Santa Fe puts on lightning, opera show

THESE were our kind of nosebleed seats.

The best seats at the open-air Santa Fe Opera theater start about 7,000 feet above sea level, seven miles outside this fabled tourist town and just below the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. My wife, Joyzelle, and I were shut out of those -- they cost as much as $170 each and were sold out months in advance of our July visit. But our $72 seats, about as far back on the upper tier as you can sit, were only slightly higher, and splendid sight lines and acoustics made the extra distance almost irrelevant.

We had come to the Santa Fe Opera to see a performance of Richard Strauss’ “Salome.” But the action on stage can be almost secondary to an excursion here, which is part high culture, part carnival and part light show.

The stormy skies in this part of the New Mexico desert provide the light show: Like clockwork, hot desert air builds up over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (which means “Blood of Christ” in Spanish), ballooning into spectacular thunderheads. By late afternoon those clouds are bristling with lightning bolts.

The concert hall, which is surprisingly intimate, is covered to protect against summer thunderstorms but open on the sides, revealing panoramic views of the watermelon-colored high desert and the surrounding mountains. So when our attention wandered from the operatic action, we crooked our heads to the left and watched nature’s drama.

The rumbling and flashing were thematically appropriate as John the Baptist, onstage in “Salome,” predicted disaster, and the strings rumbled ominously.

The opera season, which runs from late June through August, is a big event in northern New Mexico. Santa Fe is teeming with aficionados, and the touristy downtown becomes even more of a zoo. Our hotel, Las Palomas, was well suited for a weekend of music and scenery; we paid $183 per night (460 W. San Francisco St.; [505] 982-5560, www.laspalomas.com).

Spread over two parcels on neighboring streets near Santa Fe’s plaza, the hotel consists of adobe casitas -- dark, cool miniature homes crammed next to one another -- with comfortable king beds and a small kitchen.We slept late, had a terrific lunch drowning in green chile sauce at Tia Sophia’s Restaurant just off the plaza (210 W. San Francisco St., [505] 983-9880) and whiled away the afternoon reading and catnapping. The opera didn’t start until 8 but we wanted to get there early to witness a Santa Fe phenomenon: the pre-curtain opera tailgate party.

In the spacious parking lot about 15 minutes northwest of downtown, patrons pulled up in their SUVs and unloaded folding tables covered with fine linen and pulled out flatware and elaborately prepared picnic dinners. Joyzelle and I went the declasse route. We got boxed salads from Trader Joe’s.

A rabbit scooted around under our feet as we gorged ourselves at picnic tables next to the parking lot. We still had time to kill, so we joined the crowd on the theater’s outdoor patios, watching the sunset and the lightning kick up. It’s no knock on the terrific performance that the build-up to the opera was as memorable as the show itself.

The 2007 Santa Fe Opera season begins June 29. Single ticket sales are underway; (800) 280-4654, www.santafeopera.org.

nicholas.riccardi@latimes.com