Madame Mao in the desert: Michael Kennedy visits Glimmerglass and Santa Fe Opera Festivals.

Among American opera festivals, Santa Fe is the nearest to Glyndeburne both in high standards and in its general ambience. Its open-sided theatre, in the desert seven miles outside the town, must be one of the most spectacular locations for opera anywhere in the world. This summer it has staged five operas, among them the world premiere of Madame Moo by the Chinese-born Bright Sheng. This has a libretto by Colin Graham, who was also the producer and gave a lesson in how it should be done. It was no secret that he and Sheng had had their disagreements over aspects of Madame Mao, including Sheng's insistence on her murder of Moo by suffocation, historically untrue. Nor could someone accustomed to working with Benjamin Britten 40 years …