Seattle Opera Podcast

General Director Christina Scheppelmann announces Seattle Opera's 2022/23 season, including the great singers who will be coming to Seattle and an exciting lineup of operas: Donizetti's Elixir of Love, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Saint-Saëns' Samson and Delilah, Verdi's La traviata, and the world premiere of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Sheila Silver and Stephen Kitsakos, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini.

This conversation (recorded live, December 16, 2021) featured ORPHEUS & EURYDICE stage director Chía Patiño, choreographer Donald Byrd, and conductor Stephen Stubbs. The inspiration for the earliest operas, as well as numerous retellings in each new generation, the ancient myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a reflection on music's power to express love and sorrow. It is a story that reflects our own time as we come to terms with our collective grief and, like Orpheus, grapple with the pain of letting go.

Stephen Stubbs, conductor of Seattle Opera's upcoming ORFEO ED EURIDICE, by Gluck, joined us last year for an intermission chat when we rebroadcast Gluck's IPHIGÉNIE EN TAURIDE. A native Seattleite, student (and professor) at University of Washington, Stubbs has been a leader in the world of early music for three decades. Among the hundreds of recordings he has made, his 2015 DESCENTE D'ORPHÉE AUX ENFERS (by Charpentier) won a Grammy for Best Opera Recording. He first appeared at Seattle Opera in 2007's GIULIO CESARE, playing theorbo, and conducted our first-ever presentation with music by Monteverdi, 2017's THE COMBAT. In this conversation Stubbs discusses Gluck with Christina Scheppelmann.

Opera is a big team effort. Every opera production puts hundreds of creative people to work, singing, playing instruments, acting, dancing, crafting and maneuvering sets, costumes, props, and lights and everything else. Backstage at Seattle Opera's recent LA BOHÈME, Dramaturg Jonathan Dean spoke with several veteran Seattle Opera artisans about their contributions to the show: Mary Seasly (costumes & wardrobe), Brayden Daher (supernumerary), Barry Johnson (comprimario soloist), and Valerie Muzzolini (harp).

"Men die and governments change, but the songs of La bohème will live forever," wrote Thomas Alva Edison to Giacomo Puccini. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces La bohème, with musical examples from Seattle Opera's archival recordings of La bohème: from 2007, with Rosario La Spina (Rodolfo) and Nuccia Focile (Mimì), conducted by Vjekoslav Sutej; and from 2013, with Andrew Garland (Schaunard), Arthur Woodley (Colline), Michael Fabiano (Rodolfo), Keith Phares (Marcello), and Jennifer Black (Mimì), conducted by Carlo Montanaro.

Seattle Opera Scholar-in-Residence Naomi André and Dramaturg Jonathan Dean discuss the most controversial of all opera composers, Richard Wagner, whose DIE WALKÜRE the company will present, in concert (and abridged) at Fisher Pavilion on August 28. Wagner's astonishing masterpieces continue to challenge and delight audiences, although his legacy is tainted because of his obnoxious attitudes and how his work was appropriated by the Third Reich. André and Dean discuss approaching Wagner, not from an 'either/or' mentality, but from a "both...and" way of thinking.

For KING FM's re-broadcast of Seattle Opera's 1976 OF MICE AND MEN, Dramaturg Jonathan Dean interviewed Melanie Ross about the early days of Seattle Opera and the work of her father, Seattle Opera founding General Director Glynn Ross. Melanie, who retired in 2017, worked behind the scenes at Seattle Opera for over four decades. We appreciate her sharing these precious memories of the early days of the company, and those early performances of Carlisle Floyd's Steinbeck-derived opera. Seattle Opera gave Of Mice and Men its world premiere in 1970, then revived the opera six seasons later.

Giacomo Sagripanti conducted Rossini's wicked French comedy, Count Ory, at Seattle Opera in 2016. He recently discussed this great work and Rossini with General Director Christina Scheppelmann.

Marketing Director Kristina Murti and Assistant Production Director Alicia Moriarty chatted during an intermission of GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG when Seattle Opera re-broadcast its 2005 RING cycle on KING-FM in February. Listen to their stories about how the RING changed their lives, and what it does for the opera company that dares take it on.

Phil Kelsey, Seattle Opera's Assistant Conductor, chatted during an intermission of GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG with Christina Scheppelmann when Seattle Opera re-broadcast its 2005 RING cycle on KING-FM in February. Phil, who can conduct or play any moment from the RING on demand, has worked on Seattle's RINGs since 1983. He talks here about a lifetime devoted to this extraordinary work of art.