One of late twentieth-century opera’s great successes, Flight, with music by Jonathan Dove to a libretto by April DeAngelis, makes a long-awaited Seattle premiere in 2021. This “Marriage of Figaro for the 1990s” is a bold and beautiful opera, with a message more pertinent than ever. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces Flight, with musical examples from the commercially available recording, available from Chandos records at https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010197. David Parry conducted the Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra in 2003, and the cast includes Christopher Robson as the Refugee, Claron McFadden as the Controller, Richard Coxon and Mary Plazas as Bill and Tiny, Nuala Willis as the Older Woman, Ann Taylor and Garry Magee as the Stewardess and Steward, and Steven Page and Anne Mason as the Minskman and Minskwoman.