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© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
© Jen Judge for The Wall StreetJournal
© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
© Jen Judge for The Wall Street Journal
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Explore a diva's desert hideaway
By Nancy Keates of The Wall Street Journal
Patricia Racette — a leading U.S. soprano — and her partner, mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton, travel about 10 months of the year. For the other two months, they built a home in the middle of the desert on the outskirts of Santa Fe, N.M.
On 12 acres, with walls of glass revealing vast views of the lunar-like landscape, the one-bedroom, 2,900-square-foot house with a separate two-bedroom guest house is so secluded its residents have met only one neighbor in the two years they've lived there.
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Explore a diva's desert hideaway
All the room's a stage
For the two opera singers, peace means good acoustics.
To that end, the house's roof slants up over the main living and dining area, which gives the top of the house the same trajectory as a piano lid. No two walls are parallel to each other in the living area, shown here.
The angles prevent sound from bouncing back and forth, so when they sing, or when Clayton plays her Yamaha C5 piano, the music fills the room.
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Explore a diva's desert hideaway
Everyone ends up here
The occasional parties with opera singers happen in kitchen, which has rift-sawn oak and metal cabinets.
Explore a diva's desert hideaway
Master bedroom
Despite the house's acoustics-friendly elements, Racette and Clayton wanted it to be different from the over-the-top opera sets on which they spend much of their time. They kept the furnishings austere and the colors neutral. The landscape around them, with the sunsets and sunrises behind the mountains and the bright light all day, is dramatic enough, they say.
Shown here is the master bedroom.
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Explore a diva's desert hideaway
Guided by voices
To keep their voices from drying out in the desert, the couple equipped the entire house with a humidification system.
The master bathroom, shown here, has a huge, glass, walk-in double steam shower.
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Explore a diva's desert hideaway
Mountain view
The angled roof and slanted walls also open the house up to the views of the Sangre de Cristo and Jemez mountain ranges.
Most of the back side of the house consists of walls of steel-framed windows, some of which open to a covered patio that wraps around the house outside.
Explore a diva's desert hideaway
The owners
Racette, left, who grew up in New Hampshire, made her debut at the Santa Fe Opera in 1996 and was struck by the city's climate, air and unusual terrain.
Invited back the following year to perform the role of the heroine Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata," she met Clayton, right, who was playing Violetta's best friend, Flora, in the production.
Racette has since performed in most of the major opera houses around the world.
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