There is a particular satisfaction in welcoming back a singer who once passed through our apprentice program, especially when they return to sing one of opera’s most formidable roles. Max Potter, who was an apprentice artist at Opera Southwest, returns this month as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. We like to think we recognized something early. Whether we can claim any credit for what followed is, naturally, another matter entirely.
Santuzza is not a role for the fainthearted. She spends much of the opera in a state of considerable emotional distress, much of it entirely justified, and Mascagni has thoughtfully provided her with some exceptionally demanding music in which to express it. The role requires a singer who can move between wounded vulnerability and outright fury, sometimes within the space of a few measures. Max, happily, has demonstrated a considerable aptitude for both.
Since her time with us, her career has taken her through a gratifyingly varied assortment of operatic circumstances. She’s sung Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, Mercedes in Carmen, and more. The first two are trouser roles, the third emphatically is not.
Her concert work has been no less varied, encompassing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem, and Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été. She’s also been involved in premieres and workshops of new American music, which we regard as an especially commendable use of a singer’s time.
Opera companies have a habit of describing returning artists as members of the family, a metaphor that can be stretched beyond its useful limits. Still, there is something genuinely pleasing about having apprentice artists return after such success. We think you’ll like hearing her as Santuzza.
Visit Max Potter’s website
Cavalleria runs October 25-November 1, 2026.
