The Santa Fe Opera was founded in 1957 in a 480-seat open-air structure in the middle of the desert. After a few particularly rainy seasons every seat is now sheltered, but the venue retains its open air sides. On the night I was there a thunderstorm actually rolled across the city, and it was awesome to be able to see the lightning and hear the thunder and still enjoy the performance.
I saw a performance of Arabella - my first opera experience, and I was thankful for a couple of things. First, the program contained a complete synopsis of the opera (of which I had never heard) so I was able to read about it and know what was going on. Second, their seats all have awesome seat-back translators that translate into both English or Spanish. I had a spectacular time at my first opera, and would definitely go again - if the venue was as spectacular as Santa Fe's.
