Works & Process to Preview Santa Fe Opera's 'Of One Blood'

Works & Process will present musical excerpts and a discussion with the creators of Santa Fe Opera's "Of One Blood" on Oct. 26, 2026, at 7 p.m. at the Peter B. Lewis Theater.

The event offers New York audiences an early look at a new opera that will not reach the Santa Fe stage until 2027. "Of One Blood" is composed by Brett Dean, with a libretto by Heather Betts. The work takes its material from letters, poems and speeches by Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, and traces their rivalry.

The Oct. 26 program pairs conversation with performance. According to Works & Process, audiences will join the creators for a discussion of the work and hear arias from the score in advance of the opera's American premiere at Santa Fe Opera in 2027.

The opera has a staged history behind it. The creative team from the world premiere in Munich returns for the Santa Fe production. Claus Guth directs. Five performances are scheduled at Santa Fe Opera between July 31 and August 26, 2027.

The choice of subject gives the piece a built-in dramatic engine. Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots — cousins, sovereigns and rivals — left behind an extensive written record, and Dean and Betts have drawn directly on it. The opera's title, "Of One Blood," points to the family bond at the center of the conflict the work traces.

For Dean, the Santa Fe production marks another major staging of his music by an American company. For Betts, the libretto builds a theatrical text from historical documents rather than an invented plot, shaping the queens' own words into the drama.

The Works & Process format fits the project's documentary sources. The organization has made its name presenting artists in an intimate setting, with creators speaking about works before or between full productions. The Peter B. Lewis Theater, the series' venue, will host the composers' conversation alongside sung excerpts from the opera.

Guth's involvement signals continuity between the Munich world premiere and the American staging. Rather than assembling a new production team for Santa Fe, the company brings back the group that first realized the work on stage, with Guth at its head as director.

The timing gives the preview a clear function. Just over nine months before the first Santa Fe performance, the Oct. 26 event lets audiences hear the score and learn the creators' thinking while the production is still ahead — and before American critics and audiences render their verdicts.

The five-performance Santa Fe run, running July 31 through August 26, 2027, will be the opera's American premiere, following the earlier Munich world premiere. Between now and then, the Works & Process evening on Oct. 26, 2026 stands as the first chance to hear "Of One Blood" in New York and to hear Dean and Betts discuss how the queens' letters, poems and speeches became an opera.