase in the damage caused by fire, in part because private development continues to go gangbusters along forested public lands. Federal agencies say building in these areas — known as the wildlandurban interface, or WUI — is making it more costly and more dangerous to fight major fires. While the federal government is urging local governments to tighten building codes
Please see FIRE, Page A-4
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-4
T
he Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill opened to the public Sunday, after a gala Friday evening and a members-only opening Saturday. More than 2,000 garden-goers strolled among Juniperus scopulorum (Rocky Mountain juniper), Melampodium leucanthum (blackfoot daisy) and Cylindropuntia whipplei (snow leopard cholla) as many of the 2,000 monarch butterflies released Saturday lingered on fragrant lavender and rose shrubs. The Museum Hill gardens join two other outdoor sites managed by the Santa Fe Botanical Garden: the Ortiz Mountains Educational Preserve and the Lenora Curtin Wetland Preserve near La Cienega. The Santa Fe Botanical Garden was founded in 1987, and in December 2006, the group acquired 11 acres
Two-year-old Gigi Cole of Santa Fe makes seed balls at the Cornerstones Community Partnerships booth at the public opening of the Santa Fe Botanical Garden at Museum Hill on Sunday.
Riding wave of excitement, Pope Francis goes on tour By Anthony Faiola The Washington Post
On the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, the Rev. Stefano Nastasi threw the ecclesiastic equivalent of a Hail Mary pass. Legions of largely Muslim refugees looking for a better life in Europe were reaching the island from North Africa only to perish, be turned back or be sent to languish in camps. Troubled by their plight, the priest dispatched
Comics B-12
Education A-9
a letter to the Vatican: Would Pope Francis come and highlight the humanitarian crisis in his new back yard? When the answer finally came, Nastasi said he was as surprised as anyone: Why yes, in fact, the Holy Father would. In something of a trial run ahead of the first major trip of his papacy — a week-long visit to Brazil that begins Monday — Francis touched down on the island July 8 and promptly acted in a way that got observers
El Nuevo A-7
Opinions A-11
buzzing about the rise of a revolutionary pope. Only days earlier, Mercedes-Benz had presented Francis with a new bulletproof “Popemobile.” But the first Latin American pontiff, who has largely rejected the lavish trappings of his office, traveled around the island in a borrowed, open-top Fiat. His predecessor’s words once sparked riots in predominantly Muslim countries. But from an
Please see POPE, Page A-5
Police notes A-10
Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
Tech A-8
of land on Museum Hill in a long-term lease from the city for a new garden. The garden was designed by landscape architect W. Gary Smith (read an article about the design in last week’s Pasatiempo) and the plan was approved in 2011. Phase one of the garden (phase two and three are yet to be developed) features a meadow area, an orchard, a dry garden, an art trail, a drainage and water-catchment system called La Rambla, and Kearny’s Gap Bridge. The 62-foot long bridge, made of steel and painted bright red, spans an arroyo that cuts through the garden. It was built in 1913 and originally stood along N.M. 283, southwest of Las Vegas, N.M. Garden admission was free Sunday, and several family-oriented activities were available to visitors, including worm composting and coffee-filter-butterfly making. At one
Please see GARDENS, Page A-4
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Free youth concert performed by the Miami String Quartet at 10 a.m.; music of Berg, Schulhoff and Brahms at 6 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave., tickets available at the SFCMF box office, 982-1890, santafechambermusic.com, or 988-1234, ticketssantafe.org. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Today Thunderstorms in spots this afternoon. High 90, low 63. PAGE A-12
Obituaries Mary Roybal Carter, Nambé, July 19 PAGE A-10
Time Out B-11
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 203 Publication No. 596-440