Seattle Opera Blog

Tributes to Speight Jenkins

2026-06-02T12:01:38.709-07:00

As we continue to receive tributes from artists, friends, and former colleagues, we will update this post.

Speight Jenkins, left, and James Robinson, right, at a rehearsal for Seattle Opera's 2004 production of Carmen.
Seattle Opera, photo

James Robinson, Seattle Opera General & Artistic Director

"As we mourn the loss of Seattle Opera’s former General Director, we also celebrate the extraordinary impacts he made on the world of opera and the greater arts scene in the Pacific Northwest. Speight was a force, a true impresario who launched countless careers over the years. I had the opportunity to direct a production of Carmen for Speight in 2004 during the inaugural season in McCaw Hall, a theatre he was terribly proud of and one that remains among the finest in the world. Speight was exacting, demanding, and utterly committed to excellence. He remains an inspiration to so many of us who now lead opera companies in the US."

Left to right: Lawrence Brownlee, Speight Jenkins, and former Seattle Opera Board member Laura Lundgren at a reception for Seattle Opera's 2011 production of The Barber of Seville.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

Lawrence Brownlee, tenor

"Some people enter our lives and, through the simple yet profound act of believing in us, alter the course of our journey forever. Their faith becomes a steady light for us, revealing possibilities we might never have seen on our own and giving us the courage to pursue them. Many people have encouraged me throughout my career, but few have believed in me as faithfully and intentionally as Speight Jenkins. His support was endless and came not only in moments of success, but also in moments of uncertainty. He saw possibilities in me that I sometimes could not see in myself, and gave me opportunity after opportunity to hone my craft and establish myself as a serious artist. This is a monumental loss for me. Whatever I have or will accomplish will be thanks to my dear friend, Speight Jenkins. Thank you infinitively, Speight. Rest in peace!"

Stephen Wadsworth, left, and Speight Jenkins, right, posing with the animatronic swan from Seattle Opera's 1994 production of Lohengrin.
Seattle Opera, photo

Stephen Wadsworth, stage director

"Speight anchored my career. I directed 17 times for Seattle Opera, including in his first and last seasons—11 new productions and a number of revivals. Seattle was my home theater for his 30 years there. He was a brilliant, hands-on producer unique in American opera. His encouragement and loyalty spurred the careers of many singers and directors, and his blue-chip friendship was and remains singular—intellectually stimulating, steeped in laughter, and constant. He is the only impresario in history who regularly received frenzied, lengthy applause simply stepping before the curtain to make a pre-show announcement. On the last night of our Ring cycle in 2013, shortly before he retired, I called him out onstage for the summer’s final solo bow, and every single person in the theater rose as one and screamed. I’ve heard every great singer of the last sixty-five years, but to this day I’ve never heard an ovation like that."

Left to right: Jane Eaglen, Speight Jenkins, Francesca Zambello, and Ben Heppner during Seattle Opera's 1998 production run of Tristan and Isolde.
Gary Smith, photo

Francesca Zambello, Washington National Opera Artistic Director

"Everyone has a few people who believe in them when they are young and getting going—Speight Jenkins was one of those very special people for me. When I met him in 1986 it was because he brought my production of Faust to Seattle; he immediately followed by giving me a new production of Werther, a special gift for a young director.

"He was a true impresario in the classical sense. In his role as General Director, he was hands-on, always in rehearsals, always watching and making suggestions in a constructive way, softened by his charming Southern accent. He always phrased everything as a question when he was giving a note. A good lesson I tried to learn from him!

"The thing that joined us together more than anything was the months we spent putting together our monumental production of War and Peace which was presented during the USSR-USA Goodwill Games in Seattle in the summer of 1990. We developed every aspect of the production together from the designs to the casting. The cast included more than 30 soloists, plus a huge chorus, supers and ballet. We decided to cast the opera with half Soviet artists and half Americans, something revolutionary at the time under the baton of the music director of the Bolshoi Opera.

"When the Soviets arrived in Seattle (with their KGB “assistants”), it was a startling coming together at first. None of us had ever worked with so many Soviet/Russian artists and for them it was an overwhelming introduction to America and a freedom unknown to them. Over the weeks we spent together, we formed some lifelong bonds, some that still endure. The most powerful moments came as we witnessed the daily changing of the government in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev. A seminal moment was the announcement of the renaming of Leningrad to St. Petersburg. Speight and I held some of the artists as they wept for they felt they were regaining their city and their homeland. The message of the destruction of Napoleon and the French troops in Prokofiev’s opera was a powerful metaphor resounding around us as the U.S.S.R. cracked apart.

"The audiences greeted us wildly with long ovations after this more than five-hour uncut epic. I know for Speight it was one of the things he felt with the most pride. We had many other collaborations over the years, but this one stayed deep in our hearts always.

I will miss our many exchanges—always signed as 'Love, SP8.'"

Left to right: Speight Jenkins, Laurel Nesholm, and John Nesholm.
Seattle Opera, photo

John F. Nesholm, Seattle Opera Board of Directors Chair Emeritus

"Seattle, Seattle Opera, and the opera world have lost a giant. Speight brought Seattle Opera into the first rank of opera companies nationally and internationally. His groundbreaking productions of Wagner’s Ring attracted audiences from every state and dozens of countries. Speight’s manifold contributions to opera were extensive, influential and brought many into McCaw Hall. In retirement he continued teaching and inspiring others through his deep knowledge of and infectious passion for our beloved artform. He will be sorely missed."

Left to right: Asher Fisch, Dan Wallace Miller (in background), Speight Jenkins, and Peter Kazaras at a 2010 rehearsal of Tristan and Isolde.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

Peter Kazaras, stage director & tenor

"Everyone has a special story, or many, about Speight Jenkins. Some of them share a common throughline—madcap rehearsals ending in riotous laughter or a simple look of appreciation, lavish compliments given with childish glee, stories about great singers of the past, memories of amazing performances he had seen from the Met on tour in Dallas and later on in New York, and we all will remember forever his inimitable way of talking. It is implanted in my eardrums and nervous system, for sure. Has anyone else’s way of speaking ever made you smile so readily?

"But the one thing that truly sets Speight apart for me, and has done so since we first met, is his enthusiastic readiness to take a risk. He trusted his ear and, more importantly, his gut. If he felt “it” from an artist, he would trust that vibration and would give you more than enough rope to hang yourself with many times over. Fortunately, most of the time these gambles paid off in an important way both for the artist and for Seattle Opera. So many of us truly owe our careers to Speight, but more importantly, we came to understand how to fully be our artist selves thanks in part to our relationship with him and his unique mentorship style. In my case, he always gave me permission to disagree with him, especially once I started directing. He would listen to my point of view, and he’d let me know he trusted me to do the job he had hired me to do. His faith in an artist was a serious business, and so many people in our world today are doing what they do because Speight believed in them at a crucial juncture. And once he went to bat for you, he was in your corner for life.

"I tried to tell him how loved he was by so many folks several times, but of course he would shrug it off. He was not in the least sentimental about himself. If he were talking about Leonie Rysanek or Birgit Nilsson, then of course he would wax poetic. But despite his occasionally skeptical assessment of his own work and life, he did inspire tremendous devotion and love in countless others. I so hope he understood and felt this over these many decades."

From left to right: librettist Gardner McFall, composer Daron Aric Hagen, and Speight Jenkins.
Ken Howard, photo

Gardner McFall, librettist

"How sorry I am to learn of Speight’s passing. Speight Jenkins was a man of sensitivity, generosity, and vision. He made a space for my words in his opera house and encouraged the publication of my libretto for Amelia, the opera he commissioned and produced in 2010. I was very lucky to get to work with this gentleman. I’ve never known anyone so deeply knowledgeable, supportive, and kind, a giant in his field who made room for a poet’s voice and the voice and talents of so many others."

Left to right: Patrick Carfizzi, Speight Jenkins, and Lawrence Brownlee at a 2011 reception for The Barber of Seville.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

Patrick Carfizzi, bass-baritone

"Few have touched our lives and inspired as many people in this world as Speight Jenkins. He was a dear friend, a visionary, and a truly magnificent leader in the arts.

"He generously opened doors of opportunity for so many artists, sharing his guidance, wisdom, and passion for opera. From our very first meeting in his office, to witnessing his guiding hand as he observed our rehearsals, to a Christmas Eve spent with family, I have so many beautiful memories. I will always carry his smile, his wit, and the wisdom he shared in his unmistakable voice—they are blessings I will treasure forever.

"I would not be where I am today without him."

Melanie Ross, left, with Speight Jenkins, right, in the McCaw Hall lobby.
Seattle Opera, photo

Melanie Ross, former Seattle Opera Director of Artistic Operations/Season Planning & daughter of founder Glynn Ross

"I first met Speight when he came into my office at Seattle Opera on the 4th floor of the Center House Building. While it would have been the most natural and understandable thing were he to let me go, with his southern manners, Texan accent, and direct delivery, he said: 'I was told I’d be a fool if I didn’t keep you at Seattle Opera.' I hesitated, then agreed and I am eternally grateful for his vote of faith in me. Years later he wrote 'I have always been grateful for your generosity at that moment.' Who knew.

"Trying to find the right word for describing Speight as General Director is not easy. Most articles list leadership qualities as vision, communication, integrity and other like traits, but not passion. Yet, it’s the passionate people that take the biggest risks, that step up to the plate and help make the larger leaps forward. It’s their commitment to the work and to the people with whom one collaborates.

"That was Speight, on so many levels. He loved the emotional power of opera and he was an unflagging believer in what we all could accomplish; the driving force behind our endeavors and the key to unlocking our true potential. All this with his immense enthusiasm.

The thirty years I had with Speight were some of the most amazing, thrilling and absolute fun times. Serious and hard work—oh yeah. Laughter and huge smiles—so many. Always inspired, never boring. I will always hold those years near and dear to me."

Speight Jenkins, left, with Linda Brovsky, right, at a staging rehearsal for Seattle Opera's 2013 production of Rigoletto.
Seattle Opera, photo

Linda Brovsky, stage director

"In our ephemeral music world, Speight Jenkins seemed eternal. He showed all of us what opera could be in terms of excellence, collaboration, graciousness and, indeed, family. His humor and curiosity never failed nor did his passion for artists and opera. Whether making his famous recipe for fudge for the entire company at Christmas, passing around black-eyed peas to the cast at New Year’s, or treating us to one of his feasts on Opening Night, Speight considered us all family and made sure others did as well.

"I owe much of my career to this extraordinary man, even though I almost blew our collaboration. As a young director, I got a late-night phone call and the voice said, 'Hello, Linda, this is Speight Jenkins.' Thinking it was a friend's prank, I responded, 'Yea, right' and hung up. Fortunately, Speight called back saying, 'Linda, this really IS Speight Jenkins. I want to offer you a job. Don't hang up.' Through the years, he offered me 11 wonderful productions at the Seattle Opera, giving me the amazing artists, staff and support to do my best work. He sat by my side through countless rehearsals, offering insights and humor—often with his dog, Jasper, nestled between us.

"Speight was the first one I called when coming up with a concept for a new production. He had encyclopedic knowledge of our art form and yet had boundless enthusiasm when presented with a new vision. He willingly became my safety net as he dared me to fly higher with my dreams. Speight's friendship and love were steadfast and continued long after he retired. He was my artistic godfather, my mentor, and most of all, my cherished friend whom I will greatly miss."

Speight Jenkins, left, with Kelly Tweeddale, right, in the McCaw Hall lobby.
Seattle Opera, photo

Kelly Tweeddale, former Seattle Opera Executive Director

"I had the rare opportunity to work side by side with Speight for the last half of his Seattle Opera tenure (2000–2014). Many will talk about his contribution to the opera field, his contribution to the cultural legacy of Seattle, and his uncanny ability to identify talent and potential in its most nascent form. Where did that come from? Perhaps it was innate and further ignited by the courage and instinct of the Seattle Opera Board when they hired him as the company’s second General Director. He was offered the job even though he had never managed an opera company, served in a position of 'authority' or produced a live performance. Yet, he had something that no other curriculum vitae offered: an encyclopedic knowledge of opera’s history and the intuition that curating possibility would always outperform predictability.

"During our tenure together, Speight was a mentor, a teacher, a sounding board, and a trusted colleague. We had one thing in common: we believed in the power of people. Artists, audiences, and the Seattle Opera workforce didn’t disappoint, always electing substance over mediocrity. During his leadership, Seattle Opera built the highest per capita opera attendance in the country. Countless singers, directors, musicians, craftspeople and designers credit Speight and Seattle Opera for shaping them not only as artists but as humans.

"It is that human side of Speight Jenkins I had the fortune to witness, learn from and support. He was both student and observer of the human condition, a story that opera tells in epic form. Working with him was a force of nature, punctuated with infectious enthusiasm. He taught me to curate curiosity and commitment with an unwavering loyalty to the artistic process. Speight led with honesty and trust and had no tolerance for duplicity or deceit. Looking back, Speight assembled a team that knew how to turn up the volume on possibility and filter out doubt. We were a team of dreamers and doers. It was that type of focus that produced the 2001, 2005, 2009, and 2013 legendary Ring cycles. It was Seattle Opera’s collaborative nature that joined Seattle Center and Pacific Northwest Ballet to renovate the Opera House into today’s McCaw Hall. And it was the power of imagination that laid the foundation for the current adjacent Seattle Opera facilities.

"Perhaps nothing defines what was unique about Speight more than his attention to voice. It was not recognizing the 'operatic voice' that most credit him for; well-earned but in my opinion only one facet of understanding what he valued most. He was drawn to the individual and unique voice in all its forms. Speight demonstrated his own voice as an unrivaled writer and critic. He gave you a deeply reasoned and historic point of view, direct and distinguishable, often inviting debate. He crafted language to connect to the everyday reader, writing in a style that didn’t cater to an algorithm, rely on AI or exist to attract a social media 'follower.' It was a voice with distinct resonance and magnetism. He was a natural orator with a whirlwind wit that could cut through tension and introduce opera as if it was your new best friend. For many, he was opera’s most unapologetic evangelist. For me, Speight demonstrated that producing opera is as much about life as it is about faith. You have to believe that the curtain will rise, the high notes will soar, and the human condition is worth singing about. And when you truly believe, the naysayers are nothing more than noise. With deep expansive belief, you learn to listen. And when you listen, it’s then that you reach beyond the notes and truly hear the music."

Left to right: Evans Mirageas, audio engineer Rick Fisher, Speight Jenkins, and audio engineer Matthew Sutton at the launch of the 2013 Ring recording.
Evans Mirageas, photo

Evans Mirageas, Cincinnati Opera Artistic Director

"My introduction to The Speight Jenkins Dynamo Power Station was in the summer of 1986. I was producing a national radio broadcast series at WFMT Chicago which sent me to Seattle to create a program about the new Robert Israel/Francois Rochaix Ring. I had entrée to Speight through our mutual friend, the Seattle-based designer Robert Dahlstrom. Bob prepared me for the energy, incisive intellect, rapid speech and wicked humor of the man. I was by then, no stranger to opera producers. At home I was a keen observer of the formidable Ardis Krainik at The Lyric Opera of Chicago. My radio series had already given me the opportunity to interview the Sphinx-like John Crosby of Santa Fe Opera and the ebullient Terry McEwen at San Francisco Opera.

"But meeting Speight changed my idea of what an impresario could be. In the week I spent collecting interviews and attending rehearsals, Speight was everywhere—offering counsel, encouragement, keen-eyed advice and most of all, a presence at every rehearsal. His vast knowledge of not just Wagner, but the entire repertoire and generations of singers was awe-inspiring.

"He wore it lightly, never with an ounce of pretension. And while I am certain he probably drove his staff crazy at times, Speight’s standards of excellence, his love for the art form and ALL its practitioners was never in doubt. For the next twenty years we saw one another often, either in New York (where we both once were on the Met Opera Quiz—that was intimidating) and of course in Seattle. I’ve lost count of the number of times I saw Seattle Opera productions, but the 1998 Tristan stands out.

"In 2005 I was asked to take on the role of Artistic Director of Cincinnati Opera. My first call after getting the offer was to Speight. 'Help!' I cried! 'I’ve never run an opera company. Don’t I remember you had a similar rocket-trajectory of learning when you went from being a music critic to running Seattle Opera?' Or words to that effect. He chuckled and said: 'Come to Seattle as soon as you can. We’ll spend a couple of days, and I will tell you every rookie mistake I made in those first years. You’ll make plenty of your own mistakes, but at least you won’t repeat mine.'

"And so, I did. For these past 21 years, whenever I had a dilemma or a challenge, I’d call Speight. He was never too busy to offer advice, counsel, encouragement—there you go, those words again. He has been my model, a lodestar on how to treat artists and how to engage with patrons and donors. Who can forget coming into the renovated McCaw Hall and seeing ‘The Boss’ at the top of the stairs greeting every patron. I host all our pre-performance talks and post-performance talk backs—another Speight innovation.

"He entrusted me to be part of the team that created the live audio recording in 2013 of his last Ring—the incredibly beautiful production directed by Stephen Wadsworth with set designs by Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz and lighting by Peter Kaczorowski. I will treasure that privilege forever.

"Goodbye mentor and friend. You touched thousands of lives on both sides of the footlights, gave support to generations of performers and producers of this crazy art form and did it all with a selflessness and fierce dedication to excellence that all of us who came into your orbit will never forget."

Speight Jenkins Biography

2026-06-02T12:01:26.595-07:00

Rick Dahms, photo

Speight Jenkins

Seattle Opera General Director

Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera 1983−2014, was recognized nationally as a leading authority on opera, a politically active arts advocate, and one of the most influential and accomplished general directors in the country. His knowledge of opera was reflected in his company’s many innovative productions, substantial publications, and comprehensive education programs and services. Jenkins strengthened and extended Seattle Opera’s reputation as a Wagner center by producing all ten of Wagner’s major operas—including two very different Ring productions. In 2006, Jenkins held Seattle Opera’s first International Wagner Competition, developed to discover and promote outstanding young singers who showed promise of major careers in Wagner operas. Because of his passion for the arts and energetic leadership style, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Jenkins as a recipient of the 2011 NEA Opera Honors. The Seattle Times named Jenkins one of the 150 most influential people who have shaped the character of Seattle and King County, and Opera News cited Jenkins as one of the 25 “most powerful” names in American opera. In 2008/09, as Jenkins celebrated his 25th-anniversary season at Seattle Opera, Mayor Greg Nickels proclaimed April 25, 2009, “Speight Jenkins Day” in Seattle in honor of Jenkins’ “immeasurable contributions to the city’s cultural arts and civic life.” Jenkins received a Mayor’s Arts Award in September 2009. For more than three decades, Jenkins was an annual guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz. His opera previews of many Seattle Opera productions were broadcast on Classical KING 98.1, and his CD lectures on Wagner’s Ring became a mainstay in opera libraries. Prior to his work at Seattle Opera, Jenkins was an editor of Opera News, wrote reviews and articles for several publications including the New York Post, and hosted the Metropolitan Opera telecasts. A graduate of the University of Texas and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Jenkins earned his law degree at Columbia University and served four years in the United States Army as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He received honorary doctorates from Seattle University, the University of Puget Sound, and the New England Conservatory.

Highlights of the Speight Jenkins Era

2026-06-02T12:01:13.251-07:00

1983

Appointed General Director of Seattle Opera.

1984

For his first new production at Seattle Opera, Jenkins presented Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe. The Seattle Times announced, “If this production is any indication, the Jenkins era promises to give Seattle Opera some banner years.” Also presents his first new Wagner production, Tannhäuser.

1986

Presented Seattle Opera’s second production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, the Israel/Rochaix/Sullivan production. Peter G Davis reported in New York Magazine: “The responsible impresario is Speight Jenkins. . .give him credit for making a brave dream come true.”

Speight atop one of the Valkyries’ horses from Ring 2, 1985.
Gary Smith, photo

1989

Produced Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and choreographed by Mark Morris. The London Financial Times proclaimed, “America’s main tribute [to Gluck in the bicentenary year of his death] was a thoughtful, moving, and beautiful presentation of Orphée by the Seattle Opera.” That summer, a new production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg introduced Canadian tenor Ben Heppner to Seattle, singing his first Walther. The production also launched Seattle Opera’s series of broadcasts on KING FM, which continues today.

Seattle Opera's 1989 production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Seattle Opera, photo

1990

Produced Prokofiev’s War and Peace, heralded by the press as “the crown jewel of the 1990 Goodwill Games.” The production was the most complete version of the opera presented in America at that time. War and Peace featured artists from the Bolshoi and Kirov Theaters as well as American singers.

Seattle Opera's 1990 production of War and Peace.
Gary Smith, photo

1993

With glass artist Dale Chihuly designing the sets, presented a new production of Pélleas et Mélisande. Parts of these sets have been featured in the Smithsonian Institution and Seattle Art Museum retrospectives of Chihuly’s work.

1994

Speight brought Ben Heppner back to Seattle to sing the title role in Lohengrin in a production directed by Stephen Wadsworth and lauded as “visually striking, musically rewarding” (Opera News). And a provocative The Turn of the Screw production initiated Seattle Opera’s post-show Q&A tradition.

Speight speaking to audience members at a post-show Q&A.
Seattle Opera, photo

1995

Acknowledged by The Seattle Times as one of the “Top Achievers of 1995.” Produced fourth and final presentation of Rochaix/Israel/Sullivan Ring. Announced the team of Wadsworth, Lynch, Pakledinaz, and Kaczorowski for the 2001 Ring.

1996

Presented Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, featuring tenor Ben Heppner’s first performance in the title role.

1997

Presented new production of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, directed by Dieter Kaegi and conducted by Gerard Schwarz, with sets and costumes by Bruno Schwengl. This production featured the U.S. opera debut of Angelika Kirchschlager.

Seattle Opera's 1997 production of Der Rosenkavalier.
Seattle Opera, photo

1998

Presented a landmark new production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, directed by Francesca Zambello and designed by Alison Chitty, with Ben Heppner and Jane Eaglen singing the roles for the first time in their careers. It was hailed by The New York Times as “a Tristan und Isolde for a new century.” Opera News praised “Jenkins’ knack for assembling productions that combine theatrical flair with emotional communication.” Presented a new opera, Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas, in a co-production with Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Opera (also the first opera ever sung in Spanish at Seattle Opera).

Seattle Opera's 1998 production of Tristan und Isolde, with Ben Heppner and Jane Eaglen.
Gary Smith, photo

Left to right: Jane Eaglen, Speight Jenkins, Francesca Zambello, and Ben Heppner.
Gary Smith, photo

1999

Presented a new production of Weber’s Der Freischütz. Also presented the rarely performed American opera Vanessa by Samuel Barber. Presented the company’s first concert at Benaroya Hall, which featured soprano Jane Eaglen with conductor Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony in an all-Wagner benefit for the 2001 Ring.

2000

Presented Das Rheingold and Die Walküre from the new Ring production, which earned such praise as “it shows every sign of being a winner” from The Wall Street Journal reviewer Heidi Waleson. The Seattle Times named Jenkins one of the 150 most influential people “who shaped the character and course of Seattle and King County history.”

Speight, center, climbing the Das Rheingold set, with Associate Director Stanley Garner, left.
Gary Smith, photo

2001

Presented the new Wadsworth/Lynch/Pakledinaz/Kaczorowslci Ring, conducted by Franz Vote, which won a 2001 EDDY (Entertainment Design award) for the Ring design team and Seattle Opera’s Technical Department, Scenic Studios, and Costume Shop. Mike Silverman of Associated Press called the 2001 production: “a Ring of extraordinary beauty and theatrical vibrancy.” Joseph Horowitz in the London Times Literary Supplement wrote that Jenkins’ “version of the great Nibelungen cycle reaffirms his company’s stature as North America’s preeminent Wagner house.”

Das Rheingold from Seattle Opera's 2001 "Green" Ring.
Gary Smith, photo

2002

Made transition to Seattle Opera’s temporary performance space, Mercer Arts Arena, and commissioned three new productions specifically designed for the space: Salome, Norma, and Fidelio. Brought back to Seattle Opera sopranos Christine Goerke (her first Norma) and Jane Eaglen (her first Fidelio), and introduced Ewa Podles to Seattle audiences in her company debut as Adalgisa.

2003

Celebrated his 20th anniversary as General Director of Seattle Opera and, in August 2003, produced the first opera in the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, a new Rochaix/Israel production of Wagner’s Parsifal. In October, presented a revised version of Marvin David Levy’s Mourning Becomes Electra in a new production built by Seattle Opera and co-produced with New York City Opera.

Speight touring the site of the soon-to-be Marion Oliver McCaw Hall during its construction.
Seattle Opera, photo

Seattle Opera's opening production of Parsifal at the new Marion Oliver McCaw Hall.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

2004

Began the calendar year with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, which broke all previous Seattle Opera box office records with 13 sold-out performances. Concluded the 2003/04 season with a critically acclaimed new production of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and an enhanced production of Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West featuring the return of Andrea Gruber to Seattle Opera as Minnie. Ended the year with the 2005 Ring sold out (tickets sold out in November).

2005

Received the Anton Seidl Award from the Wagner Society of New York in acknowledgment for his “new and stimulating productions of all the canonical Wagner music dramas” as well as his work on the Ring (Jenkins is the first company director to receive this award, previously given to James Levine, Birgit Nilsson, Jon Vickers, and James Morris). In August, opened a sold-out Ring, marking the 30th anniversary of Seattle Opera’s first presentation of the complete cycle.

2006

In August, Seattle Opera created the inaugural International Wagner Competition. Honored by ArtsFund with an “Outstanding Achievement in the Arts” award; Opera News listed Jenkins as one of the 25 “most powerful” names in American opera; and Jenkins was named one of the 55 most influential people in the Seattle music scene by Sound Magazine.

Speight welcoming opera-goers at a reception.
Seattle Opera, photo

2007

Seattle Opera co-produced its first production with the Metropolitan Opera, Iphigenia in Tauris. The production, with sets and costumes built in Seattle, premiered in Seattle before traveling to New York.

2008

Seattle Opera’s first production of Bellini’s I puritani fulfills a long-held dream of Speight Jenkins. At the second International Wagner Competition in August, eight finalists competed for two $15,000 prizes.

Speight, left, congratulating one of the 2008 International Wagner Competition winners, soprano Elza van den Heever, right.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

2009

Speight Jenkins is one of five recipients of a 2009 Mayor’s Arts Award from Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. Nickels also proclaims April 25, 2009, as Speight Jenkins Day in honor of Jenkins’ 25th anniversary as General Director of Seattle Opera. In August, Seattle Opera’s Ring delights Wagner fans from all over the world.

Speight discusses the 2009 Ring production at a symposium event.
Seattle Opera, photo

2010

Premiere of Amelia, the first opera commissioned by Seattle Opera during Speight Jenkins’ tenure as General Director. The creative team of composer Daron Aric Hagen, librettist Gardner McFall, and director Stephen Wadsworth was chosen by Speight Jenkins.

From left to right: librettist Gardner McFall, composer Daron Aric Hagen, and Speight Jenkins.
Ken Howard, photo

2011

In August, an entirely home-grown production of Porgy and Bess is a huge hit in Seattle. In October, Speight receives the NEA Opera Honors Award.

Nina Totenberg, left, interviews Speight Jenkins, right, at the NEA Opera Honors Awards.
Michael G. Stewart, photo

2012

Speight and other representatives from Seattle Opera spend a week in China, participating in the World Opera Forum at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. Back home, the summer production of Turandot, introducing the director/designer team of Barbe & Doucet to Seattle, is a smash success.

2013

Seattle Weekly on the 2013 Ring: “What’s certain is that this presentation of Wadsworth’s highly popular and acclaimed 2000 staging is the company’s strongest performance yet of the epic—more vivid, more gripping, more moving than ever.

2014

Speight retired from Seattle Opera, concluding his 31-year term as General Director. To mark the occasion, Seattle Mayor Edward Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine proclaimed August 9, 2014, Speight Jenkins Day. Seattle Opera held a Celebration Concert in his honor, featuring performances from Nuccia Focile, Greer Grimsley, Stephanie Blythe, Joyce Castle, and Alwyn Mellor, among many others.

Speight, center-right, at the 2014 50th Anniversary and Speight Jenkins Celebration Concert.
Rozarii Lynch, photo

2015

On June 8, the City of Seattle named the stretch of 4th Avenue North between Republican Street and Mercer Street, at the northeast corner of Seattle Center, “Speight Jenkins Way.”

Christina Scheppelmann, left, poses with Speight Jenkins, right, underneath the street sign for Speight Jenkins Way.
Seattle Opera, photo

Our Hometown Star

2026-04-02T10:00:00.001-07:00

J'Nai Bridges as Dido in our 2025 concert performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens at McCaw Hall.
© David Jaewon Oh

Once hailed by Black Entertainment Television as “the Beyonce of opera,” J’Nai Bridges is a three-time Grammy winner who has performed at the top opera houses across the United States and Europe. Best of all, she’s our hometown star.

Raised just outside of Tacoma in Lakewood, WA, J’Nai describes her childhood as “well-rounded.” Alongside her siblings and parents, she played sports, took music lessons, went on family vacations, and attended church, where she sang in the children’s choir. Those early experiences planted the seeds for what would become an exceptional international career.

Today, J’Nai is a highly sought-after mezzo-soprano. She was part of the 2026 Grammy Award-winning live recording of Intelligence, composed by Jake Heggie.

J’Nai often credits her success to the community that raised her. “There are so many people from Seattle, Tacoma, and Lakewood who have poured so much love into me,” she said.

Among the local organizations that played pivotal roles in J’Nai’s development are Tacoma Youth Chorus, Charles Wright Academy, Tacoma Opera, and the College Success Foundation. The foundation coaches and supports under-resourced students preparing them to graduate from college as transformational leaders.

To honor the community that embraced her through the years, J’Nai frequently returns to the Pacific Northwest to perform at Allen AME Church and at various community events. She also appears at Seattle Opera. Most recently, she performed the role of Dido in our concert performance of Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Classical Voice said, “She has the majesty and dignity befitting a queen, and a lovely softness of grain in her timber which melted into the throbbing strains of the love duet…she found a new passion and intensity, both as a singer and as an actress.”

Now Seattle Opera is proud to showcase J’Nai, our hometown star, in Carmen.

Carmen is on stage May 2–17, 2026 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/carmen.

Welcome Back Sasha Cooke

2026-04-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

In our recent conversation with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, we discuss what she’s been up to since her last appearance in Seattle back in 2016, recounting several memorable performances. We talk about what it means to debut Carmen, particularly at this point in her career. What’s more, Sasha gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how she’s preparing for the show.

Seattle Opera: How do you feel about returning to Seattle Opera after being away for nearly a decade?

Sasha Cooke: I'm so excited, returning really means a lot. Seattle Opera provided a chance to debut a significant role once before and now, I’m coming back to sing an equally important part. When an opera company puts their faith in you, particularly when you're doing a role for the first time, the opportunity means so much more.

Plus, I love the Seattle Opera community. I was a young artist for a brief time in the 2000s. One personal memory comes to mind when I think about Seattle Opera. I had just given birth to my second daughter, and I needed a place to nurse during breaks. It just so happened that another singer had also recently given birth to a baby girl. The company created a little room where we could nurse the babies and then get back to rehearsal. That was special.

Seattle Opera: Well, you'll be glad to know that now the Opera Center, our newish administration building, has a nursing room.

Sasha: I’m not surprised. That is Seattle and fitting for Seattle Opera. I just love that. I love what the company represents, especially the ways it embraces the community and the idea of opera as a service to the community.

Seattle Opera: Since you were last here, you’ve performed at major opera houses and concert halls across the globe. You’ve premiered major new works, collaborating with some of the best composers, conductors, orchestras, and musicians in the world. This is a hard choice, but what are some of the most rewarding milestones of your career? 

Sasha Cooke and Kevin Burdette in Dallas Opera's world premiere of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
© Kyle Flubacker

Sasha: I love that question. I'm a firm believer that my current project is the most important thing I’m doing at that time. And I’m always grateful for each opportunity.  

My favorite premieres in the last ten years took place at Dallas Opera—Everest, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Both are by Joby Talbot (composer) and Gene Scheer (librettist). They were perfect moments, when everything comes together—you’ve got great creative teams, great music, great singers, and important stories that need to be heard.  

Another moment that comes to mind is a Carnegie Hall performance with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony. I sang Mahler’s song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde (Songs of the Earth).

A more recent moment happened just last year, the world premiere of American Lament with composer Jasmine Barnes. Part of our motivation was the 250th anniversary of the country. Jasmine and I were talking about poetry and text, and we kept coming back to a piece by Langston Hughes that begins, “Let America be America again.” We did American Lament in five cities, and this summer we're performing an orchestral version at the Music Academy of the West.

Seattle Opera: Well, that brings us to today. Why Carmen and why Carmen now?

Sasha: Gosh, well, you know, it's an interesting time to portray the kind of femininity in Carmen. When you study the score—really look at Carmen—you discover that she is a force who is destroyed by male domination, but she has peace with her fate. Fearless, you know? I've seen singers play the part in an Italianate way—crazy and all over the place—but, actually, Carmen is solid as a rock.

Seattle Opera: You've sung arias from Carmen over the years, so tell us how your relationship with the music has shifted over time and what it means to step into the full role now?

Sasha: I've been thinking about that very thing and how grateful I am to have lived experiences now. Coming to Carmen at this point in my life, I’m confident. Of course, I learned all the arias, performing them at various auditions, recitals, and concerts. I learned many of the pieces back when I was an undergraduate, and, maybe in high school, but I’m not sure about that.

As a classical singer, especially for mezzo-sopranos, Carmen is one of your first loves.

Legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves was Erda in Seattle Opera's 2023 production of Das Rheingold.
© Philip Newton

One of my earliest memories of Carmen was a Denyce Graves performance. I heard her in Houston and somehow, she came from backstage on a golf cart with her perfectly cute white dog. I thought to myself, “Whoa, is this what opera singers do—get wheeled around to meet the audience?” About ten years later, I sang the role of Mercédès with Denyce at Wolf Trap. I was a student at the time, and it was an incredible experience to witness her up close.

I performed Carmen in concert with my husband, who sang Escamillo, with our hometown orchestra. We were pregnant with our first daughter at the time. That was a special experience for us. Now, the opportunity to do a full production, I just can’t wait.

Seattle Opera: It's interesting. J’Nai Bridges, who is also singing the role with you, has told us that her perspective has changed as she's gained life experience.

Sasha: I would love to talk to J’Nai sometime about that and hear how she has shifted from performance to performance.

Seattle Opera: How have you been preparing for this debut?

Sasha: Well, with any debut, you want to “get it in the oven as early as you can,” so to speak. That way the role can cook slowly. I started working on it a year in advance. Now, I can just enjoy the character and not worry so much about the vocal piece.

One thing that intimidates me about Carmen is that she doesn't leave the stage in the first half of the show. She sings aria, aria, aria, aria. I’ve really worked on my stamina.

Currently, I'm getting into the nitty-gritty of acting because impostor syndrome can be a downfall. If I start thinking about “J’Nai did it better or Denyce did it better, or fill in the blank did it better,” then I’m going backwards. The remedy for imposter syndrome is preparation, putting the time in. Luckily, my sister teaches drama and wrote an acting technique book. She’s my acting partner as I prepare for a show. We read scripts together and talk about intentions and actions. That's a big part of my process.

And I took a few castanet lessons. And I studied flamenco-style and comportment and dance.

Seattle Opera: How many times have you worked with Paul Curran, the director, in the past?

Sasha: This will be the first time. I've seen many of his shows—at Rice University and in New York. Also, my husband worked with him at Santa Fe Opera. I've admired his work for some time. He loves singers, and in the small community of singers, he has a great reputation. Paul is one of the best. He comes from the theater world, and he was a dancer. He brings a natural physicality to what he does.

Carmen is one of the greatest roles ever written, musically and dramatically. So, as a woman in her forties, I’m happy for the opportunity. It’s one of the best moments of my life. I'm just super excited about the entire production.

Carmen is on stage May 2–17, 2026 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/carmen.

Stories from the Lavender Names Project

2026-02-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of the Lavender Names Project

To extend the reach of this important story, the Fellow Travelers tour consortium is partnering with the American LGBTQ+ Museum on the Lavender Names Project, a nationwide, grassroots archival research and community outreach initiative that will share the stories of LGBTQ+ community members who were fired or discriminated against by local and federal governments. Here are a few of their stories.

Amber Ferenz

I was discharged from the US Army in February of 2001 under DADT [Don't Ask, Don't Tell] at Hunter Army Airfield. Before my discharge, I won Soldier of the Quarter at Brigade level, and was serving in a MI unit as an Arabic linguist. During the competition, I ran two terrifying miles on feet that I could not feel because of the cold. I was secretly living with my girlfriend off base, and I knew it was only a matter of time before someone figured me out. One afternoon I was sitting at the base promotion office, too tired to get out of the car. I was watching the dust move in the watery sunlight when the dust stopped moving, and I heard a voice: “If you want to continue to be a good person, you have to get out, and you have to do it now. You don’t have much time.” Then the dust started moving again, and the sky was still there. I found that in that timeless moment I had quit, and just needed to find the door. I found it during Sergeant School, where I outed myself to the Commandant and First Sergeant. They sent me home after trying to get me to go back in the closet and unsay what I had said, and I went through all of the ritual humiliation a quick month-long queer outprocessing can offer. I hit the Appalachian Trail with my girlfriend, and we hiked for a few months until I knew I was going back into classical music.

Leon Ingall

I never met my cousin Leon Ingall and Warren Kronemeyer, his partner of 58 years. Twenty years after their deaths, I learned that Warren required extra support as the primary caregiver of Leon who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Their social worker Janet asked why Leon wasn’t receiving support from the VA. Warren confessed that Leon had no health benefits. Leon was discharged from the military without honor because he was homosexual. I was able to procure Leon’s Section 8 discharge papers from the National Archives. Despite his skills as an intelligence observer and translation, he was deemed mentally unfit for service. Warren and Leon’s social worker urged them to have a Vermont civil union in 2001. They were reluctant to do so as gay gentlemen of a certain era, but they realized that this was the only possibility of receiving the care they needed.

Story shared by Andrew Ingall

Steve Marose

In 1988 after college, I joined the Air Force as an aircraft maintenance officer. This was pre Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and gay men and women were being drummed out of the military as unfit for service. As my sexual identity blossomed, I battled with how to live the covert double life that was required of LGBTQ military members at that time.

Meanwhile I was distinguishing myself as a top officer—honor graduate from Aircraft Maintenance Officer training, branch of the year, vice president of the Company Grade Officers Council. It all came crashing down in 1990, when an investigation into an enlisted friend led to my being court martialed for 3 counts of consensual sodomy and 2 counts of conduct unbecoming an officer (for going to an off-limits gay bar and for letting an enlisted guy stay at my apartment for a short period). I was facing 17 years in prison, and even though the prosecutor publicly commented that I should just be discharged, I was sentenced to 2 years at Fort Leavenworth.

After my release, old friends told me that a light had gone out in me during that time. But you know what? Another had been ignited because I emerged as a militantly out gay man. Never again would I deny who I was—for any company, for any person, not for a single second. Over the next couple decades, as I became more active in the gay rights movement, I witnessed a sea change in attitudes, not only in the military but in the country as a whole. So much progress has been made for LGBTQ Americans. We can serve our country openly and proudly, marry the ones we love, and live our lives unabashedly true to ourselves. My ex-husband is now married to an openly gay Commander in the Navy. In so many ways, it got better.

In the follow up piece to my CBS interview in 2023, it was reported that the Pentagon was going to finally start looking into discharges for sexual orientation during Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and then look back before that. The CBS reporter insisted my case played a huge role in that. In the summer of 2024, the Biden White House announced they would pardon thousands of veterans who were convicted under Article 125 purely based on their sexual orientation. I was one of only a handful of veterans who even applied due to the stringent criteria, and 4 US representatives wrote a letter to the pardon chief on my behalf demanding I be fully pardoned. I also applied for a discharge upgrade through the Air Force review board, applied for veterans benefits, and for a NEXUS pass to be able to travel to Canada despite my felony charges (which Canada promptly approved on their end). The decisions on all my applications were not made until just after the change in administrations, and other than receiving ONE pardon, all were denied.

There’s hope though—when my discharge upgrade review was finalized in late 2025, the original denial was overturned and I am now an honorably discharged veteran. I’m continuing to appeal the rest. No matter the outcome, I live my life without shame.

Frank Kameny

Frank Kameny served in World War II and later worked at the US Army Map Service after earning his Harvard PhD in astronomy. Soon after, he was questioned about his sexual orientation, refused to answer, and was fired—then banned from all future government work. He fought back, becoming the first person to pursue a sexual orientation civil rights case in U.S. courts.

Kameny went on to become the first openly gay candidate for Congress. His activism helped remove homosexuality from the list of psychiatric disorders in 1973, led to the repeal of D.C.’s sodomy laws in 1993, and gave us the rallying cry “Gay is Good.”

Bree Fram

Bree Fram is an astronautical engineer, public policy expert, author, speaker, and retired US Space Force colonel. She was forced to retire from the military at the end of 2025 due to Presidential policy regarding transgender people. In her final assignment she was stationed at the Pentagon where she developed the requirements for future Space Force capabilities. Bree came out publicly as transgender on the day the transgender ban in the military was dropped in 2016. She transitioned while in a command position and served through the re-imposition of a transgender ban from 2019–2021. At her dismissal, she was the highest ranking out transgender officer in the military and she was the first, and only, out transgender officer selected for and promoted to the grade of O-6.

Prior to recommissioning into the Space Force in 2021, Bree served 18 years in a wide variety of Air Force positions including a Research and Development command position and an oversight role for all Air Force security cooperation activity with Iraq. In earlier assignments, Bree served in the Air Force Directorate of Strategic Plans, as a Legislative Fellow at the US Capitol on the staff of Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo, several tours as a program manager for satellite and technology programs, and deployed to Qatar and Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Bree has appeared on national and international media, including ABC and NBC Nightly News, France 24, BBC, PBS News Hour, and NPR. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Defense One, Military Times, Inkstick, and LGBTQ Nation.

Bree recently announced that she is running for Congress in Virginia.

Fellow Travelers is on stage February 21–March 1, 2026 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers.

Are you a member of the LGBTQ+ community who has been impacted by employment discrimination by the government? The Lavender Names Project wants to share your story. Your photo will be included in a visual archive that will appear on stage at the end of each performance. Learn more and submit at americanlgbtqmuseum.org/lavender-names-project.

A Conversation with Kevin Newbury

2026-02-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

Kevin Newbury, Stage Director of Fellow Travelers. © Marcus Shields

This February, Seattle Opera will present Fellow Travelers, one of the most frequently performed new operas of the past decade, in collaboration with New York-based artistic collective Up Until Now, as part of a national project that brings this important story to stages across the country. We sat down to chat with Kevin Newbury, Director of Fellow Travelers, about his experience bringing this story to life over the last 10 years, the importance of telling queer stories, and how this show continues to impact audiences.

Seattle Opera: You've been with this story since the beginning, tell us how this book became an opera

Kevin Newbury: I have been with the Fellow Travelers opera from the very beginning of the journey. My friend, Sterling Zinsmeyer, who's a producer, handed me Tom Mallon's novel right after it came out in 2007. He said, "You have to read this. This story must be an opera, and you need to direct it." I immediately fell in love with the main characters, Tim and Hawk and Mary. And I didn't know very much about the Lavender Scare or about this period in history when I read the book, so I also learned a lot.

We got right to work and commissioned Gregory Spears, the composer, and Greg Pierce, the librettist. We reached out to Tom Mallon and got the rights. And we premiered the opera at Cincinnati Opera in 2016. So, this is our 10th anniversary, and we are launching our 10th anniversary tour here at Seattle Opera.

Seattle Opera: What was the Lavender Scare, how did it manifest in government work, and why were LGBTQ+ people targeted?

Kevin Newbury: The Lavender Scare refers to one of the great witch hunts in American history. In April 1953, President Eisenhower issued an executive order that said it was illegal to be gay (what we would call LGBTQ+ now) and work in the US government. They considered sexual perversion to be a threat to national security. And 5,000+ men and women were fired from government service for either being queer or being rumored to be queer.

And Senator McCarthy, Joe McCarthy, was behind this. We think of communism as being the central tenet of McCarthyism, but the Lavender Scare was actually much bigger. They went after a lot more queer people than they did alleged communists. So it was the systematic persecution and firing of queer people across our government institutions.

Seattle Opera: Can you talk a little about how files were kept on people, how ironic it is that these files are hard to find or nonexistent now, and how that’s visually integrated into the show?

Kevin Newbury: One of the great ironies of this time period of McCarthyism and the Lavender Scare in the early '50s is that it was all about keeping files on people, keeping records, spying on people, filing away their stories. And the great irony is that these files have never been released; many have been destroyed or hidden away. It sounds almost impossible to think that they would release these files now.

So, it's more important than ever to share these stories, collect these stories, and shed light on our shared LGBTQ+ history. Our current administration is actively attempting to erase our history, so it makes Fellow Travelers more important than ever.

These files date back to World War II. That was when these anti-gay policies were codified and introduced all the way through the Lavender Scare —the Don't Ask, Don't Tell period. And sadly, this current moment when so many people in our queer community, especially our trans and non-binary brothers and sisters are losing their jobs and getting banned from the military and being spied on and reported on. This is kind of a second Lavender Scare that we're living through.

Seattle Opera: Tell us about the Lavender Names Project.

Kevin Newbury: One of the most exciting parts of this Fellow Travelers project is something we're calling the Lavender Names Project. We are collecting photos and stories from queer people across the country and their chosen family, their relatives—some of these folks are no longer with us. It's the largest ever archival research and community outreach initiative to remember our history that I know of. And these photos and stories will live on stage at the end of the opera in a visual memorial. They will end up at the end of the tour at the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York City. This is a collaboration with the museum and archival researchers and universities and libraries all across the country, including the Library of Congress, the Lambda Archives in San Diego, and many other incredible organizations.

I'm really honored to be spearheading this with my team. So, if you know anyone that has ever been prosecuted or fired or subject to harassment at the hands of federal, local government, or the military, please do share your story or share your loved one’s story, because it would be an honor to include and remember.

Seattle Opera: Do you have a particular story from the Lavender Names Project that really resonated with you?

Kevin Newbury: I've been connecting with people all over the country through this Lavender Names Project, including Colonel Bree Fram, this amazing trans woman. Colonel Bree Fram was the highest-ranking trans officer in the armed forces, and she was fired in 2025 during this administration's ban on trans folks in the military, and she just announced that she's running for Congress in the state of Virginia.

We're so honored to share Bree's story in the Lavender Names Project alongside queer legends like Frank Kameny, who is the godfather of gay rights; he lost his job after working as an astronomer in the US government in the late 1950s. And Bree Fram also worked in aeronautics or astronomy, whatever you call it. So, it's kind of chilling that we've come full circle to this moment when brilliant people that want to serve their country are fired or not allowed to enlist or to run for office, whatever it might be, because they're LGBTQ+. I mean, we've made so much progress over the years, and our rights are in danger right now across the board in this country, and it's more important than ever to fight for them.

Seattle Opera: You’ve been directing this show since its inception, how have you seen its impact differ as it’s performed in big and small cities across the country?

Kevin Newbury: Fellow Travelers has been all over the country. I like to say that we have performed in America's biggest cities and in her heartland. And everywhere we go, the show has such an impact. We have sold something like 25,000 tickets across these 14 productions. We're so excited to bring the opera to cities and communities that haven't seen it yet and we'll also be returning to some cities that have hosted their production.

Seattle Opera: How have you seen people impacted by this story?

Kevin Newbury: One of the great things about Fellow Travelers, the opera, is that people stay in the lobby after the show for as long as they can, and all of these incredible intergenerational stories and conversations unfold. I've heard people come out to their family members in the lobby, or say "This happened to my grandfather in the 1950s, but he was never able to talk about it before he died." So, it's a very cathartic, moving experience for people.

We did the production in Norfolk, Virginia, Virginia Opera in 2023. And Norfolk's a fairly conservative military town, and we had this wonderful contingent from NATO that came to our dress rehearsal. And on opening night, this woman ran up to me, and she was crying and she said, "Kevin, can I give you a hug?" And I said, "Of course you can." I'm always open for a hug.

She said, "I have to tell you that my husband and I were at the dress rehearsal, and my daughter is trans and my husband and my daughter have not been speaking for two years. And after the dress rehearsal, he called her up; she's moved back in and they haven't stopped talking for two days. He changed his mind and you've saved my family."

That kind of impact is just such an honor to be part of a show that opens hearts and minds and encourages people to be more open.

Seattle Opera: This story began as a look back at a moment in history, but it's becoming clear this era hasn't remained in our past. What makes this story so relevant right now?

Kevin Newbury: Unfortunately, we're living through a second Lavender Scare. There are so many people in our country that are being targeted right now, but speaking about the LGBTQ+ community, our government is actively trying to erase our history. Our government is taking over our cultural institutions in DC, cutting funding for the arts, so a story like this is sadly more important than ever. I often say that this is the right piece for whatever time this is, because I would not call it the “right” time. And as a queer kid growing up in Auburn, Maine, at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and '90s, I never saw any representation of the queer community other than the endless news cycle about gay people dying from HIV and AIDS.

So it's more important than ever for me to share this gay love story. And showcasing intimacy between men or same sex intimacy on stage has always been really important to me, so people can see themselves represented. And the show—it's a sexy show. Can I say sexy? I mean, Heated Rivalry is the most popular show in the world right now. The Fellow Travelers miniseries was also very charged.

Hopefully the opera doesn't disappoint in delivering a story that really portrays love between two men in an honest way, physically and emotionally. And we need these stories more than ever right now.

Seattle Opera: What does telling this story mean for you as a queer director?

Kevin Newbury: Wow. If I could go back and tell my closeted, queer, teenage self that I would be building a career as a director across mediums—I direct opera, theater, film, television—and telling queer stories is just... I feel like it's my mission in life.

I love intergenerational conversations. I love to spend time with other queer folks and our allies, from kids in their early 20s that are just coming out and realizing who they are to people my age, to my friends and in their 80s and 90s, and all the new friends that I always meet throughout the course of this production.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a queer artist, making work at this very difficult moment for our country. And I believe in the power of art to build community. I believe that we stand on the shoulders of the people that came before us who fought so hard for us to have the rights that we have now. And I believe in the power of a really good love story. And Fellow Travelers is first and foremost a really beautiful love story, and it connects with audiences from all sorts of backgrounds, generations, and political persuasions.

Even though it takes on some serious issues and this kind of scary moment in our history serves as the backdrop for this story, the show is also really funny and really moving, and it moves at a really fast pace. It feels more like a Broadway musical than an opera in some ways. It has a lot of excitement, a lot of action, and I can't wait to see you all at the theater. I'm going to be at all the shows, so if you see me in the lobby, tell me what you think and come and share your love story.

Seattle Opera: Anything else you'd like to share or add that you want our audiences to hear?

Kevin Newbury: The music in Fellow Travelers is so beautiful. Greg Spears's score is lush, romantic, tuneful. It just invites audiences in, and it's such a wonderful experience to be in the theater with Greg's gorgeous music. And Greg Pierce's libretto is so taught and funny and insightful and romantic. And so the combination of Greg and Gregory's talents just lift up this story in such a beautiful theatrical way. Thomas Mallon's novel is wonderful. The opera is just such an exciting piece of theater. And then of course, the miniseries was also fabulous and the miniseries brought the story to even more people around the country and you can experience them in whatever order you want.

Come to the opera first and then read the novel and then see the miniseries or watch the miniseries and then come to the opera. But I just love that this opera has been around for 10 years and that the story continues to reach audiences across the country and hopefully across the world. Our plan is to take it everywhere.

Fellow Travelers is on stage February 21–March 1, 2026 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers.

The History of the Lavender Scare

2026-01-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

by David K. Johnson

In the 1950s, the United States was in the grip of the Cold War, a nuclear standoff with the Soviet Union. The struggle was seen by many not only as a military matter but also as a moral crusade against the threat "atheistic communism" posed to the values of the Judeo-Christian West. And homosexuality was at the center of the struggle.

We all know the story of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s charges that communist “Reds” like Alger Hiss had infiltrated the State Department and were passing secrets to the enemy. Few realize that McCarthy’s charges kept changing, and that several on his list of “security risks” in the State Department were not suspected communists but homosexuals.

December 15, 1950, U.S. Senate Report.
Source: National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, RG 46.

According to aides in the Truman White House, it was these charges about “sex perverts” and “lavender lads” in high government positions that really alarmed the public. And when the State Department confirmed in 1950 that it had recently fired 91 homosexuals, this admission seemed to corroborate McCarthy’s otherwise groundless charges, soliciting a flood of mail thanking the Senator from Wisconsin for his fight exposing “sex depravity” in Washington. The Reverend Billy Graham, the most famous evangelical preacher of the post-war era, praised McCarthy for exposing "the pinks, the lavenders, and the reds."

In the wake of McCarthy’s revelations, congressional committees held hearings on the question of homosexuals-in-government and whether they posed a danger. Military intelligence officials and local vice squad officers unanimously testified that gays and lesbians posed a threat to national security because they could easily be blackmailed. But they offered no proof. They could not point to a single example of a gay American citizen who had betrayed classified information. But facts mattered less than pre-conceptions.

1952 Republican presidential campaign poster.
Source: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library

In January 1953 Republicans were swept into the White House with the slogan, “Let’s Clean House,” a not-so-subtle crusade to rid Washington of the communists, fellow-travelers, and homosexuals who, they argued, had accumulated there during the previous twenty years of Democratic control. One of President Eisenhower’s early acts was to replace Truman’s loyalty system with a much more aggressive security system. It specified that “sexual perversion” was grounds for termination. With executive order 10450, McCarthy’s fear mongering had the force of law. It began a systematic effort by every agency in the federal government to find and remove all employees suspected of being gay or lesbian.

Under the Eisenhower security program, all government employees were subject to investigation for issues of character and suitability--any issue that might affect their vulnerability to blackmail. Security officials would interview employee's friends, family, neighbors and colleagues, looking for telltale signs. They focused on signs of gender non-conformity, such as odd choices of dress or gait. Associating only with members of the same-sex or having friends who were gay was seen as evidence of homosexuality.

The surest way of proving homosexuality was an arrest record in a known gay cruising area. In Washington, D.C. the National Park Service had set up a "Pervert Elimination Campaign" in Layfette Park, across the street from the White House, which for decades had been a notorious place for gay men to surreptitiously meet. Hundreds of men were brought in for questioning, their names and places of employment recorded, even if no arrests were made.

If suspicions were raised during these investigations, a government employee would be brought to an interrogation room, denied the right to an attorney, and grilled about their past behavior. Security officials would often begin with this question: "Information has come to our attention that you are a homosexual. What comment do you wish to make regarding this matter?" Officials would drop names of "known homosexuals" to establish guilt by association; ask if one had frequented known gay hangouts; even ask about one's latest sexual acts. They would pressure employees to name names.

The State Department, where the scandal began, was particularly aggressive in ferreting out suspected homosexuals. It established a Miscellaneous M Unit to deal with "morals" issues, providing special training to investigators on administering polygraph examinations. They claimed eighty percent of homosexual interrogations ended in a confession. Seeing it as sport, they boasted "our batting average now one a day."

In what became known as the Lavender Scare, thousands of government employees lost their jobs. Some tried to hide, marrying friends of the opposite sex in "lavender marriages." A few who experienced humiliating interrogations and the threat of exposure took their own lives.

May 1965 picket by the Mattachine Society of Washington in front of the White House protesting federal treatment of "15 million U.S. homosexuals."
Source: Bettmann/Getty Image

Long outlasting the cold war, the Lavender Scare inspired the first LGBT pickets outside the White House in 1965. Legal challenges by a few courageous gay activists limited the policy, but the government did not stop investigations into homosexuals in national security positions until the presidency of Bill Clinton.

While the legal situation has changed, animus towards LGBT people remains, and fearmongering in the style of Joseph McCarthy continues in new forms. Would-be demagogues proclaim that drag queens are endangering children, and that transgender individuals in bathrooms pose a threat to women. Some claim that the U.S. military is so pre-occupied with trans-issues that it’s neglecting our national security, putting Americans in danger. As with McCarthy, they have no proof of any of this, yet it has already resulted in restrictive legislation at the state and local level, and a ban on transgender military service members. At least one FBI agent was recently fired for displaying a rainbow flag. Is another Lavender Scare brewing?

David K. Johnson is a historian and award-winning author of The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians. His book formed the basis for a documentary film that appeared on PBS and was a major source for Thomas Mallon's novel Fellow Travelers. He is Professor and Chair of the History Department at the University of South Florida.

Five Reasons to Hear Daphne in Concert

2026-01-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

by Jonathan Dean

With Daphne In Concert, two performances only on January 16 & 18, Seattle Opera offers another unique live musical experience, building on the success of our 2023 Samson & Delilah and 2025 Les Troyens. At an opera in concert, the full orchestra is onstage, with the singers pushed all the way downstage, so their voices are even closer to you. Although the show doesn’t feature scenery or costumes, the music, with a little help from lighting design & supertitles, will create the story directly inside your imagination. It’s a great way to experience incredible music like Daphne. And for a miraculous story like this one—where the heroine ((SPOILER ALERT!!!)) is transformed into a tree at the end—your imagination is the most powerful collaborator of all.

Apollo and Daphne, a marble sculpture made by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed in 1622–1625. © Wikimedia Commons

Here are five great reasons to join us for Daphne:

Glorious Orchestra. Daphne is one of the final masterpieces in the mighty tradition of German Romantic opera. The challenges posed by Beethoven’s Fidelio, Wagner’s Ring, or Strauss’s other mega-orchestra operas (Salome, Elektra, and Der Rosenkavalier) keep the players of our fantastic Seattle Symphony at the top of their game. From the opening duet for oboe and basset horn, which (along with the alphorn) introduce Daphne’s “bucolic tragedy;” to the wild dances for the Feast of Dionysus midway through; to astonishing musical images of sunrise, sunset, moonlight, and the play of light and breeze on the transformed Daphne’s branches, twigs, and leaves, Daphne is a spectacular story-told-by-orchestra. This music is by turns enchanting, surprising, thrilling, heartbreaking, and rapturous as anything in opera. It’s short, as operas go; only one act, less than two hours. But thanks to our terrific players, your ears are in for a hugely satisfying feast of sound.

Mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges as Delilah from our January 2023 concert presentation of Samson and Delilah. © Sunny Martini

Spectacular Voices. All the world knows and loves Richard Strauss’s music for orchestra, including the famous “Mountain Sunrise” from Also Sprach Zarathustra (think 2001: A Space Odyssey). But the composer himself loved voices more than all other instruments. He wrote dozens of operas and songs and even married an opera singer. Seattle Opera has some of today’s most exciting singers coming to town for Daphne, including four major house debuts: soprano Heidi Stober as Daphne; tenors David Butt Philip and Miles Mykkanen as her two suitors; and bass Matthew Rose as Daphne’s father. (We eagerly welcome back Melody Wilson as Daphne’s mother.) And we’ll hear several fine voices in supporting roles, plus the men of the Seattle Opera Chorus.

A Green Alternative to Turandot. If Daphne is so great (it is!), how come it’s not better known? Historically, Germany in 1938 was not a great time or place to introduce a gorgeous new opera. Actually, both the German and Italian Romantic opera traditions hit brick walls with the rise of Fascism. Going back fifty years, Verdi and Wagner had helped create the modern nations of Italy and Germany with their operas. But Puccini, following Verdi, and Richard Strauss, following Wagner, were composing Italian and German operas as Mussolini seized power in Italy and Hitler in Germany.

Puccini’s final masterpiece, Turandot, depicts a nightmarish world in which human life is monstrously devalued: the eponymous ice princess kills any man who desires her, and the plot turns on the sacrificial suicide-martyrdom of a slave girl nobody even noticed. Puccini couldn’t figure out how to make Turandot work, and when he died, in 1924, that opera was incomplete. (And stillborn: Turandot didn’t become popular until the 1960s.)

Our 2012 production of Turandot. © Elise Bakketun

A few years later, Richard Strauss was unable to collaborate on Daphne with his librettist of choice, Stefan Zweig. That terrific Viennese writer was Jewish; in 1938 he had already fled the Nazis, who forbade even the printing of his name on posters and programs for operas he’d written with Strauss. Zweig would commit suicide a few years later, in Brazil. Strauss spoke out against Nazi anti-Semitism, which he considered “a disgrace to German honor, as evidence of incompetence—the basest weapon of untalented, lazy mediocrity against a higher intelligence and greater talent.” Needless to say that attitude failed to win him friends among the Third Reich. They couldn’t kill him; he was a national treasure. But they did their best to silence him, or at least make sure people tuned him out.

In her opera Daphne, like Turandot, is pestered by the unwanted attentions of men. But whereas Turandot responds by transforming her world into an unholy death-factory, Daphne transforms into a tree, becoming one with nature and embracing, not the love of arrogant men, but a different kind of love—the love connecting river and earth, sun and shade, breeze and leaves. Following in the footsteps of the Wagner who created the Ring, Strauss gave us in Daphne one of of the world’s most potent Green operas.

The voice of Richard Strauss, matured. Strauss first made a name for himself, in opera, with the outrageous shockers Salome and Elektra. In his youth he was the most avant-garde of composers, leading the charge in terms of newfangled, nervous, neurotic, “modern” music. But he made an about-face once Schoenberg & co. started championing atonality and the twelve-tone system. The operas Strauss created around the time of World War One—Der Rosenkavalier and Ariadne auf Naxos—are beloved for their sweetly human comedy, seductive melody, and nostalgic fantasy. Daphne, composed much later, introduced the final period of Strauss’s career: music of compassion, wisdom, and beautiful peace. To this period belong the unspeakably beautiful Four Last Songs and Metamorphosen. Daphne, which concerns an unwed young lady beset by lovesick tenors, may look like a rom-com. But don’t forget: this song is sung by an old man, looking back and remembering how he figured out what he really valued in life.

The song at the end. When asked why she always bought a cheap standing-room ticket and stood through 4 ½ hours of Tristan und Isolde at the Old Met, an opera-lover on a tight budget once explained, “I like that song at the end.” Isolde’s “Liebestod” can indeed change your life—but so can the final scene in Daphne, modeled on Isolde’s astonishing transfiguration into a new and better life. Daphne opens her opera singing about how much happier she is among the trees and flowers, kissed by the breeze and embraced by sunlight’s warmth, than with the dull and uncouth men she knows. So when her opera concludes, a wish she never made is granted: she joins the trees, and sings about what it’s like to feel the sap flowing up into her roots, to feel her branches reaching up and out toward heaven, her leaves tickled by the wind, her spirit forever wed to the sun. And thanks to Strauss’s magical music of transformation, we get to share that experience with her.

Richard Strauss's Daphne in Concert is on stage January 16 & 18, 2026 at McCaw Hall.
For tickets and information, visit seattleopera.org/daphne.

Conductor David Afkham on Daphne in Concert

2025-11-21T15:23:00.000-08:00

Photo: Rafa Martín

Conductor David Afkham, Artistic Director of the Spanish National Orchestra in Madrid and a specialist in the music of Richard Strauss, will make his Seattle Opera debut this January in Daphne in Concert. Seattle Opera recently spoke with Maestro Afkham to ask him about Strauss’s daunting score and how he prepares to conduct a new piece for the first time.

Have you conducted Daphne before?

I have conducted many Strauss operas but this is my first time conducting Daphne, and that’s part of what makes this production so exciting for me. Strauss’s score is extraordinary—lush, transparent, and emotionally direct—and approaching it for the first time is truly an artistic gift: to discover new colors and connections in the orchestration. It’s a work that demands both great delicacy and great sweep, and discovering that balance together with the cast and orchestra will be surely wonderful. I think the audience will sense that energy: the feeling of a group of artists encountering a masterpiece and bringing it fully to life.

Strauss paints nature in sound—the rustle of leaves, the shimmer of sunlight, the sense of something divine just beneath the surface. The music surrounding Daphne’s transformation is some of the most transcendent he ever wrote.

Daphne is likely unfamiliar to many of our audience members. What do they have to look forward to?

Although Daphne is rarely performed, audiences have a remarkable experience to look forward to. At its core, Daphne is one of Strauss’s most radiant, lyrical scores—a one-act “bucolic tragedy” that feels both intimate and mythic. Listeners who love Der Rosenkavalier or Ariadne auf Naxos will immediately recognize Strauss’s gift for writing long, soaring vocal lines and sumptuous orchestral colors. But Daphne brings a very different emotional palette: it’s more elemental, more mystical, more attuned to nature. Strauss paints nature in sound—the rustle of leaves, the shimmer of sunlight, the sense of something divine just beneath the surface. The music surrounding Daphne’s transformation is some of the most transcendent he ever wrote. Also it is a fast-moving drama: at about an hour and a half, the opera has an unusual clarity and focus. There are no subplots—just a direct, emotionally charged story of innocence, desire, and metamorphosis.

What do you find most compelling about this piece?

Daphne stands out because it blends the human and the mythological so seamlessly. The opera feels like a meditation on our relationship with the natural world—how we long for it, exploit it, and ultimately seek refuge in it. Strauss captures Daphne’s inner life with incredible tenderness; she isn’t a passive mythological figure but a young woman whose purity and convictions set her apart from the world around her. And the ending—her transformation into the laurel tree—is one of the most unforgettable moments in the repertoire. Rather than depicting tragedy through violence or loss, Strauss offers a kind of cosmic transcendence: music that seems to dissolve the boundary between the human voice and the natural world. It’s haunting, elevating, and unlike anything else he wrote.

Strauss captures Daphne’s inner life with incredible tenderness; she isn’t a passive mythological figure but a young woman whose purity and convictions set her apart from the world around her.

Photo: Fadi Kheir.

What are some of the challenges this score presents?

Daphne is a deceptively demanding score—on the surface it sounds effortlessly lyrical, but achieving that transparency is one of its great challenges. There are a few challenges that stand out:

The balance between a large Strauss orchestra and an essentially intimate drama

Strauss writes with a huge palette, yet the emotional core of Daphne is fragile and inward. The challenge is to maintain orchestral richness without overwhelming the singers, especially Daphne, whose lines are often ethereal and exposed. Achieving that balance requires constant sensitivity.
Long, continuous arcs with very few natural “breaks”

The opera moves almost without interruption. For the conductor, this means carefully controlling large-scale pacing: tension and release, breath and flow. It’s an hour and a half of uninterrupted storytelling, and the architecture has to feel inevitable.
Extreme demands on the soprano and tenor

Daphne’s role is notoriously difficult—high, sustained, and relentlessly lyrical, often sitting in the most delicate part of the voice. Leukippos and Apollo require brilliant, heroic singing over heavy orchestral writing. Balancing ensemble, giving singers room to bloom, and supporting stamina across the evening is a major task.
Transparent textures that leave no room to hide

Unlike some of Strauss’s denser scores, Daphne depends on clarity. Woodwind lines must speak, string textures must shimmer, and harmonic shifts must feel weightless. If anything is even slightly out of tune or out of balance, the spell breaks.
The final transformation scene

This is one of the most extraordinary passages Strauss ever wrote—and also one of the hardest. It demands perfect control of orchestral color, a sense of inevitability in the tempo, and an atmosphere that feels both human and sublime. Creating that sound-world is a challenge I love: everything has to align so that Daphne’s metamorphosis feels transcendent rather than merely pretty.

Although this is your Seattle Opera debut, you have conducted the Seattle Symphony on multiple occasions. What have you liked about working with that orchestra in the past?

I have always loved working with the Seattle Symphony because they bring an ideal combination of technical refinement and artistic curiosity. They’re a group that listens deeply to one another, which makes it possible to shape long musical lines and subtle dynamic gradations. They are also very flexible: they show a remarkable ability to shift style, adapt their sound, and commit fully to the aesthetic world of the music.

And on a more personal level, I’ve always felt a genuine warmth from the players. There’s a sense of shared purpose in the room—a feeling that everyone is invested in making the performance special. That kind of atmosphere inspires you as a conductor; it lets you take risks, explore different colors, and bring out the character of the score in a very collaborative way. So stepping into my Seattle Opera debut feels less like arriving somewhere new and more like reconnecting with an artistic community I already admire.

Daphne in Concert runs for two performances, January 16 & 18, 2025. Tickets and information at seattleopera.org/daphne.

Praise for The Pirates of Penzance

2025-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Reginald Smith Jr. (The Pirate King, center) with members of the Seattle Opera Chorus in The Pirates of Penzance. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Audiences are raving about The Pirates of Penzance! Seattle Opera's first-ever Gilbert & Sullivan production, this topsy-turvy tale is a swashbuckling good time for the whole family. Read what critics have to say about this bright, colorful show and don't miss your chance to catch The Pirates of Penzance at McCaw Hall, now through November 1. Tickets and info at seattleopera.org/pirates.

The production itself is a delight. [...] Director/choreographer Seán Curran’s beautiful stage pictures and boisterous physical gags helped the script’s comedy feel fresh as ever. —The Seattle Times

Sweet tunes, dancing, patter songs and really funny jokes and really fresh rhymes [...] a perfect bon-bon of music all evening long. —British Theatre Guide

Vanessa Becerra as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Best of all was soprano Vanessa Becerra, in fine voice as Mabel, one of the Major General’s many daughters. Kudos as well to choreographer Seán Curran and lighting designer Robert Wierzel. —Forking Seattle

The performances by the Pirate King, Frederic, Ruth, and the Sergeant Major-General were absolutely hysterical, full of charm and comic timing. And the choreography? Fabulous! You don’t often see that much footwork in opera — unless someone’s tripping over a cape. —Out NW

Tess Altiveros (Edith), Erica Convery (Kate), and Elizabeth Peterson (Isabel) with members of the Seattle Opera Chorus in The Pirates of Penzance at Seattle Opera. Photo: David Jaewon Oh.

With first-class singers and brilliant staging, this English-language comedy about a pirate’s apprentice is the perfect blend of humor and song. [...] You laugh all the way through, even as the orchestra and singers produce music as beautiful as the operettas of Offenbach or the waltzes of Strauss. —SGN

Seattle Opera’s current production of The Pirates of Penzance (1879) enchanted Sunday’s matinee audience from its opening bars. This is the first of the Victorian “Savoy Operas” ever to be staged by the company, and it fills a void left by the now-dormant Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society. […] The current SO production makes a good argument for including English operettas in its repertoire going forward. —Post Alley

There's no such thing as operetta!

2025-09-10T11:00:00.000-07:00

by Joshua Gailey

Promotional poster for The Pirates of Penzance, c. 1880.
Source: The Library of Congress.

There’s a famous aphorism attributed to the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould: “there’s no such thing as a fish.” Though provocatively phrased, Gould’s point is simple: despite the usefulness of the term in our everyday lives, there is no strictly biological definition of what constitutes a fish. From an evolutionary perspective, some of the creatures we call “fish,” like starfish or jellyfish, have less in common with salmon than camels.

The same might be said of musical genres. We put a lot of stake in genres: they influence our personalities, the friends we hang out with, the clothes we wear. While we may know better than to judge a book by its cover, we gladly judge it based on its genre, especially when it comes to “low” ones like romance or horror. But when you start looking more closely, it becomes difficult to tell where the line should be drawn between this genre and that.

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, paragons of operetta, are a perfect example. Literally “little opera,” operetta has long been maligned as frivolous, amateur, or inconsequential compared to its more “respectable” cousin. Gilbert and Sullivan themselves were aware of these associations and thus avoided using the term, preferring to call their works either “comic operas” (evoking more artistic aspirations) or “Savoy operas” (in a savvy bit of branding promoting the Savoy Theatre where they were performed). Composer Arthur Sullivan was especially bothered by operetta’s reputation among the elite, and later in his career turned, quite unsuccessfully in the eyes of critics, to grand opera and oratorio, then the most prestigious genres in England.

The Savoy Theatre in London, where many of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas were premiered.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The operetta craze

It’s only in retrospect that the term “operetta” has been applied to Gilbert and Sullivan, to place their works in a lineage of theatrical spoofs from the last half of the 19th century that mocked opera itself. The term originated in Paris in the 1840s, when a musician known as Hervé began producing little one-act burlesques he called vaudevilles-opérettes and parodies-opérettes. The genre as we know it, however, coalesced with Jacques Offenbach, who in 1855 started referring to his immensely popular parodies, like Orpheus in the Underworld (1858), as opérettes. This was a time when opera was becoming increasingly pompous—think of the imposing music dramas of Richard Wagner, the hulking grand operas of Giacomo Meyerbeer, or the ambitious tragedies of Giuseppe Verdi. Operetta mocked these works mercilessly, taking aim at their contrived plots, their tedious conventions, and, above all, their flamboyant self-importance.

Seattle Opera's 2006 production of Johann Strauss's operetta Die Fledermaus.
Photo: Rozarii Lynch.

It was a winning formula. Offenbach’s nearly 100 operettas sparked a flurry of imitations, and soon enough new epicenters for operetta cropped up across Europe. The first was Vienna, where composers like Franz von Suppé and the “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss, developed their own Viennese versions, called komische Operette. Some of these pieces, like Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (1874), are still frequently seen on opera stages. The second, of course, was London, where in 1875 the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte commissioned William S. Gilbert, a staff writer for Fun magazine (a sort of Victorian equivalent of Mad magazine), and Arthur Sullivan, director of the school that later became the Royal College of Music, to create a one-act operetta, Trial by Jury, to pair with Offenbach’s La Périchole.

Opera vs. operetta

So what sets operetta apart from opera? Well, much like for Gould’s fish, it’s tough to come up with universal truths. One might say operetta’s mixture of tunes with spoken dialogue makes it unique; but then what do we make of Carmen or The Magic Flute, which feature the same? Perhaps it’s that operettas are shorter than operas, or less serious in tone? No, Pagliacci clocks in 15 minutes shorter than The Pirates of Penzance, and The Barber of Seville is just as goofy. Surely, then, it’s the fact that operetta takes opera itself as its subject of parody? Yet even here there’s precedent in the very origins of comic opera in the early 18th century, when little spoofs on opera called intermezzi (like Pergolesi’s La serva padrona from 1733) were peppered in the breaks between acts of a serious opera.

If there’s one characteristic that might hold true, it’s that operetta was more nakedly commercial than 19th-century opera. While Verdi and Wagner were writing increasingly complex music for state-sponsored (or eventually, in Wagner’s case, personal) theaters, operetta played in for-profit houses with promotional tie-ins and catchy tunes that aimed shamelessly for the sheet-music market. This legacy of commercialism is continued by the American musical, for which operetta, and especially Gilbert and Sullivan, provided the blueprint.

Sheet music, like this arrangement for solo piano of tunes from The Pirates of Penzance, was the primary way music spread commercially in the 19th century.
Source: The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive.

Ultimately, opera and operetta (and the musical, for that matter) are not all that different. Each tells stories on stage through music, and it’s equally common these days to see operettas produced at opera houses or commercial theaters. Thinking about genre helps us understand the contexts in which these works were produced, but we shouldn’t allow the baggage that comes along with it to dictate our listening habits. Opening our ears to the connections between musical traditions reveals a deeper appreciation for how art creates meaning in our lives. After all, there are many fish in the sea—no matter what we call them.

Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance is on stage October 18–November 1, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/pirates.

A Few Questions for the Pirate King

2025-08-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Grammy and Emmy Award winning baritone Reginald Smith Jr. makes his Seattle Opera debut in October as the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.
Photo © Jiyang Chen

After spending part of the summer at the Interlochen Festival, we had time to speak with baritone Reginald Smith Jr. In our chat with the Pirate King, we learn about why this role is special, his talented mother, and what he packs for life on the road.

Seattle Opera: Did you grow up in a musical family?

Reginald Smith: I'm blessed and fortunate that I grew up in a very musical family. I come from a family of musicians, singers, and preaching folk. I grew up in the church, and the music of the church. But I also had classical music all around me. I grew up in Atlanta and surrounded by black excellence—Spelman and Morehouse colleges, Morris Brown College, and Clark Atlanta University. My mother went to Morris Brown College and was part of the Marching Wolverines. She played clarinet from kindergarten all the way through college and participated in the university choir, and she danced.

So yes, I grew up with this great appreciation for the arts in general. I was a choir kid, from second grade all the way through college. I earned a music education degree. Tosca was the first opera I saw. That evening singing Baron Scarpia was Donnie Ray Albert. After hearing a Black man performing so very well, I got bit by the opera bug and pursued a career in opera.

Seattle Opera: But did you ever teach?

Reginald Smith: No, I did my student teaching, and then from there I went right into the program at Houston Grand Opera.

Reginald Smith Jr. as Porgy in Porgy and Bess at Washington National Opera.
Photo © Washington National Opera

Seattle Opera: What are three roles on your bucket list you’d like to perform?

Reginald Smith: Well, I’ve been fortunate to have performed roles that I've always wanted to do.

Seattle Opera: Oh, really?

Reginald Smith: I've performed the role of Falstaff, which I love doing. Then there’s Porgy from Porgy and Bess, a character I've always wanted to portray. I consider Scarpia from Tosca as my dream role. Mr. Scarpia and I get along very well. My career has been blessed by opportunities to sing pieces that I truly love. Of course, there are always pieces that I want to do, and I don't know if I'll have the chance. I've covered Rigoletto several times. Who knows if I'll get cast to do it somewhere? If it happens, great; if it doesn't, it's all good.

A show that I would love to do is Puccini’s Il tabarro, the first Il trittico. I've looked at Gianni Schicchi as well. That’s another opera that I’d like to do. If I had to pick something completely off the beaten path, it would be Sweeney Todd. Will it happen? Who knows?

Bringing this topic to The Pirates of Penzance is interesting because most of my roles have been bad guys and fathers. I perform them a lot. People know me for those characters. So, when I tell people I'm doing The Pirates of Penzance, they're like, ‘What?’ I love their reactions. I absolutely love it. I will say, I had the same reaction when my manager told me that Seattle Opera was interested in me as the Pirate King. I said, ‘Really, of all the people…me?’

Reginald Smith Jr. as the Pirate King in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre production of The Pirates of Penzance.
Photo © University of Kentucky Opera Theatre

Seattle Opera: Knowing that, is this your first time performing as the Pirate King?

Reginald Smith: Well, it is a professional role debut. However, I did perform the role of the Pirate King at the University of Kentucky where I studied. At the time I thought, ‘Well, this is great. I did it. I don't have to do this again.’ I put the score on the shelf, and then almost 15 years later, here we are. In many ways it's like a homecoming. Parts of it are very familiar and other parts I wonder, ‘Have I done this before?’ So, it's like doing it again from scratch. You know, having a little life experience helps and, of course, my voice is in a different place now, so I’m approaching the role differently.

Left to right: Actor Robert Newton as Long John Silver in the 1950 Disney film adaptation of Treasure Island; comical villain Captain Hook, modeled after Charles II of England, from Disney’s 1953 animated version of Peter Pan; actor Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow from Disney’s 2003 Pirates of the Caribbean.
Photos © Walt Disney Studios

Seattle Opera: Of these three pirates, which one will you most align your approach as the Pirate King: Long John Silver from Treasure Island, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, or Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean films?

Reginald Smith: Don’t forget Captain Morgan. Just kidding. I think I’m more like Jack Sparrow. He’s fun and says whimsical, witty things.

Seattle Opera: What are you binge-watching currently?

Reginald Smith: I like to channel surf. I’m a big baseball fan. I’m looking forward to going to a Mariners game—at least one or two while I’m in Seattle. I’m also a huge Disney fanatic. If anything, I’ll watch the Disney Channel.

Seattle Opera: One last question: What is the one item that you travel with?

Reginald Smith: My Roku TV device so I can watch my favorite channels. And I cook a lot. So, I travel with spices. Most Airbnbs will have salt and pepper, and that’s about it. So, I bring things like garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, Cayenne pepper, chili flakes, and other things.

The Pirates of Penzance is on stage October 18–November 1, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/pirates.

A Few Questions for Mabel

2025-08-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

We open our 2025/26 season with Gilbert and Sullivan’s nautical farce, The Pirates of Penzance. Soprano Vanessa Becerra is singing the role of Mabel and is making her Seattle Opera debut.
Photo © Andrew Morstein

Soprano Vanessa Becerra is eager to make her Seattle Opera debut in The Pirates of Penzance in the coming months. She’s equally eager to sing the part of Mabel for the first time…well, sort of. In this conversation, Vanessa clears the air about this role debut, talks about her childhood quest for pop stardom, and explains her desire to sing Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro. And you’ll have the opportunity to hear Vanessa again this season; she’s also appearing in Fellow Travelers in 2026.

Seattle Opera: When did you become interested in music?

Vanessa Becerra: In fourth and fifth grade I was addicted to pop music—Selena, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, and Spice Girls. I listened to the radio all the time and dreamed of being a pop star! I loved the idea of singing, but I didn't know how to go about being a pop star. I imagined sold out concerts and hearing my voice on the radio! My mom—my poor mom—just had to listen to me sing pop tunes all day. Then she found an afterschool children's choir for me. The choir was an opening for me.

Seattle Opera: Your selection of roles is wide—from one end of the opera spectrum to the other. Why the variety?

Vanessa Becerra: My repertoire reflects that I like all styles of opera. But there's nothing like singing a big French opera like Romeo and Juliet. It is just so luscious, very grand, and beautiful. I really like bel canto. My instrument (voice) does that well. My favorite roles are the ones where I get to be silly, play pranks, and find opportunities to be human.

Although unlikely to happen, Soprano Vanessa Becerra dreams of performing in Faust as Mephistopheles. Seen here is Greer Grimsley as the Devil in Seattle Opera’s 1998 production of Faust.
Photo © Gary Smith

Seattle Opera: While we’re on subject of roles, which ones are on your bucket list to sing?

Vanessa Becerra: I haven’t thought about this in so long, but I have several. The fact that I will probably not get to sing some of these parts is something to consider, but these roles are definitely on my list. Anne Trulove from The Rake's Progress is one. Then all four heroines in The Tales of Hoffman. That would be really cool. Another is Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. This next one might be out of the question: what about Mephistopheles from Faust? He's so evil. My all-time dream role is Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro. Crazy, right? Yes. I love Susanna, but I am obsessed with the play that the opera is based on. Figaro, the character, is my favorite opera character. Singing Figaro is number one on the list.

Seattle Opera: The Pirates of Penzance is produced by community theatres, youth performers, colleges departments and professional companies. Have you performed Pirates before?

Vanessa Becerra: The answer is yes and no.

Seattle Opera: Oh, explain.

Vanessa Becerra: Yes, as a professional this is role a debut. But in high school, my senior year, I sang Mabel. I still have the score from that performance. It has my notations from when I was 18 years old.

Seattle Opera: In what ways are you approaching the role differently from when you were in high school?

Vanessa Becerra: In high school, I was mainly concerned with getting everything right, making sure I didn't make any mistakes. I don't think I understood just how fun and playful Gilbert and Sullivan's repertoire is. This time, I am really excited to sink my teeth into the silliness of it all. It's so silly! And I love being funny. Comedy is hard. It's hard to make people laugh. I'm having fun looking for the little jokes and funny moments that are in this show. This cast is great. It’s going to be silly, silly, silly.

Love Island, the reality show, is one of Vanessa Becerra’s guilty pleasures.
Photo © Peacock

Seattle Opera: What are you currently binge-watching?

Vanessa Becerra: Oh my gosh, there's so much TV out there. Okay. Well, it's going to be kind of dated, but I watched all of Love Island when that was on. I really liked Your Friends and Neighbors on Apple TV, and then I think I might restart The Studio.

Coco is Vanessa Becerra’s four-legged companion. Unfortunately, Coco is not traveling to Seattle with Vanessa this fall.
Photo © Vanessa Becerra

Seattle Opera: What is the one item that you love taking with you on the road?

Vanessa Becerra: If I could, I would bring Coco, my dog. I wish I could bring her with me to Seattle. But I would have to drive. She’s a big dog. I’m going to miss her. But I always pack my yoga mat.

The Pirates of Penzance is on stage October 18–November 1, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/pirates.

A Few Questions for Major-General Stanley

2025-07-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Baritone Thomas Glass will make his Seattle Opera debut in The Pirates of Penzance this fall singing the role of Major-General Stanley.

Baritone Thomas Glass will sing the role of the Major-General in this fall’s production of The Pirates of Penzance. We recently caught up with Thomas in his hometown of Edina, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis, to discuss his childhood, his performance bucket list, and what he’s currently binge-watching.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was released in 2007, starring Johnny Depp. The Film was, in part, an inspiration for Glass to pursue a vocal career.
Photo © DreamWorks/Paramount

Seattle Opera: Is there a person or a piece of music that inspired you to sing?

Thomas Glass: I started piano lessons when I was five. My three siblings all took music lessons. My parents thought it was also good to play sports. I was in the chorus in high school and did musical theater. But the year the school put on Les Misérables, I played football instead. I saw the show three or four times. Shortly after that the movie Sweeney Todd came out. That got me thinking that I could study voice and have a career as a singer. My inspirations were family and musical theater. Then I auditioned for the Minnesota Opera Chorus. My second show as a member of the chorus was Kevin Puts’ Silent Night. That show inspired me to focus on opera.

Seattle Opera: What position did you play in high school?

Thomas Glass: I was an offensive lineman.

Seattle Opera: You recently played Starbuck in The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Moby Dick. Now you are singing the role of Major-General Stanley. Are you building a career by performing in shows with nautical narratives?

Thomas Glass: One day I'd love to get to be in Billy Budd. But it’s funny that this is the way things have worked out for me recently. This year, all four of my roles have military tones of some capacity. Starbuck wasn't in the military, but a whaling vessel is analogous to the military. Then I covered Antony in Antony and Cleopatra at the Met. Now I’m singing Major-General Stanley. At the end of this year, I’ll be a soldier in Silent Night. It’s a weird coincidence for sure.

Seattle Opera: What are the three roles on your bucket list to perform?

Thomas Glass: Oh, that's a great question. It's funny you asked because The Dutchman is on the list. Then there is Scarpia and Rigoletto. I'm sure there's a dozen more that I would sing in a heartbeat.

Seattle Opera: Do you have a guilty pleasure or hobby?

Thomas Glass: I read. I’m in the middle of three books right now. I’ve been on a huge Stephen King kick lately. I believe that opera needs more horror and thrillers. But having grown up playing football, I really enjoy playing dynasty league fantasy football with a group of good friends. It’s how we keep in touch, you know. Dynasty league allows managers to keep their roster of players season after season.

Tan France (right) made his scripted television debut in the Hulu comedy series Deli Boys. In the show, France plays a gang leader named Zubar.
Photo © Disney/James Washington

Seattle Opera: What are you binge-watching?

Thomas Glass: I just started a series on Hulu called Deli Boys. It’s a comedy series that follows two Pakistani brothers after their father is murdered. The brothers find out that their father was a massive cocaine distributor. These bumbling guys are suddenly tangled up in the criminal underworld. It stars Tan France from Queer Eye, who plays a hitman. It’s funny seeing him in a role like this. I'm like, ‘Good for you, man. You can act.’

Seattle Opera: What is one item that you must take on the road with you?

Thomas Glass: Do you mean something other than music? It’s my Theragun massager. I don't know how I did this job without it. Gym workouts and then, of course, being on my feet all day rehearsing, the massager is the number one thing that I can’t travel without. It restores my legs and butt at the end of the day. And if I can—if I have room for it—I have nice pillows with memory foam that I like to have with me. I've been to too many places with crappy pillows. If I bring my own pillow, it's gotten to the point where I'll buy a pillow after I get there and then donate it when I leave.

The Pirates of Penzance is on stage October 18–November 1, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/pirates.

Artist Statement by Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce

2025-07-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

In the 2025/26 season, Seattle Opera will present Fellow Travelers, one of the most frequently performed new operas of the past decade, in collaboration with New York-based artistic collective Up Until Now, as part of a national project that brings this important story to stages across the country. Read on for an artist statement from composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce.

Opera thrives on stories with rich subtext, where characters cannot fully express themselves in words. Both politicians and gay men and women in Washington DC in the 1950s lived in a world full of coded sensibility—a culture operating under the surface and in counterpoint with the rigid formality of 1950s mores. In our operatic adaptation of Thomas Mallon’s novel Fellow Travelers, the world of backroom dealings underpinning DC’s political life becomes a hazy reflection of the romantic relationship between US State Department employee Hawkins Fuller and a young reporter Timothy Laughlin. In both the political world of the McCarthy Era and the private world of Hawk and Tim, dialogue could only tell part of the story. The musical language for Fellow Travelers would need to foreground the undercurrent of clandestine machinations alongside the love and forbidden longing churning under the surface of the words.

In Tim and Hawk’s public interactions, love cannot simply “speak” its name. In the opening scene, we witness a conversation between both men on a park bench in Dupont Circle. To most 1950s bystanders, the conversation would seem unremarkable. To Tim it is a pick-up, filled with danger and anticipation. It is also for Tim, a sexual awakening. The music embodies both the excitement and the surface ordinariness of the exchange, a subtle tension familiar to anyone living in-the-closet. From this starting point, we looked for ways to express the innuendo-driven world of the couple while maintaining a relatively cool musical surface, reproducing in the other scenes the layered experience of the original park bench meeting. The score does this by blending two disparate styles: American minimalism and the courtly, melismatic singing style of medieval troubadours. Throughout the piece, minimalist passages represent the hum of office work—secretaries typing, interns rushing about—and McCarthyism’s political machine, ready to crush. The florid troubadour-like melodies, evocative of courtly longing, represent the passionate inner life of the lovers. These two styles are often present at the same time, generating musical tension and propelling the opera toward its tragic conclusion.

In an era where living “in-the-closet” is becoming increasingly rare, it seems important to put characters like Tim and Hawk on-stage — not just as historical victims struggling against homophobia, but as ordinary people fighting through life in an era where a public expression of love could threaten to destroy one’s world. Our hope is that the nuanced machinery of opera might play some small part reminding us of this history, while also preserving onstage the dangerous counterpoint that so often defined the gay experience in the mid-20th century.

Fellow Travelers opens February 21, 2026, at McCaw Hall. Learn more at seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers.

Happy Retirement!

2025-05-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

Seattle Opera Choristers Stephen Wall and Eleanor Stallcop-Horrox, Assistant Conductor Philip A. Kelsey, and Company Manager Paula Podemski have worked at the opera a combined total of 145 years, creating memorable opera experiences both onstage and behind the scenes. Tosca marks the end of their Seattle Opera careers, but before they start the next chapter of their lives, these veteran professionals shared some of their best memories. All agree that they are looking forward to being in the audience and staying in touch with their friends at the opera for many years to come.

PAULA PODEMSKI: CONCIERGE TO THE STARS

Locating nearby gyms, securing childcare, and arranging medical appointments are some of the day-to-day artist’s requests Paula has fulfilled as the Company Manager. Hired in 1993 as a Production Assistant, Paula became the Company Manager several years later. Coordinating visa applications, casting child performers, and recruiting supernumeraries have been some of her other duties.

Paula has a deep appreciation for supers because they’re volunteers who are required to attend rehearsals and perform in every performance. “It’s a huge commitment,” she says.

But in 1998, Paula encountered a few supernumeraries who weren’t willing to go the distance. She recruited 20 bodybuilders to appear shirtless in Tristan and Isolde, a task that took four months. “I went to gyms and powerlifting and bodybuilding competitions,” she remembers. Among the men who volunteered, a few weren’t very reliable. “At least two to four of them wouldn’t show up,” she says.

After 32 years at Seattle Opera, Paula will miss her colleagues and volunteers the most. “It’s like my second family,” she says. “It’s a group that puts aside personal agendas for the good of the whole, for the good of the show.”

PHILIP A. KELSEY: A MASTER OF THE RING

Philip has had a role at Seattle Opera since the 1983 Ring cycle when he joined the company as a pianist, making him one of the few staff members who’s worked on all three Rings. He remembers it as an exciting time as well as a labor of love, because of the commute from Portland.

Since then, Philip has been a Music Administrator, Assistant Conductor, and a Vocal Coach at the opera. “As a vocal coach, I help singers not only with language pronunciation, but also with comprehending the text,” he said. So, most coaches, like him, are language junkies. “I’m pretty fluent in German, I read French, I understand Italian, I’ve studied Russian, I’ve studied Japanese, I’ve studied Czech diction, and will happily try to pronounce just about anything correctly.”

What’s more, as the Assistant Conductor, Philip leads off -stage musicians and singers, and he plays the harpsichord when a production requires it. And during the company’s 2009 production of Pagliacci, he arranged an 11-minute chamber piece from music by Leoncavallo, which was played during the performance.

In retirement Philip plans on spending time with his four grandchildren—who live nearby.

ELEANOR STALLCOP-HORROX: MAID OF HONOR

It’s not easy being a member of an opera chorus. Sometimes the costumes are uncomfortable and the choreography confusing. Then there are times when you’re required to sing from the catwalk high above the stage. But long-time soprano Eleanor Stallcop-Horrox loved it all. “The catwalk was a bit scary,” says Eleanor, who has been a member of the Seattle Opera Chorus since 1997.

Eleanor fondly remembers her 2008 role in Elektra. “I was the Fifth Maid. I thought I would sing ﬁve notes. There were three pages!” she says. Mary McLaughlin, who sang The Overseer’s part, was directed to knock Eleanor to the ﬂoor and dunk her head in a bucket of water. “Mary tried several times to dunk me, but the bucket was too small, and she kept whacking my forehead on the side of the bucket,” Eleanor says. Finally, they got a wash tub. Once her head was in the water, the other maids had to get her wig wet.

“So, when my hair came out of the water, there was a huge dramatic spray of water,” she says.

The chorus is like a family, explains Eleanor. When she was diagnosed with cancer, the women accompanied her to treatments and checked on her. “God, they were wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. This is a passionate group of people. I will miss being around them.”

Stephen Wall (left) as a soldier in Il trovatore, 2019, with Head of Coach-Accompanists David McDade.

STEPHEN WALL: THE BALLARD OPERA MAN

Tenor Stephen Wall has performed in Seattle Opera’s Götterdämmerung twelve times. “My ﬁrst performance was in the 1982 Ring cycle, when the company was doing the Wagner masterwork every summer,” he recalls.

After nearly 45 years at the opera, Stephen has appeared as a chorus member in 118 operas, has had 13 supporting roles, and has served as the chorus personnel coordinator three times. But his most beloved role was as The Ballard Opera Man during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When everyone was stuck inside and socially distancing, Stephen stumbled into the role. He began playing string bass on his front lawn. People noticed and he soon replaced the bass with karaoke opera. “I thought I would just make some noise and see if anyone would stick their heads out of their front doors,” Stephen remembers.

The neighbors did more than stick their heads outside—they began attending his improvised recitals. When the local media published stories about his performances, more people came. At the height of his popularity, Stephen believes around two hundred people came out to hear 25 minutes of music. “I was conﬂicted. I was enjoying it, but I didn’t want to encourage social gatherings. There were rules—six feet distance, masks, and the whole ball of wax,” he remembers. He performed 100 front-yard recitals during the pandemic.

Seattle Opera’s Legendary Tosca Production

2025-04-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

It was the mid-‘60s. Glynn Ross, the dynamic General Director of the brand-new Seattle Opera, wanted to show his employers—the Seattle Opera Board of Trustees—that he could present compelling opera productions while balancing the budget. Before Ross, every attempt to present opera in Seattle had ended in a big deficit, including the Seattle Symphony’s opulent 1962 Aida, presented as part of the World’s Fair. While creating Seattle Center, the city had transformed its vast old Civic Auditorium into the Seattle Opera House. (It would later be transformed into McCaw Hall, which opened in 2003.) It’s nice to have a terrific theater in which to showcase opera. But you still have to have the money to pay for the world’s most expensive art form.

Ross was competitive, and played his cards carefully. In his first season he presented Boris Godunov, a hugely ambitious work, way beyond the capacity of his baby opera company. But Boris had just been given at the University of Washington, and Ross was determined to show the public the difference between student opera and professional opera. A couple years later he bought a used production of Aida at a bargain price. Seattleites would inevitably compare this inexpensive “Soft Scenery” Aida with the ritzy one from the World’s Fair.

The 1962 World's Fair Aida directed by “Horner of Hollywood” (inventor of the turntable set).

The 1968 Aida, performed on painted drops created by Sormani Scenography.

Ross was teaching the public another lesson: spend your money on singers, not elaborate scenery, if you want compelling opera that doesn’t break the bank.

What is “Soft Scenery”?
That second Aida, designed by Enzo Dehò of Milan’s Sormani Scenography workshop, consisted of a couple painted canvas backdrops and some staircase units (which offered levels for visual interest, plus they functioned as risers for Aida’s sizable chorus). There wasn’t much to it. With that kind of ‘soft scenery,’ cloth backdrops hang from pipes above the stage, which are raised and lowered by a series of pulleys.

Head Carpenter Justin Loyd working backstage at “the rail.”

Theaters first borrowed this technology from sailing ships, back when opera was born in the late Renaissance. Soft scenery was the norm in opera up until the 1970s, when ‘hard scenery’ started to become more popular. Acoustically, hard scenery’s solid surfaces can help direct singers’ voices out into the theater, instead of absorbing sound the way the cloth of soft scenery does. But soft scenery is functional and practical; it helped Ross keep his budgets under control. It can also contribute to a compelling opera production, if it’s designed carefully.

Who Designed this Tosca?
We’re playing Tosca this May on a work of art with a fascinating history: “soft” Tosca sets Glynn Ross purchased in 1969 from Milan’s Sormani workshop. Known nowadays as Sormani Cardaropoli Scenography, that firm was founded in 1838 by Ercole Sormani to design and build opera scenery for La Scala and other theaters. Italian opera was in transition in 1838: Bellini had recently died, Donizetti was about to abandon Italy for Paris, tenors were now singing high Cs in chest voice, and the young Giuseppe Verdi had just moved to Milan. Over the coming decades, as bel canto opera transformed into a more theatrical Gesamtkunstwerk, Sormani’s studio thrived. Sormani must have known how to recruit and train the best collaborators, how to choose an approach or style appropriate to each piece, and how to give the public what it wanted, because by the end of the century his firm was creating opera and ballet sets for theaters all over Italy and abroad, and had been showered with awards.

When this Tosca was designed and built, in the 1950s, Sormani’s grandson—also called Ercole, Italian for “Hercules”—was running the family company, with Enzo Dehò supervising the artists. For Tosca these included designers Alessandro and Nicola Benois, a Russian father and son from an artistic St. Petersburg family. The father, originally Aleksandr Benua, first designed scenery for St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theater before heading west with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1909.

Aleksandr Benois’ design for the world premiere of Stravinsky’s Petroushka. (Wikipedia)

When he moved south to take a job at La Scala, his son Nicola, whom he had trained, followed him.

Nicola Benois

Nicola Benois would go on to design hundreds of opera and ballet productions. He died in Italy in 1988, as did his close friend and collaborator Ercole Sormani Jr (whom he affectionately called “Ercoletto,” something like “Herkie”). Singers such as Zinka Milanov and Renata Tebaldi sang Tosca on La Scala’s copy of these Tosca sets.

Design in ink, signed lower left by Nicola Benois in 1952, for Tosca Act Two. Note that the original concept was for the torture chamber to be accessed by a trap door in the floor.

The designers and artists of the Sormani workshop knew how to create the illusion of depth with two-dimensional painted backdrops. For instance, Tosca’s first act church location looks much deeper than it actually is, thanks to the clever placement of columns and a hemispherical apse at back, which look volumetric but actually take up no space at all. In Act Two you’d swear the ceiling of Scarpia’s dining room at the Palazzo Farnese curves out overhead and is full of decorated niches. But no—it’s just a piece of cloth.

Tosca Act 2, Seattle Opera 2015

Italian visual artists have been fooling viewers’ eyes since the days of ancient Rome; trompe l’oeil, “trick the eye,” this technique was called by an eighteenth century French art theorist.

Among the trompe l’oeil tricks featured in Tiepolo’s 1757 Sacrifice of Iphigénie are the deus ex machina stag flying in on a cloud at left and the hand reaching around the second column from the right.

“Trompe l’oeil does two things at once,” says Chiyo Ishikawa, former Deputy Director for Art and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Seattle Art Museum. “First, the work of art disappears, because initially you’re convinced you’re in a space. And then, when it dawns on you that it's artifice, you marvel at this tour de force by craftsmen so skilled at creating an illusion that they’ve pulled the wool over your eyes. It’s a double-edged thing; you’re meant to do a double-take, really.”

Ishikawa saw Tosca played on these Sormani sets at Seattle Opera in 2015, lit by Connie Yun (who returns this season). “The way she lit that Act 1 church scene, there’s one lighting for the foreground, a different lighting in the middle, and it’s brighter in the apse. That helps the illusion. To be surrounded by trompe l’oeil on this immersive scale is really transporting for the viewer-listener.” And the choice of a trompe l’oeil approach is particularly appropriate for a veristic opera about a painter and a singer—an opera that digs deep into the space between art and reality.

A Well-Traveled Tosca Production
Glynn Ross made a smart move when he purchased these Tosca sets. Tosca is an ever-popular “top 10” opera, and Seattle Opera has used these sets to showcase Puccini’s thriller in 1969, 1977, 1986, 2015, and now 2025. Says Robert Schaub, Seattle Opera Technical Director in the days of Speight Jenkins, “We didn’t use that Tosca in the ‘90s and ‘00s because it would have felt dated, to audiences who (some of them) remembered the days when all opera was presented on soft scenery. But a generation later, it’s time to enjoy this again. There’s the pleasure of nostalgia, to see opera the way it was done in the days of Puccini. There’s also extraordinary artistry here. It has to be handled carefully. Connie [Yun] is smart not to focus her lighting instruments on the drops themselves. Instead, she lights the singers and allows ambient light to bounce off the floor and touch the drops gently. That makes all the difference.”

Tosca Act 1, Seattle Opera 2015 (Robert Reynolds, photos)

And because the shipping costs are minimal—canvas drops don’t take up much space, and the whole production fits in a single truck—dozens of American theaters have rented this Tosca from Seattle Opera over the years. Add together all those productions—five in Seattle, plus at least 30 rentals since 2000—and you start to see the impact of Ross’s purchase. Millions of opera-goers have had a chance to enjoy Tosca, sung amid these fragile pieces of cloth.

Maintaining Soft Scenery
Opera productions don’t last forever. There’s wear and tear every night, onstage. And a popular production like this one, which has been shipped all over America and Canada, is sometimes treated more roughly than is suitable for a valuable work of art. Before rehearsals began on this season’s Tosca production the experienced hands of Seattle Opera’s backstage crew gave the show a little TLC.

Unrolling one of the cloth backdrops in the rehearsal studio

Fixing tears where the Act One cloth backdrop had been folded (Glenn Hare, photos)

The enormous canvas drops were hung, to flatten out any wrinkles from how they’d been folded for shipping. Where there were small rips and tears, thin muslin patches were added from behind (and painters made sure everything looked right on the other side). Torn screens and mesh were replaced. Where there are small pieces of wood for framing, screw holes had to be filled in. According to Justin Loyd, Head Flyman at Seattle Opera, “This is a great old production, and it still has life in it. We just need to take good care of it. It’s like a part of our family.”

When in Rome

2025-04-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

A historian considers the characters of Tosca

by Susan Nicassio

With some operas, the exact setting, in terms of time and place, doesn’t much matter. Not so in Tosca. The historic context of Rome during the Napoleonic wars is as integral to the story as Tosca’s jealousy and Scarpia’s cunning. We meet Tosca on a particular day in history—June 17, 1800—as Napoleon’s army encroaches into Italy and pushes back the Austrians, who were allied with the conservative forces that governed Rome. The fictional characters of Tosca, originally conceived in the play by Victorien Sardou, are as true to their time as any you’ll find on the opera stage. Let’s consider them in the order we’re about to meet them.

Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805, François Gérard, 1810, Palace of Versailles.

In Sardou’s play, Cesare Angelotti comes with a colorful backstory involving several nonfictional figures. In 1799, the Kingdom of Naples crushed the year-old “Roman Republic” and re-established the Papal States. As the opera begins, Angelotti, Consul of the short-lived Roman Republic, has escaped from prison, where he was being kept until he could be sent back to Naples to be hanged, mostly for the gratification of the British Admiral Horatio Nelson’s mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton. Angelotti had known (in the biblical sense) the future Lady Hamilton when she was a London prostitute named Emma Lyons, and had the bad taste to announce that fact at a formal State dinner. Lady Emma and her close friend, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, wanted revenge, so the Queen sent Scarpia to Rome not only to “restore order,” but also to make sure that Angelotti hangs.

Julia, Marchesa Attavanti: Angelotti’s sister appears only as a portrait, but she is the all-important peg on which the action hangs. She arranged Angelotti’s escape and told him where in the church he would find the key to her husband’s family chapel, writing something seemingly innocuous, such as “the key to our hope lies at the feet of the Madonna.” Locked private chapels, unknown in modern American churches, were common: noble families would pay for their construction and had control of the keys that would open them. Mario’s easily recognizable painting of the lovely Ms. Attavanti as Mary Magdalene sparks Tosca’s jealousy, which leads directly to tragedy.

“The Sacristan”: Probably not a sacristan at all (that was a prestigious job). He’s more of a janitor, expressing the lower-class contempt for foreigners and for rich, liberal young men who dress well, have expensive mistresses, and don’t go along with the local point of view. No one resented French liberals more than the poor of Rome.

Mario Cavaradossi: In Sardou’s play, we learn he is the French-born son of an exiled Roman father and a Parisian mother, and heir to a titled Roman grandfather (thus his title of “Cavaliere,” or Sir). A student of the famous Jacques Louis David, Cavaradossi would have put in some time in the French revolutionary army as a teenager—every able-bodied male over 14 in France either volunteered or was drafted in the wars of the early 1790s (this helps explain his intransigence, or courage, in Act Two). His first words—“What are you doing?”—indicate he is so far outside the Roman mainstream that he does not recognize the most common of Roman Catholic devotions, the mid-day Angelus (unless, of course, he is just tweaking the Sacristan in order to enjoy his reaction).

Floria Tosca: Adored star of the Roman stage, conducting an inappropriate affair with the French-born liberal Cavaradossi. A foundling, she has risen from the bottom of society to its pinnacle quite suddenly, and it shows. She is one tough lady, and capable of murder if pushed too far. But her veneer of sophistication seems to be laid over a deep insecurity. God is her adopted father and the Virgin Mary her indulgent mama. She assumes that they will overlook the sulfurously passionate affair she is having with an openly irreligious enemy alien. She adores Cavaradossi, but doesn’t trust him.

Baron Vitellio Scarpia: A Sicilian courtier at the court of Naples. Sardou compares him to Neapolitan bandit-patriots (on the Royalist side) like Fra Diavolo. Scarpia seems to dabble in rape and sadism, but only as hobbies: his main focus is getting and keeping power. He is perfectly justified in condemning Cavaradossi, who is obviously guilty of treason in wartime.

Spoletta: A thoroughly disreputable sbirro (pejorative slang for cop), a toady by nature and a bully when he can get away with it. The Roman sbirri were a scruffy bunch even by eighteenth-century standards, and Spoletta seems to be a first-class example. He is probably Neapolitan or Sicilian, brought along to Rome by his boss Scarpia, who treats him with utter contempt and overt threats of casual violence—he threatens to have him strung up for not finding Angelotti as ordered. When Spoletta is in a tight spot, he turns to the Saint, whom he seems to regard as the patron saint of police spies.

Sciarrone: In Sardou’s play, a respectable Neapolitan army captain, Sciarrone is reduced to a flunky in the opera. His main jobs seem to be serving dinner, bringing mash notes to unwilling ladies, and transmitting orders from his boss to torturers and others too lowly to be addressed directly by the Baron.

A Shepherd Boy: The only truly Roman character in the whole opera. While herding sheep under the walls of the Castel Sant’Angelo, he sings a simple little song in the Roman dialect (which bore, and still bears, only a slight resemblance to Italian).

Judge, Jailer, and Executioners: Torture was legal in Rome in 1800 (a later pope would outlaw it) and would have required the presence of an officer of the court. But in 1800, the only legal technique was a sort of sleep deprivation—hardly dreadful enough for Scarpia. Roberti in Tosca is not a very skilled torturer; his paziente is not supposed to pass out. The Jailer keeps track of prisoners (and delivers final messages for an appropriate tip). The firing squad would have been ordinary soldiers, probably Neapolitan draftees. To Puccini’s credit, we don’t need to be historians in order to appreciate Tosca. The music and drama are crystal clear. But Puccini’s work accurately reflects a complicated historical reality—one that adds vitality and meaning to the opera.

An earlier version of this article appeared in Seattle Opera’s program for Tosca in 2015. For a more extensive look at the character, historical context, and performance of Tosca see Susan Nicassio’s Tosca’s Rome: The Play and the Opera in Historical Perspective.

Tosca returns to the McCaw Hall stage May 3–17, 2025. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/tosca.

Tosca's Rome

2025-03-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

by Jonathan Dean

Giacomo Puccini's Tosca takes place over the course of a few hours, in three actual locations near each other in Rome, not far from the Vatican (you can still go visit them and see if the scenic designer did his research). More so than most operas, Tosca requires carefully designed, realistic scenery to reflect the authenticity and detail of the stage action. In this article, we take a closer look at the real-life venues that inspired the opera.

Act One: The church of Sant’Andrea della Valle (Bill Mohn, photo)

This act takes place in a church because: 1) Angelotti, who has just escaped from Scarpia’s prison, hides in his family chapel, accessed by a special key held only by family members. His sister, the Marchese Attavanti, helped him escape and left food and a change of clothes for him in the chapel. 2) Mario Cavaradossi is painting a Magdalene for the altar of the church. (He took the beautiful blond Marchese as his model while she was there arranging Angelotti’s escape, much to the annoyance of the jealous Tosca.) And 3) the act concludes with the terrific irony of Scarpia, hot in pursuit of Angelotti, lusting after Tosca as the assembled churchgoers sing the Te Deum.

Greer Grimsley sings “Va, Tosca” from Seattle Opera’s 2008 Tosca

Act Two: A room in the Palazzo Farnese (Wikipedia, photo)

This palace, built in the 1500s for a pope’s residence, is today the French Embassy in Rome. In 1800, it housed the king and queen of Naples; in the opera, it is the personal headquarters of Baron Scarpia. In fact, this entire act belongs to Scarpia. We witness him torture Mario until Tosca confesses that Angelotti is hiding in the well in Mario’s garden, and shiver with dread when Tosca agrees to exchange her sexual favors for Mario’s life. And we’re delighted when Tosca’s eyes light upon an extra-sharp dinner knife and she thinks of a way out of her unpleasant bargain with Scarpia.
Greer Grimsley, Vinson Cole, Carol Vaness, and Paul Gudas sing a scene from Act Two of Seattle Opera’s 2001 Tosca

Act Three: Atop the Castel Sant’Angelo (Carly Griffin, photo)

Tosca’s final scene takes place in the prison where Mario awaits his execution. Today a museum, this enormous castle was built over the tomb of the Roman Emperor Hadrian; it acquired the name “Castle of the Holy Angel” when the archangel Michael appeared there in the plague year 590, according to legend.
Frank Porretta sings “E lucevan le stelle” from Seattle Opera’s 2008 Tosca

Tosca is on stage May 3–17, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/tosca.

Praise for The Magic Flute

2025-03-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

Duke Kim as Tamino with Ethan Ibsen, Caleb Petrini, and Autumn Helene Chociej as the Three Genies in The Magic Flute at Seattle Opera. Photo: David Jaewon Oh.

Audiences have one last weekend to catch Seattle Opera’s latest production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which has taken the city by storm. Concocted by visionary director Barrie Kosky and mixed-media theater group 1927, the production blends hand-drawn animations with silent film aesthetics in a unique, fully animated film projected over live performers. Read what critics have to say about this audacious new production, and don’t miss your chance to see The Magic Flute, playing at McCaw Hall until March 9. Tickets and info at seattleopera.org/flute.

A remarkable synergy of musical and visual storytelling. […] While adults will have fun decoding some of the cultural references baked into this Magic Flute, it also works wonderfully as an appealing musical adventure for younger audiences. Mozart’s magic knows no age limits. —The Seattle Times

Duke Kim as Tamino and Brandie Sutton as Pamina in The Magic Flute at Seattle Opera. Photo: Sunny Martini.

Seattle Opera’s animated take on Mozart’s The Magic Flute is exquisite, riveting, and weird as hell. —The Stranger

[T]he production is a constant delight. It’s truly a show within itself, in the best sense of the descriptor. You never know what you’ll see next, or on which level or through which portal a character or ensemble will appear. In this sense, it’s a bit like Mozart’s writing: How will he surprise, delight, and move us next? —Classical Voice North America

Rodell Rosel as Monostatos in The Magic Flute at Seattle Opera. Photo: David Jaewon Oh.

Silent film combined with the vocality of opera may seem self-contradictory, but when dream worlds collide and archetypal, mythological elements and ancient trials of initiation coalesce into a common theatrical language, the result makes this fascinating production well worth seeing. —Bachtrack

Mozart himself would have loved Seattle Opera's amazing new production of The Magic Flute. […] Judging by the raucous applause on opening weekend, this surprising interpretation of a beloved favorite is an unqualified success. —SGN

In Sung Sim as Sarastro and Rodell Rosel as Monostatos with members of the Seattle Opera Chorus in The Magic Flute at Seattle Opera. Photo: Sunny Martini.

The drawings and animations bring the production together and glue everything in place and are intriguing in their own right as art as well as moving the action along. […] All of these elements make this a not to be missed production. It runs through March 9, and if you can get tickets, do. This production has been round the world already and will be one of those shows that will be discussed for years to come. Go see it. —British Theatre Guide

THE MAGIC FLUTE in Pop Culture

2025-02-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

The Magic Flute is one of the operas with tunes so catchy and recognizable, even those who have never seen a performance of it have probably heard its music. Whether it’s the overture played as background music at the mall on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a music box on an episode of House bringing Papageno’s "Das klinget so herrlich" front and center, The Magic Flute is definitely in the pop culture landscape.

In 1995, Disney released Operation Dumbo Drop, a (family-friendly) movie starring Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, and Denis Leary about an Army mission to deliver an elephant to a village during the Vietnam War. The over-the-top plot also features a moment in which one character sings along, horribly, to the Queen of the Night’s famous aria, “Der Hölle Rache”:

"Der Hölle Rache" was also discussed in a 2009 episode of The CW’s popular Gossip Girl TV series, during the second season episode “You’ve Got Yale!” in which the main characters attend a performance of The Magic Flute. Opera is mentioned throughout the episode, and this short video features a few notable references:

In these clips, the anonymous Gossip Girl compares the drama of the main characters to Flute; Dan and Nate talk about going to the opera, and make a bonus reference to The Ring; and Eric breaks down Magic Flute to opera newbie Rufus, while they listen to "Der Hölle Rache." By the way, we definitely disagree with Eric’s assertion that Flute is "opera for amateurs." While it's a great introduction to those unfamiliar with opera, there's something for everyone in this Mozart masterpiece.

That same aria was included in the soundtrack for Eat Pray Love, released in 2010 and starring Julia Roberts. It was an interesting choice of music, considering the context: this very German aria is played to highlight the joy Roberts' character is experiencing while traveling through Italy and savoring Italian cuisine:

Flute's music has also been in numerous commercials, for everything from cars to macaroni and cheese. Papageno might enjoy Red Bull based on its "Red Bull gives you wings" slogan, but we bet he wasn’t so pleased with the outcome of this clever commercial for the energy drink, featuring Papageno’s entrance aria “Der Vogelfänger Bin Ich Ja” (“I’m a bird catcher”):

The most familiar bit of music from The Magic Flute is the Queen of the Night’s Act 2 aria, “Der Hölle Rache,” with its famous vocalise shooting up to high F. Since it becomes almost pure music—out of context, you might not know it’s sung by a crazy woman threatening to disown her daughter unless she murders her mother’s enemy—it’s been used in all kinds of contexts. For Volvo in 2018, this aria connoted an idea of luxury, in an advertisement which asked, “Can you design an SUV for an aria?”

Volvo transposed the aria down several steps, probably because the original high F is so extreme it didn’t quite work with the brand. But a couple years later, when Etsy.com used the Queen’s aria in an advertisement showcasing the many unique and original treasures people purchase and sell on the site, she was singing in the original key:

The worst Queen of the Night on record was the notorious Florence Foster Jenkins, whose ‘performance’ of the aria didn’t appear to be in any key at all, when Meryl Streep sang it in her 2016 movie, Florence Foster Jenkins. The recording of the real Jenkins is available on YouTube; here’s Meryl Streep’s remarkable impersonation:

MAGIC FLUTE Movies

In 1975, the great director Ingmar Bergman filmed The Magic Flute for Swedish television, sung in Swedish, set in (a replica of) an eighteenth-century theater near Stockholm, and created one of the greatest opera-to-screen adaptations of all time. If you've never seen it it's well worth a look. Criterion Collection has a DVD, and currently the entire thing is also posted on YouTube.

In 2006, Kenneth Branagh made a film adaptation of The Magic Flute that set the story during World War I, with the German libretto translated to English by Stephen Fry, and music conducted by James Conlon. Branagh's film is the first time The Magic Flute was filmed specifically for the big screen. You can watch bits and pieces online, including the duet between Papageno and Papagena. Here's how Branagh filmed the overture:

And in 2023, a charming family-friendly film was released, produced by Roland Emmerich and directed by Florian Sigl, in which a young man attending a high-pressure music school in Austria finds a magical portal to the world of The Magic Flute, where he takes over the journey of Prince Tamino. F. Murray Abraham, who so dazzled the world as Mozart's rival Salieri in Amadeus, plays the crabby headmaster, while opera stars Morris Robinson and Sabine Devielhe dazzle as Sarastro and the Queen of the Night. Available on DVD and for streaming; and here's a trailer:

It's not just The Magic Flute's music that has been referenced in film and TV over the years. Several movies, for example, have featured plot lines involving magical flutes—like the 1976 animated film The Smurfs and the Magic Flute. Set in the Middle Ages, the movie focuses on a court jester who discovers a magic flute that, when played, makes the townspeople dance uncontrollably. Sounds innocent enough—until a thief snatches away the flute and uses its powers to rob people of their gold. It's not quite the same adventure as in Mozart's opera, but it's a magic flute nonetheless! The entire movie is available for viewing on YouTube.

The Magic Flute is on stage February 22–March 9, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/flute.

How is this Magic Flute Different?

2025-02-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

by Jonathan Dean

The Magic Flute is one of the world’s favorite operas, and Seattle Opera has presented it many times—once in a charming production by Maurice Sendak (of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker fame), once in a whimsical version by British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe, and most recently (2017) in an eye-popping production with costumes by fashion legend Zandra Rhodes.

All of those were traditional scenery/costumes/lights productions. The Magic Flute production we’re presenting this season, however, relies heavily on projections, including complex animated projections. There isn’t really any scenery—just a wall (with lots of secret doors, so singers can appear in all sorts of locations) that functions as a projection surface. The projections create the many locations demanded by the story, and much more.

Seattle Opera's 2018 production of The Turn of the Screw featured video projections throughout the opera. Photo © Jacob Lucas

Opera has been using projections for decades. But as computers and projectors have gotten more sophisticated in recent years, so has the use of projections in opera—witness Seattle Opera’s 2018 The Turn of the Screw or 2022 Tristan and Isolde. This projection-filled Magic Flute production has had an extremely successful life since its birth, in 2012 at the Komische Oper Berlin; it has now been presented 75 times at theaters all over the world. Original stage director Barrie Kosky, working closely with Suzanne Andrade and Paul Barritt of 1927, a British production company, designed a show which would engage spectators visually while telling the familiar story of The Magic Flute in a way nobody had ever seen it before.

Technically it’s an extremely complicated production, with some 800 animated projection cues on top of everything else in a standard Magic Flute. The singers, of course, can’t see exactly what the audience sees; but they need to be in the right place at the right moment so what they do interacts properly with the animation.

For instance, Papageno is accompanied throughout the show by an animated cat (appropriate for a bird-catcher, no?). Although the baritone won’t see the cat, since it's projected on the wall behind him and his eyes will be forward, so he can see the conductor, he needs to know exactly what that cat is doing at every moment in the show so their interactions will appear genuine.

Our Seattle Opera singers are now hard at work with revival director Erik Friedman, who has worked on this production at many other opera companies. And we’ve put together a special and expanded stage management team, capable of delivering the precision demanded by this production. We can’t wait to find out what you think of it!

Here’s some footage of what the show has looked like at other opera houses:

And click here to read an interview (reprinted with kind permission of LA Opera) in which Barrie Kosky, Suzanne Andrade, and Paul Barrit discuss their inspirations—silent film, cabaret, and much more—for the phantasmagoric visuals they created for The Magic Flute.

The Magic Flute is on stage February 22–March 9, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/flute.

A Magical Storybook

2025-02-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

by Ulrich Lenz

Barrie Kosky, Suzanne Andrade, and Paul Barritt on flying elephants, the world of silent film, and the eternal search for love.

How did you come up with the idea of staging The Magic Flute with 1927?

Barrie Kosky (Artistic Director, Komische Oper Berlin): More than a decade ago, I attended a performance of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, the first show created by the British theater company known as 1927. From the moment the show started, there was this fascinating mix of live performance with animation creating its own aesthetic world. Within minutes, this strange mixture of silent film and music hall had convinced me that these people had to do The Magic Flute with me in Berlin!

The result was a unique Magic Flute. Although Suzanne and Paul were working in Berlin for the first time, they had a natural feel for the city’s artistic ambiance, especially the Berlin of the 1920s, when it was such an important creative center for painting, cabaret, silent film, and animated film. Suzanne, Paul, and I share a love for revue, vaudeville, music hall, and similar forms of theater, and, of course, for silent film. So, Papageno is suggestive of Buster Keaton, Monostatos is a bit Nosferatu, and Pamina perhaps a bit reminiscent of Louise Brooks. But it’s more than an homage to silent film—there are far too many influences from other areas.

Is your love for silent film the motivation behind the name “1927”?

Suzanne Andrade (co-creator of 1927): 1927 was the year of the first sound film. The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson was an absolute sensation at the time. We work with a mixture of live performance and animation, which makes it a completely new art form in many ways. Many others have used film in theater, but 1927 integrates film in a very new way. We don’t do a theater piece with added movies. Nor do we make a movie and then combine it with acting elements. Everything goes hand in hand. Our shows evoke the world of dreams and nightmares, with aesthetics that hearken back to the world of silent film.

Paul Barritt (co-creator of 1927): And yet it would be wrong to see in our work only the influence of the 1920s and silent film. We take our visual inspiration from many eras, from the copper engravings of the 18th century as well as in comics of today. There is no preconceived aesthetic setting in our mind when we work on a show. The important thing is that the image fits. A good example is Papageno’s aria “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen” [“A Girl or a Little Wife”]. In the libretto, he is served a glass of wine in the dialogue before his aria. We let him have a drink, but it isn’t wine. It’s a pink cocktail from a giant cocktail glass, and Suzanne had the idea that he would start to see pink elephants flying around him. Of course, the most famous of all flying elephants was Dumbo—from the 1940s—but the actual year isn’t important as long as everything comes together visually.

Suzanne Andrade: Our Magic Flute is a journey through different worlds of fantasy. But as in all of our shows, there is a connecting style that ensures that the whole thing doesn’t fall apart aesthetically.

Barrie Kosky: This is also helped by 1927’s very special feeling for rhythm. The rhythm of the music and the text has an enormous influence on the animation. As we worked together on The Magic Flute, the timing always came from the music, even—especially—in the dialogues, which we condensed and transformed into silent film intertitles with piano accompaniment. However, we use an 18th-century fortepiano, and the accompanying music is by Mozart. This not only gives the whole piece a consistent style, but also a consistent rhythm. It’s a silent film by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so to speak!

Does this piece work without the dialogue?

Suzanne Andrade: I think that almost any story can be told without words. You can undress a story to the bone, to find out what you really need to convey the plot. We tried to do that in The Magic Flute. You can convey so much of a story through purely visual means. You don’t always need two pages of dialogue to show the relationship between two people. You don’t need a comic dialogue to show that Papageno is a funny character. A clever gimmick can sometimes offer more insight than dialogue.

Paul Barritt: Going back to silent films, for a moment—they weren’t just films without sound, with intertitles in place of the missing voices. Intertitles were actually used very sparingly. The makers of silent films instead told their stories through the visual elements. Silent films told their story through gestures, movements, and glances, and so on.

Barrie Kosky: This emphasis on the images makes it possible for every viewer to experience the show in his or her own way: as a magical, living storybook; as a curious, contemporary meditation on silent film as a singing silent film; or as paintings come to life. Basically, we have a hundred stage sets in which things happen that normally aren’t possible onstage: flying elephants, flutes trailing notes, bells as showgirls... We can fly up to the stars and then ride an elevator to hell, all within a few minutes. In addition to all the animation in our production, there are also moments when the singers are in a simple white spotlight. Suddenly there’s only the music, the text, and the character. The very simplicity makes these perhaps the most touching moments of the evening. During the performance, the technology doesn’t play in the foreground. Although Paul spent hours and hours sitting in front of computer to create it, his animation never loses its deeply human component. You can always see that a human hand has drawn everything. Video projections as part of theatrical productions aren’t new. But they often become boring after a few minutes, because there isn’t any interaction between the two-dimensional space of the screen and the three dimensions of the actors. Suzanne and Paul have solved this problem by combining all of these dimensions into a common theatrical language.

What does The Magic Flute really mean?

Paul Barritt: It’s a love story, told as a fairy tale.

Suzanne Andrade: The love story between Tamino and Pamina. Throughout the entire piece, the two try to find each other—but everyone else separates them and pulls them away from each other. Only at the very end do they come together.

Barrie Kosky: A strange, fairytale love story, one that has a lot of archetypal and mythological elements, such as the trials they must undergo to gain wisdom. They have to go through fire and water to mature. These are ancient rites of initiation.

Tamino falls in love with a portrait. How many myths and fairy tales include this plot point? The hero falls in love with a picture and goes in search of the subject. And on his way to her, he encounters all sorts of obstacles. And, at the same time, the object of his desire faces her own personal obstacles on her own journey.

You can experience our production as a journey through the dream worlds of Tamino and Pamina. These two dream worlds collide and combine to form one strange dream. The person who combines these dreams and these worlds is Papageno. We are very focused on these three characters. Interestingly, Papageno is in pursuit of an idealized image too: the perfect fantasy woman at his side, something he craves almost desperately.

Printed with permission from LA Opera.

The Magic Flute is on stage February 22–March 9, 2025 at McCaw Hall. Learn more and buy tickets at seattleopera.org/flute.

Director's Statement by Kevin Newbury

2025-02-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

In the 2025/26 season, Seattle Opera will present Fellow Travelers, one of the most frequently performed new operas of the past decade, in collaboration with New York-based artistic collective Up Until Now, as part of a national project that brings this important story to stages across the country. This special initiative, which is launching in Seattle, is one of the largest consortium projects within the US opera industry and is headed by director Kevin Newbury (The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs ’19) and producer Jecca Barry.

COMMUNITY, ACTIVISM, AND OPERA: A DECADE OF FELLOW TRAVELERS

On June 12, 2016, forty-nine LGBTQ+ people were killed at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, FL. That same night, I was enjoying a drag show at Oz, a Queer nightclub in downtown Cincinnati, with a dozen members of the Fellow Travelers cast and crew, which was scheduled to premiere six days later. The next morning, as news of the tragedy spread through the Cincinnati Opera company, we felt a sense of collective mourning and reflection: What if some of us hadn’t survived our trip to Oz the previous night? It was a poignant moment in the early history of this opera.

The massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL, happened six days before the world premiere of Fellow Travelers. A temporary memorial was set up soon after.

But I should back up first. In 2007, my dear friend, producer G. Sterling Zinsmeyer, handed me a copy of Tom Mallon’s brand-new novel Fellow Travelers, proclaiming: “This must be an opera, and you need to direct it.” I tore through the book and fell in love with the protagonists, Timothy and Hawkins, while learning about a painful chapter of LGBTQ+ history for the first time. Sterling was right. It needed to be an opera.

We got right to work, securing the rights from Tom and bringing on a brilliant writing team: composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce. Cincinnati Opera offered to host a workshop of the opera in 2013 and, upon experiencing the finished work, the company offered to present the world premiere. Cincinnati Opera’s support of Fellow Travelers was unwavering and courageous, especially since Cincinnati was perhaps best known, at least in Queer circles, for the force with which it censored Robert Mapplethorpe’s “obscene” gay photographs in 1990. The thought of premiering an opera that featured two gay men singing an achingly beautiful love duet while simulating sex onstage felt like cosmic restitution.

Cover of The Perfect Moment, a catalogue of black and white photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe, published in 1988/1989 to coincide with the exhibition of the same name.
© Institute of Contemporary Art/University of Pennsylvania

Gay in Small Town Maine

In 1996—my senior year of high school—I wrote a thesis on photographer Robert Mapplethrope, the National Endowment for the Arts, obscenity laws, and Queer artmaking at the height of the AIDS crisis. Our assignment was to write about someone who had shaped culture. My first instinct was to write about Madonna, but my English teacher, Mrs. Ackerman, suggested that my knowledge of Madonna’s trajectory was, perhaps, already encyclopedic. Was there another subject that might really challenge me? While writing about Mapplethorpe and the 1990s culture wars, I was simultaneously terrified that I would die of AIDS, coming out of the closet, and grateful that the local public library in my hometown of Auburn, ME, had a copy of Mapplethorpe’s retrospective catalogue Perfect Moment, on the shelves—flowers, phalluses, and all. I must have renewed that book at least three times.

As a closeted teenager, I never could have imagined that I would forge a career directing LGBTQ+ stories, especially an opera. In the decade since our premiere, Fellow Travelers has had sixteen productions from America’s biggest cities to her heartland. It’s become part of the operatic canon and served as a catalyst for connecting thousands of audience members from many disparate backgrounds, across many generations. Without fail, dozens of audience members congregate in the lobby after each performance, hugging, crying, and sharing their stories until the theater’s curfew.

A New Coming Out

The Fellow Travelers Project, a series of performances taking place over the next two years, is a sort of new coming out of this opera. It coincides with our nation’s semiquincentennial. And the opera has become a symbol of resistance to the moment we are in, as we see a dramatic rise in systemic attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the US and deliberate attempts to erase our history. Conservative federal and local governments are policing gender expression and free speech, abandoning HIV research, challenging the ban on conversion therapy, and hijacking our cultural institutions in Washington DC.

Alongside the national tour we are launching the Lavender Names Project, a collaboration with the new American LGBTQ+ Museum, which officially opens in New York City in Fall, 2027 in a collaboration with The New York Historical. The Lavender Names Project is a grassroots archival research/community outreach initiative, which will uncover and collect photos and stories of victims of the LGBTQ+ community who were systematically discriminated against, fired, and mistreated by federal and local governments, from the ban on gay soldiers serving in World War II to the beginning of the “Lavender Scare” in 1953 to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the 1990s, and all the way to today. The photos themselves are a part of an ever-growing visual archive that appears onstage at the end of each performance as a living memorial to the many queer people who suffered—and are suffering—the decades-long persecution. The collected names and photos archives will eventually find a home in the American LGBTQ+ Museum. We invite all audiences in Seattle to contribute to this archive leading up to and throughout the performances.

Despite our government’s efforts to erase LGBTQ+ history, our legacy is everywhere I look and that legacy is a groundswell. More than ever, I feel driven to honor the generations of queer folks who came before us and I am also looking to them for guidance, for blueprints.

I recently unearthed my Mapplethorpe thesis in a filing box in my parents’ basement labeled “Kevin: High School.” Reading it for the first time in almost thirty years, the 1990s culture wars now feel like a mere harbinger of much worse things to come. Soon after reading the thesis, Florida officials, under the cover of night, painted over the rainbow crosswalk memorial honoring the Pulse nightclub victims in Orlando. But no one is going to erase us. And no one is going to erase the living, singing memorial that is the Fellow Travelers opera. We will be performing all over this country, our country, throughout next year and beyond, and I can’t think of a better city than Seattle to launch the next chapter in our Fellow Travelers story. Please find me in the lobby after the show to share your own story.

Fellow Travelers opens February 21, 2026, at McCaw Hall. Learn more at seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers.