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The Ross years
From the outset, Ross saw opera as something that had to be sold using similar techniques to those used to sell popular entertainment. "To sell opera…you have to get their attention with a little razzle-dazzle. You've got to be sympatico. You have to be able to communicate, and you have to deliver your message with the best possible product you can manage."[2] In 1970, H. C. Schonberg of the New York Times contrasted the Seattle Opera's approach to marketing to the then still staid marketing of New York's Metropolitan Opera: "Out there, you see campaign buttons with the legend Opera Lives. It is in Seattle where you can look at the sky and find an airplane skywriting the virtues of Seattle Opera. There are even auto bumper stickers about opera." Further, Schonberg remarked favorably on the "air of freshness and experimentation that contrasts vividly with the dull, tried and true, tired professionalism in other opera houses one could mention."[2]
Richard Wagner at the Seattle Opera
The company is noted for its performances of the works of Richard Wagner, including the Ring cycle. In 1975, it was the first American company to perform the cycle in its entirety over the space of a week since the Metropolitan Opera did it in 1939.
First Ring Cycles, 1975 to 1983
Beginning with a production of Die Walküre one year, and following successively each year with Siegfried and, finally, Götterdämmerung, Ross announced in 1975 that Das Rheingold would precede the others to make up the first consecutive Ring Cycle over six days in July. In spite of the modernization of the opera productions which Ross found at the Bayreuth Festival, Seattle’s were to be traditional productions and appeal to the lovers of the traditional.
Two back-to-back cycles of the Ring, one each in German and English, were presented annually between 1975 and 1983. Andrew Porter’s English adaptation which was prepared for the English National Opera and which was priced below the German language cycle, introduced many new listeners to Wagner. Originally directed by George London with designer John Naccarato, later presentations were directed by Lincoln Clark between 1976 and 1983, and by the tenor, Ragnar Ulfung in 1984. Henry Holt conducted all the cycles. The performances were well attended and received good press.
By 1982, the cycle was drawing opera lovers from all over the United States, as well as many other countries of the world, and Seattle appeared to be a serious rival to Bayreuth.
Ring Cycles today
By 2001 audiences for the most successful Ring cycle to date came from 49 states and 19 countries, and was a sell out many months before opening. For the 2005 Cycle, Jane Eaglen returned to sing Brünnhilde; the director was Stephen Wadsworth, the set designer was Thomas Lynch and Robert Spano conducted. All performances of the Ring Cycle are now given in German.
In the summer of 2009, the Ring Cycle will be performed four times with the most recent productions. Greer Grimsley will appear as Wotan.
Speight Jenkins and Wagner
Jenkins was appointed general director in 1983. He believed in the future of the company’s Ring Cycle and was eager to create a new Ring production. In addition, he stated a goal of producing all ten of the major Wagner works in Seattle and, beginning with Tannhäuser, Jenkins' goal was achieved over the following nineteen years with an August 2003 production of Parsifal.
Notes
- ^ Matthew Westphal (16 October 2007). "Seattle Opera Appoints Asher Fisch Principal Guest Conductor", Playbill Arts. Retrieved on 2007-10-18.
- ^ a b Quoted in Jones 1972, p. 254.
References
- Jones, Nard (1972), Seattle, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, ISBN 0385018754
External links
See also
List of important opera companies
