On a hot, dusty Saturday morning in late June, I met with lighting designers Rick Fisher and Duane Schuler in Santa Fe, NM, during the opening weekend of the 2007 summer season at Santa Fe Opera. Fisher designed three of the productions for the Opera's 51^st season — La Bohème, Daphne, and Tea: A Mirror of Soul (July 2007, p. 72) — and Schuler, the other two (Cosí Fan Tutte and Platée). Over breakfast burritos and blue-corn pancakes, we discussed their history with Santa Fe Opera and the company's challenging and somewhat unusual repertory lighting system and intern program.

Duane Schuler: Director John Copley asked me to design Madame Butterfly here 11 years ago. I'd been here once before to meet with John Conklin to discuss a new Ring Cycle for Chicago. That must have been 20 years ago. After Madame Butterfly, I came back every summer and designed two to three shows; last year was an exception, when I did four.

Rick Fisher: I was brought out by director Daniel Slater to do Woyzeck seven years ago. What's interesting about Santa Fe from a management point of view is that they do more than other managements. Because they were bringing me out to do one thing, they suggested me to directors who didn't know me, which was good. So I ended up doing Egyptian Helen with director Bruce Donnell. It's great that they are active in helping a designer make new links.

DS: Before I got here, Craig Miller had been the lighting designer for many years. I came the year after he passed away. The seat you are sitting in when you are designing is the Craig Miller memorial seat. He was here for a long time. Now there is the new theatre, but the stage platform didn't change. The entire roof was raised about 6', but the positions and coves are pretty much in the same places and still a little small for 5kWs with scrollers and HMIs. The followspots are now behind glass, which is good for the operators as it gets cold and windy up there. The big difference is the larger number of circuits and dimmers.

RF: The raison d'être is that you never see a lighting fixture here, which means there are certain things you can't do, but the shows look magical as the light is just there…

DS: …which is good for the surroundings.

RF: It helps preserve the idea you are doing opera outdoors, even though now it's semi-outdoors. The new roof covers the audience, while the old one had a 20-row gap over the expensive seats.

When John Crosby started this opera festival, there were no festivals or much regional opera in the US. The idea of a residential festival in a place that couldn't sustain an opera house has left an important legacy. It has inspired a lot of opera in America on a big scale.

DS: The unique thing is that almost the entire stage crew is made up of apprentices, some of whom come back as staff. During the off-season, the assistant technical director and prop master do the USITT circuit and go to colleges to interview for apprentices in all areas, from lighting to the chorus.

RF: Training has always been a core part of Santa Fe Opera in every area.

DS: We have eight lighting apprentices who hang and focus all the shows. A back rep plot is hung, a plot that's been around a long time with a backlight system of ETC Source Four PARs and Wybron CXI scrollers. Those are not re-focusable and stay intact. Every other lamp can be focused. Last year, when I did four shows, I modified a few things.

RF: They hang fixtures anyplace they can, as long as the audience can't see them.

DS: Focus is every day at 6pm when there is a lot of daylight, so they have to put down focus tape or a focus ground cloth.

RF: Imagine focusing 200 or 300 lights with gobos and shutters in broad daylight with two teams. It's the lighting equivalent of the Tower of Babel. If you saw it, you'd wonder how anything is ever right. It's very labor-intensive as the labor is here. It's also worth noting that the apprentices are paid…

DS: …better paid now than 10 years ago.