Seattle Opera

The facade of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center, seen from Kreielsheimer Promenade, with the Space Needle in the background

The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often with double casts in major roles to allow for successive evening presentations.

The second, and current, general director of Seattle Opera since 1983 is Speight Jenkins. Since August 2003, the company has presented operas in the Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, built on the site of the old Seattle Opera House at the Seattle Center. The company does not have a full-time music director. In October 2007, Seattle Opera announced the appointment of Asher Fisch as the company's principal guest conductor.

The Ross years

From the outset, Ross saw opera as something that had to be sold using similar techniques to those used to sell popular entertainment. "To sell opera…you have to get their attention with a little razzle-dazzle. You've got to be simpatico. You have to be able to communicate, and you have to deliver your message with the best possible product you can manage." In 1970, H. C. Schonberg of the New York Times contrasted the Seattle Opera's approach to marketing to the then still staid marketing of New York's Metropolitan Opera: "Out there, you see campaign buttons with the legend Opera Lives. It is in Seattle where you can look at the sky and find an airplane skywriting the virtues of Seattle Opera. There are even auto bumper stickers about opera." Further, Schonberg remarked favorably on the "air of freshness and experimentation that contrasts vividly with the dull, tried and true, tired professionalism in other opera houses one could mention."

Richard Wagner at the Seattle Opera

The company is noted for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner, including the Ring cycle. In 1975, it was the first American company to perform the cycle in its entirety over the space of a week since the Metropolitan Opera did it in 1939.

First Ring Cycles, 1975 to 1983

Beginning with a production of Die Walküre one year, and following successively each year with Siegfried and, finally, Götterdämmerung, Ross announced in 1975 that Das Rheingold would precede the others to make up the first consecutive Ring Cycle over six days in July. In spite of the modernization of the opera productions which Ross found at the Bayreuth Festival, Seattle's were to be traditional productions and appeal to the lovers of the traditional.

Two back-to-back cycles of the Ring, one each in German and English, were presented annually between 1975 and 1983. Andrew Porter's English adaptation which was prepared for the English National Opera and which was priced below the German language cycle, introduced many new listeners to Wagner. Originally directed by George London with designer John Naccarato, later presentations were directed by Lincoln Clark between 1976 and 1983, and by the tenor, Ragnar Ulfung in 1984. Henry Holt conducted all the cycles. The performances were well attended and received good press.

By 1982, the cycle was drawing opera lovers from all over the United States, as well as many other countries of the world, and Seattle appeared to be a serious rival to Bayreuth.

Ring Cycles today

Audiences for the 2001 Ring cycle came from 49 states and 19 countries, and the production was a sold out many months before opening. For the 2005 Cycle, Jane Eaglen returned to sing Brünnhilde; the director was Stephen Wadsworth, the set designer was Thomas Lynch and Robert Spano conducted. All performances of the Ring Cycle are now given in German.

In the summer of 2009, the Ring Cycle was performed three times with the most recent productions. Greer Grimsley appeared as Wotan, Janice Baird as Brünnhilde, and Stephanie Blythe as several characters including Fricka and the Valkyrie Waltraute.

Speight Jenkins and Wagner

Jenkins was appointed general director in 1983. He believed in the future of the company's Ring Cycle and was eager to create a new Ring production. In addition, he stated a goal of producing all ten of the major Wagner works in Seattle and, beginning with Tannhäuser, Jenkins' goal was achieved over the following nineteen years with an August 2003 production of Parsifal.

Performers

Seattle Opera draws some of the world's best opera singers to its stage. Some of the notable performers who have appeared in productions include:

• Harolyn Blackwell- A regular figure on the Seattle Opera stage during the 1990s and 2000s, her credits with the company include the title roles in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Delibes's Lakmé.
• Kevin Burdette- Who debuted with the company in 2006 as Mustafà in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri.
• Richard Cassilly- who made his debut with the company as Manrico in April 1967 opposite Eileen Farrell's Leonora and Sherrill Milnes's Count DiLuna.
• Jane Eaglen- who made her American debut as well as her Seattle Opera debut in the company's 1994 production of Bellini's Norma.
• Renée Fleming- who made her debut with the company singing the title role in the 1990 production of Dvořák's Rusalka.
• Nuccia Focile- who has appeared in several productions with the company including the title role in the 2007 production of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris and Violetta Valery in 2009's La traviata.
• Andrea Gruber- who has sung numerous roles with the company including the title role in Verdi's Aida
• Ben Heppner- who performed his first ever Tristan in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with Seattle Opera in 1998.
• Brett Polegato- who made his debut with the company as Henry Miles in the 2005 production of Jake Heggie's The End of the Affair.
• Alberto Remedios- who appeared as Siegfried in The Ring Cycle with the company in the 1970s.
• Gidon Saks- who has appeared in several Wagner productions with the company.
• Beverly Sills- who made her debut with the company in 1965 as Mimi in Puccini's La Boheme. It was the only time she ever created that role on stage.
• Joan Sutherland- who portrayed Lakmé for the company in 1967.

Conductors and directors

Seattle Opera often invites guest directors and conductors to take part in its productions. Notable conductors and directors include:

• Christopher Alden- who made his debut with the company conducting Mozart's Don Giovanni.
• Nicola Luisotti- who made his debut with the company in 2005 conducting Verdi's Macbeth.
• Richard Pearlman- who conducted the first professional production of The Who's rock opera Tommy starring Bette Midler with the company in 1971.
• Bartlett Sher- who made his opera directing debut with the company's production of Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra.
• Robert Spano- who conducted the 2005 and 2009 productions of The Ring Cycle.
• Werner Torkanowsky- who conducted the 1974 production of Boito's Mefistofele.

New operas

Seattle Opera supports the creation of new operas and has commissioned several works throughout its history. New operas performed by the company include:

• Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men (1970)
• Thomas Pasatieri's Black Widow (1972)
• Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas (1998)
• Marvin David Levy's Mourning Becomes Electra (2003, premiere of revised version)
• Daron Hagen's Amelia (2010)

References

Notes

Sources

• Jones, Nard (1972). Seattle. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385018754. OCLC 532396. 

External links

• Seattle Opera official website homepage
• Interview with Archie Drake by Bruce Duffie, August, 1987

See also

List of important opera companies