Seattle Opera Podcast

Viswa Subbaraman will make his Seattle Opera debut next spring conducting FLIGHT. This young American conductor discussed Lakmé, and the operatic tradition of "exoticism"—European artworks using images of non-European places and cultures—with Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann for an intermission feature on a Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM broadcast.

University of Michigan professor Naomi André is also Seattle Opera's Scholar-in-Residence. For an intermission feature on "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM," she discussed Verdi's OTELLO and its 1967 premiere at Seattle Opera.

Italian conductor Carlo Montanaro was in Seattle, working on our fall video version of THE ELIXIR OF LOVE, when he chatted with Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann about Donizetti for an intermission feature that played during a rebroadcast of ANNA BOLENA on "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM."

Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann spoke with baritone Gordon Hawkins as an intermission feature for "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM." In addition to discussing Macbeth and several of his other great roles, Hawkins and Scheppelmann, both of whom knew and admired Ruth Bader Ginsburg, fondly remember the Chief Justice and her love for opera.

Seattle Opera's current General Director, Christina Scheppelmann, chatted with Speight Jenkins, who led the company for three decades, from 1983 through 2014. Speight is a legend in the world of opera, and as you'll hear in this podcast his inimitable, high-energy, opinionated charm is as powerful as ever. They discuss the great tenor Franco Corelli (this conversation was originally an intermission feature on a re-broadcast of Corelli's Seattle debut) and Speight tells the story of how he first came to Seattle.

Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann spoke with soprano Jane Eaglen as an intermission feature for "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM." Eaglen remembers the dramatic circumstances of her Seattle debut, as Norma in 1994, and how coming to Seattle ended up changing her life.

Phil Kelsey, Seattle Opera's Assistant Conductor, remembered the fantastic fall 1990 Seattle Opera premiere of Rusalka during an intermission chat with Dramaturg Jonathan Dean. Kelsey, who had musically prepared several Seattle Rings during the '80s, has been with the company full-time ever since that Rusalka, and was particularly gratified to watch this great Czech opera—long a personal favorite of his—become part of the standard rep in America.

Stephen Wall has sung with Seattle Opera for almost 40 seasons...but this season has brought him additional fame, as "Ballard Opera Man," offering regular outdoor recitals for his neighbors (with room for them to maintain social distance!). He discussed both his recent activities and his many years with Seattle Opera with General Director Christina Scheppelmann for a recent intermission feature for "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM."

Seattle Opera General Director Christina Scheppelmann spoke with baritone Gordon Hawkins as an intermission feature for "Seattle Opera Mornings on KING FM." Between Acts 2 and 3 of NABUCCO, Hawkins, who has sung almost all the great Verdi baritone roles for Seattle Opera, reflected on singing Verdi honestly and his many years with the company.

Many of opera's greatest and most overwhelming moments happen thanks to the chorus. Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean introduces many of the typical functions of the opera chorus, such as saluting a leader, singing in praise—or fear—of God, providing local color, intensifying the drama, and embodying the multitude. Musical excerpts from three decades of Seattle Opera productions feature the work of Seattle Opera Chorus Masters George Fiore, Beth Kirchoff, and John Keene, in Seattle Opera's 2015 Nabucco, 2012 Turandot, 2000 Boris Godunov, 2015 Semele, 2007 Iphigénie en Tauride, 2019 Il trovatore, 2014 Tales of Hoffmann, 2013 La bohème, 2011 Porgy and Bess, 1998 Faust, 1994 Lohengrin, 1994 Norma, 2007 Flying Dutchman, 2012 Fidelio, 1989 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and 1990 War and Peace, plus a Decca recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail conducted by Sir Georg Solti, the Leipzig Radio Chorus and Staatskapelle Dresden performing the Tannhäuser Pilgrims' Chorus conducted by Silvio Varviso, and the Decca recording of Peter Grimes conducted by Benjamin Britten.