“Green Ring” production - Seattle Opera

Seattle Opera
“Green” Ring Press Kit
“In Seattle, Glynn Ross audaciously resolved to mount Wagner’s
Ring of the Nibelung every summer in both German and English,
starting in 1975. Speight Jenkins, who took over the Seattle Opera
in 1983, is an equally zealous Wagnerite (the office closes for
Wagner’s birthday) who insisted on world- class music and
production values. This meant relinquishing Ross’s annual Ring in
favor of more-varied summer repertoire keying on fresh
productions of Lohengrin, the Ring, Tristan, Die Meistersinger,
and Parsifal. Seattle’s 1986 Ring, directed by Francois Rochaix
and designed by Robert Israel, remains the only North American
version with the intellectual panache of Patrice Chereau’s
landmark Bayreuth Ring of 1976. Seattle’s 2001 Ring, directed by
Stephen Wadsworth, was hyperrealistic yet psychologically astute.
Both productions were cast not according to glamorous past
exposure but actual competence shrewdly assessed; both were
complemented by first-rate Wagner lectures and (an amenity
unknown at Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall) a serious bookstore.
The one Ring secured and the other consolidated Seattle’s status as
the leading North American Wagner house.”
Joseph Horowitz
Classical Music in America

Seattle Opera Public Programs and Media Department
Jonathan Dean
Director of Public Programs and Media
206.676.5543
jonathan.dean@seattleopera.org
Tamara Vallejos
Public Programs and Media Associate
206.676.5559
tamara.vallejos@seattleopera.org
For visuals (digital photographs or video):
Monte Jacobson
Public Relations Coordinator
206.676.5545
monte.jacobson@seattleopera.org
Press releases and other information also available at:
http://www.seattleopera.org/news/

Review Quotes: Seattle Opera’s Ring III
Production Review Quotes
“Like a towering fir tree that survives after the primeval forest around it has vanished, the
Seattle Opera’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle now stands alone as the only traditional
depiction of the epic music drama on the American stage. And tall and proud it stands,
indeed...magnificent to look at and imaginatively staged.”
—Mike Silverman, The Associated Press, 8/17/2009
“The Technicolor © brilliance and sylvan detail of the production (the collaborative brainchild of
director Stephen Wadsworth, scenic designer Thomas Lynch, costume designer Martin
Pakledinaz and lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski) are astounding.”
—James C. Whitson, Opera News, November 2009
“The production remains realistic without being kitschy and succeeded to presenting Wagner’s
Ring rather than some director’s concept of it. All the characters become complex and often
sympathetic human beings here, not robots or cartoon figures.”
—John Louis diGaetani, Wagnerianni, Spring 2010
“The Seattle Symphony Orchestra is one of the most experienced in the world when it comes to
Wagner, and serves up Wagner’s entire range of orchestral magic with convincing power.”
—David Schiff, Opernwelt, November 2001
“For all its beauty and naturalism, the real triumph of this Ring was its singing.”
—David Stabler, The Oregonian, “Searing `Gotterdammerung’ ends cycle” 8/13/2001
“Seattle has many claims to fame, for Boeing, the American aircraft giant, for Bill Gates’
Microsoft, and perhaps, most universally, for Frasier. For Wagnerites, however, Seattle means
the Ring. The Seattle Ring is infinitely worth the round trip of 13,000 miles, and wild horses will
not keep me away when it is staged again in five years time.
—Paul Dawson-Bowling, UK Wagner Society newsletter, “Wunder Muss Ich Euch Melden: The
Seattle Ring,” December 2001

Singer Review Quotes
“[Greer] Grimsley was every bit the master god. Hiss bass-baritone not only is big and untiring,
it is voluminous, with ever-changing color, now intense and cutting, now dark, now ringing and
stentorian. And he’s mobile and quick, his whole body the portrait of the mood and emotion.
The shift he made from the towering rage at his willfully disobedient daughter, to the grief and
loss shown at his final farewell from Brünnhilde, was tremendous, and the separation more
loving and moving than I have ever experienced of other Wotans.”
—Robert Commanday, San Francisco Classical Voice, 8/11/2009
“Seldom does the role of Fricka dominate a “Walküre” so compellingly as when Stephanie
Blythe is singing. Her voice just gets more amazing with each performance: huge, sumptuous,
beautifully crafted waves of mezzo-soprano brilliance. Each note was a thrill. Never has one
wished more fervently that Fricka had been given more to sing.
—Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times, 8/11/2009
“The venomous Alberich of Richard Paul Fink swaggered with lethal assurance, blustering
about in a huge, gritty baritone.”
—James C. Whitson, Opera News, November 2009
“The star of Siegfried was without question the San Francisco-based tenor Dennis Peterson as
Mime, a role usually tackled by aging and hammy character singers. Peterson actually sang all of
his music well without losing any of the humor and even pathos of this fascinating, annoying,
and complex role.”
—Fred Haumptman, Crosscut, 8/15/2009
“Stuart Skelton’s ringing, clear tenor, reminiscent of Set Svanholm’s, and his bold, confident
carriage made his Siegmund an imposing, heroic figure.”
—Robert Commanday, San Francisco Classical Voice, 8/11/2009
“Margaret Jane Wray is gaining attention these days, consistently singing major roles at the
Met. To judge from her Brangäne here, the spreading fame is well-deserved. Hers is a soprano
approach to this Zwischenfach role, slightly steely at the top, but clearly projected and delivered,
with plenty of volume.
—Andrew Moravcsik, Opera Today, 8/15/2010

Full Articles and Reviews
The “Green” Ring
“The Seattle Opera Ring Cycle Design & Technical Team,” Entertainment Design, 2001
“As Nature Intended: Designing a ‘Green’ Ring Cycle for the Seattle Opera,”
Entertainment Design, 2001
“Nature Rules in Triumphant Ring,” Wall Street Journal, 2001
“Seattle Ring cycle a triumph,” San Francisco Chronicle, 2001
“Der Postindustrielle Siegfried,” Opernwelt, 2001
“Wagner’s ‘Ring’ in Seattle – Klingedes Museum,” Rondo, 2005
“Seattle Opera’s once and future ‘Ring,’” The Seattle Times, 2009
“If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be ‘Siegfried,’” The New York Times, 2009
“The Ring at the Heart of Seattle Opera,” 2012/13 Souvenir Book

Opernwelt 11/2001:
The postindustrial Siegfried
The outstanding success of Seattle Opera's new production of Wagner' s "Ring" could be
simply observed by the fact, that the audience celebrated the singers in every intermission
and discussed vividly the nature of Wagner's characters.
Speight Jenkins, the General Director of Seattle Opera and Stephen Wadsworth, the director
of the "Ring," are the ones responsible for these reactions.
Jenkins put together a cast mainly consisting of Americans, Canadians and British that for the
most part was beyond all expectations. Jane Eaglen as Brünnhilde, Margaret Jane Wray as
Sieglinde, Stephanie Blythe as Fricka and Nancy Maultsby as Erda/Waltraute especially
distinguished themselves. Eaglen, who too often is criticised for her acting, filled the role of
Brünnhilde impressively with life, by planning Brünnhilde's emotional escalation carefully, to
finally let it culminate in the immolation scene. Wray's voice conveyed a seemingly eerie
quality. Her voice endowed Sieglinde's fragility and desperation with a sweet colouring that
stood in perfect contrast to Eaglen's more blaring voice. Stephanie Blythe and Margaret Jane
Wray finally returned as two of the Norns and took advantage of this re-entrance to show all off
of their vocal mastery.
The male cast was more heterogeneous, mainly because of Alan Woodrow's injury, which
made him sing his first Siegfried backstage while Richard Berkeley-Steele acted the part on
stage (in the following two weeks Berkeley-Steele also sang the part himself). This
circumstance proved the more unfortunate, since Woodrow sang Siegfried as a heroic but still
very human figure, while Berkeley-Steele fit the part visually better through his agility and
obvious youth. Further outstanding male singers were the Danish bass Stephen Milling as
Fasolt and Hunding, Richard Paul Fink as Alberich and Mark Baker as Siegmund. Milling was
celebrated as the discovery of the whole cycle. He posseses an enormous range of voice,
incredible vocal colours and an impressive stage presence. Fink was nearly on the same level
and shaped Alberich threatening and sympathetic at the same time. Thomas Harper as Mime
avoided stereotype funny elements of the role, without denying Mime's potential of evilness.
Peter Kazaras was an impressive Loge, although the director Stephen Wadsworth seemed to be
unable to decide what to do with this colourful figure. The only real disappointment was Philip
Joll's Wotan who lacked (comparatively) vocal presence and determination.
Seattle's former "Ring" from 1985 was a postmodern, "postchéreau" approach by François
Rochaix which contained high-tech special effects which achieved the amount of applause as
the singers. This new production, also called "The Green Ring", sets the action into a wood,
which didn't look like the Rhine-Area at all. Over all, this surtitled production could be
characterised as rather "ungermanic".

This "Ring," with Thomas Lynch's realistic set and Martin Pakledinaz' eclectic costumes,
avoids any political or mystic statement and emphasizes instead the individual psychological
aspects of the figures (more in the actor's studio tradition than in the sense of Freud or Jung)
and exposed several details, which sometimes helped the development of the plot, but also
sometimes distracted from the focus of the story.
One critic called this production a "Verismo-Ring" which suits it very well. Wadsworth’s
approach had its strongest moment in the human moments of Wagner's drama and its weakest
when the human elements get transcendent.
The concept (mis)leaded to a new provocative view of the characters: Fricka and Alberich
gained importance during "Rheingold", while Wotan degenerated to a reckless opportunist, an
interpretation which affected the following operas badly, because we couldn't develop the
necessary sympathy for Wotan's big plans. In spite of these difficulties, there were many great
moments: They reached from Alberich's curse, which probably rocked the whole Pacific
Northwest, to the extremely funny "sports- activities" of the Rhinemaidens when they welcome
Siegfried in "Götterdämmerung". Unfortunately the very final scene was the weakest one of the
whole production: The gods seemed to celebrate their end in some kind of New-Year’s-Party.
On the other hand what should top Jane Eaglen's singing in the "Immolation-Scene"?
The Seattle Symphony Orchestra is one of the most experienced Wagner orchestras of the
world and served the whole range of Wagner's orchestral magic in a very convincing way. The
American Franz Vote conducted very fluently and balanced although there was a lack of
distinguishing individual note. The first two operas seemed to be musically not very structured
and Wotan’s Farewell lacked sparkling energy. The sound of the last two operas seemed to be
much more fluent,
Seattle takes Wagner seriously: 800 people attended a five-hour-symposium after "Walküre",
several hundred people came as well to Perry Lorenzo's pre- performance talks and to Speight
Jenkins Question-and-Answer sessions after the shows at night. Jenkins managed to establish
Seattle as "Alternative Bayreuth" (difficult to translate: In German the term is "Gegen-
Bayreuth" which could mean "Anti-Bayreuth" or "Counter-Bayreuth", but I'm sure from the
context he wants to express that Wagner fans really have the choice to go to Seattle or to
Bayreuth, because they are on the same level) using the work of his predecessor Glynn Ross,
but without any false "Familycult" or historical mysticism. The hometown of Boeing and
Microsoft (the industrial Wotan and the post-industrial Siegfried?) seems to be the perfect place
to carry Wagner into the 21 st Century. Seattle Opera plans to revive this Ring production in
2005 in the newly renovated Opera House which is supposed to open with a new "Parsifal" in
2003
David Schiff

ENGLISH:
WAGNER’S "RING" IN SEATTLE
Sounding Museum
Breiholz Backstage – May 2005
In American Seattle they play Wagner by the book. After the completely postmodern
“Ring” adaptations of the last few years, it’s almost refreshing. At least according to
Jochen Breiholz, who saw the most recent performances.
For Wagnerians, Seattle has above all else a golden sound: Seattle, the American Bayreuth.
The call went out in the middle of the 70's, when Glynn Ross, who founded Seattle Opera in
1963, presented "Der Ring des Nibelungen" at his house for the first time. Until 1983, the
company played the tetralogy each season, always alternating between German and
English. No other American opera house has such continuity.
The three cycles presented at Seattle Opera this August have been sold out since last
autumn. The "Ring" in Seattle is a cult and without a doubt the city’s most important
cultural event. A must for anyone who wants to belong. One goes to the events and
performances relaxed. Nothing to do with sacred consecration—Bayreuth is far; no fiercely
earnest, transfigured gazes. Many in the audience look as though they were going to a
beach party. Flip-flops and shorts are not strange. Of course there’s also the occasional
smoking jacket, the lonely evening dress, but whatever pleases is allowed. And what
pleases most people is that no dress code exists to which they must conform.
Then we get started exactly where good old Richie put it in the stage directions: at the
bottom of the Rhine. The Rhine maidens swim in dizzying heights. That is, they hang above
the stage and are pulled through the air, up and down and sideways. Their mermaidfishtails
glitter like silver. Director Stephen Wadsworth and his set designer Thomas Lynch
follow the words of the master at every turn. Almost always. Mountains heights, wild
forests, rocky clefts. If it was the will of the collected-art-worker Wagner that the gods
climb up a rainbow to enter Valhalla at the end of Das Rheingold – thank you very much,
that’s what they do in Seattle! Granted, it’s technically so brilliant that we are astonished
and deeply impressed. Where else in the world can you see this? Even Otto Schenk’s
production at New York's Met doesn’t stick so closely to the images that Wagner wanted.
Of course, we could now turn away, horrified, and cry out "Kitsch!" Of course, we could say
that this is from yesteryear, no longer a measure of the times, and above all laughable. But
we don’t do that. Seattle gives us the opportunity to the "Ring" as it was originally intended.
It’s like a journey through time, like a museum, to be sure, but museums aren’t bad because
they display something from another time. Everyone is familiar with "Ring"-stagings set in
the 19th century or in the 20's or in the present or in the future, starring managers,
bankers and gangsters. Barely anyone, even the most widely travelled Wagnerians knows
something else. Here, the dragon looks like it comes from Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic
Park". It even has wings. Dragons must look like that!

The cast? Ewa Podles is a grandiose Erda, Stephanie Blythe a brilliant Fricka. Unacceptable,
however, the Brunnhilde of Jane Eaglen, whose voice has long since passed its best days.
But the orchestra, under Robert Spano, can contend with more famous orchestras: Wagner
weaves and floats and flows and flickers here, carrying us away in rapture.

The year was 1975, and the early-evening summer sun was still shining
when the lengthy standing ovations inside the Seattle Opera House finally
subsided. The shell-shocked capacity audience for Seattle’s first complete
Der Ring des Nibelungen had just seen and heard the world end. And as
they staggered outside, clutching their programs and their “I was a Willing
Participant in the Seattle Wagner Orgy” T-shirts and their replica horned
helmets from the gift shop, they knew they were changed forever.
What nobody quite realized at that point was that Seattle Opera was
changed forever, too. Mastering the Ring over 37 years in three very
different productions and with hundreds of international cast members,
conductors, and stage directors gave the company a level of expertise
impossible to attain in less ambitious circumstances. Now, as we approach
an exciting 2012/13 season, Seattle Opera and its audiences will reap the
benefits—in stagecraft, technology, education, directing, orchestral performance,
even box office efficiency—that have been honed by the company’s
long history with Wagner. And two of this season’s most eagerly awaited
productions, Puccini’s Turandot and Beethoven’s mighty Fidelio, will be led
by Asher Fisch, Seattle Opera’s principal guest conductor and conductor of
the next Ring (in August of 2013).
Back in 1975, Seattle Opera’s founding general director Glynn Ross
planned to present the Wagnerian epic as a separate entity each summer
in a forested location between Seattle and Tacoma, but those “Festival in
the Forest” plans never materialized. Instead, the Ring became internalized
in Seattle Opera, rather than a separate festival, and has become the heart
of the company—providing the pulse of everything Seattle Opera does,
from the non-Ring operas to the educational programs.
What changes hath the Ring wrought? Wagner’s tetralogy brought to
Seattle the ultimate Ring enthusiast, Speight Jenkins—first as a Ring lecturer,
then as Ross’s successor in the general director’s chair. The attention of the
world is focused on Seattle during the Ring, which has put Seattle on the
international cultural map as no other artistic endeavor probably could
have done. The Ring has transformed the company’s technology team into
a team with no limits, one that literally can handle any challenge in the
world of stagecraft. Seattle Opera’s educational programming has been—and
continues to be—deeply influenced by Wagner and his works. The Seattle
Above: Seattle Opera Founding Director Glynn Ross (center) with Valkyrie Jeanne Cook and Fafner the giant Noel Mangin in Seattle, 1978
Opposite: Siegfried (Stig Anderson) confronts Fafner the dragon in Seattle Opera’s 2009 Siegfried
66 2012/13 SeaSon at Seattle opera
the Ring
at the Heart of
Seattle Opera
By Melinda Bargreen
Dale wittner photo

Chris Bennion photo

Chris Bennion photo
Symphony Orchestra, which as the orchestra of
Seattle Opera has played all the Rings since the
pre-1975 presentations of the individual operas
inside the company’s regular seasons, has not
only made recordings as “America’s Wagner
Orchestra,” but has also grown and developed to
handle the heroic requirements Wagner made of
his instrumentalists.
“The Ring is the reason I wanted to come here
(to Seattle),” Jenkins explains. “It’s very rare for
an opera company to have a niche like this, but
because of Glynn Ross’s brilliant marketing,
when people said ‘Seattle Opera’ it meant ‘the
Ring.’ The Ring has been our heart; it’s what
makes us. And it has made Seattle Opera ready
to meet any challenge: there’s no opera we can’t
do if we do the Ring.”
Through its work on the Ring the company has
learned how to deal with 25 major artists at
68 2012/13 SeaSon at Seattle opera
once “from a personal, professional, and even
medical basis,” as Jenkins puts it.
One big reason the Ring has seeped into every
Seattle Opera production is that Stephen
Wadsworth, who has staged the current Ring,
has set a new standard for staging in everything
the company does. His direction has created a
taut psychological drama that probes the characters’
motivation and interactions in a way that
has become the company’s “new normal”; after
you’ve had this kind of theater on the opera
stage, you’re not willing to settle for anything
less. Stage director Tomer Zvulun, who has
worked with Wadsworth as assistant director on
the Ring (as well as in the company’s Iphigénie
en Tauride and Der Fliegende Holländer), says
that this association has been “the most
important to my education. What I have learned
goes to work with me every day of the year. I’m
Left: Greer Grimsley (Wotan) and Janice Baird (Brünnhilde), 2009
Below: Asher Fisch rehearses the Seattle Opera Orchestra
Opposite top: Tim Buck, Fire Designer and Flight Technical Director, inspects the
gorge set, along with the carpenter crew
Opposite bottom: Gordon Hawkins (Gunther), Marie Plette (Gutrune) and
Monte Jacobson (the Woman in White)
Rozarii Lynch photo
not interested in just putting people out there
on the stage looking good with the lights and
costumes. Opera is not just a vocal vehicle; it can
be presented in an almost cinematic way.”
Zvulun, who recently staged the company’s
much-lauded Lucia di Lammermoor with
Aleksandra Kurzak and will direct La bohème in
Seattle Opera’s 2012/13 season, says he will bring
to this season’s production the lessons he has
learned in close work with the Ring—different as
Wagner may be from Puccini.
“This is something Stephen [Wadsworth] is
so good at: finding the humanity beneath the
words and the score. From working on the Ring,
I have learned so many truths about my own life,
and my connection to my family.”
Beneath the stage in the orchestra pit, the
lessons of the Ring make a lasting and important

impression on the orchestral musicians. Bruce
Bailey, a Seattle Symphony cellist who has played
almost every Seattle Ring since the operas were
first unveiled singly during the early 1970s, says
the experience “can do nothing but improve your
technique and give you stamina. This is really
great music. After you hear it 15 or 20 times,
you discover that you never realized before
what you were actually hearing.” Bailey’s wife,
Mariel, a member of the first violin section, adds:
“There’s no question that the Ring has improved
my playing massively. It requires things that are
just jaw-droppingly hard. A few passages in the
score are technically unplayable, but I absolutely
try to play every note. And you learn to pace
yourself! During my first Ring, I just fell back in
my chair exhausted after Siegfried.”
Symphony bassoonist Paul Rafanelli was just 13
when he begged his mother to buy him tickets
to the 1976 Ring. A member of the Opera Guild
in his hometown of Bellingham arranged for
him to observe Ring rehearsals, meeting several
of the singers and the famous stage director
George London.
“I didn’t start playing the bassoon until later,
but to be now playing the Ring with the same
company where I first saw it performed is
something I really cherish about my career
Gary Smith photo
here,” Rafanelli adds. He believes playing the
Ring makes the orchestra more flexible and
adaptable—and that hearing the singers informs
his approach to his own instrument in terms of
breathing, phrasing, and inflection.
Nobody in the company has had as much Ring
experience as Monte Jacobson, who has appeared
in every Seattle Ring cycle (first as a singer in the
chorus for Götterdämmerung, more lately as a
supernumerary dubbed “the Woman in White,”
and since 1983, also a full-time employee and
archivist in Seattle Opera’s offices). She vividly
Rozarii Lynch photo
2012/13 SeaSon at Seattle opera 69

Bill Mohn photo
Left: Associate Director Gina
Lapinski rehearses aerial moves
with Rhine Daughters Jennifer Hines
(Flosshilde) and Michele Loisier
(Wellgunde)
Top right: The fire in
Götterdämmerung is about to
consume Brünnhilde (Marilyn
Zschau) in 1995
Bottom right: Having learned to
control large fires onstage, the
company incorporated this skill in
the 1997 Il trovatore, with Mark S.
Doss (Ferrando)
Opposite left: Michele Loisier also
flew above the Seattle Opera stage
when she played the goddess Diane
in Iphigénie en Tauride in 2007
Opposite right: Hojotoho! Students
from the Evergreen school join
Young Artists Megan Hart and
Margaret Gawrysiak as Valkyries in
Siegfried and the Ring of Fire, 2009
70 2012/13 SeaSon at Seattle opera
Greg Eastman photo Gary Smith photo
recalls “standing on the stage, never having heard
the Ring before, surrounded by this spectacular
music and all the excitement of the Gibichungs
called in with all their spears and weapons.”
Over the years and the three different Ring
productions, Jacobson has seen the company
“grow into all these abilities that we now have.
The attitude in the house now is, ‘We can do
anything!’”
Of all the participants involved in creating
Seattle Opera’s Ring, the most visibly exciting
work undoubtedly comes from the technical
team headed by the dauntless Robert Schaub.
His affection for Wagnerian opera is evident in
every pronouncement: “The Ring is the Super
Bowl event of the opera world. It’s the World
Series! It is the pinnacle of our endeavor. And
everything we do at Seattle Opera is informed
by the Ring. After you’ve done that, all the other
operatic challenges are manageable. If you climb
Everest every few years, climbing Mount Rainier
is not so bad.”
Doing the Ring was a major factor influencing
the design and amenities of Marion Oliver McCaw
Hall, a rebuilt version of the former Seattle Opera
House. The new hall opened in 2003. This led the
way to vastly improved technical feats.
“Because of the Ring, we can do flight,” Schaub
explains, noting the famous flying Valkyrie horses
of the previous Ring and the airborne Rhine
Daughters of the current production (revived in
the summer of 2013). “Because of the Ring, we can
do pyrotechnics; we’ve done the R&D (research
and development) and gotten people licensed,

Rozarii Lynch photo
and everything is in-house—and the savings are
huge. And now I get the fire [in Die Walküre and
Götterdämmerung] just like I want it.”
Meeting the technical demands of the Ring has
made amazing things possible. Schaub’s team
runs a digitizer pin over an object, such as a rock,
and it draws the object on a computer, where it
can be sectored and analyzed, and finally built to
a much bigger scale. And sometimes you have to
rotate that rocky unit, too, and it might weigh
15,000 pounds. Because Wagner’s score demands
huge scenery changes in very short time frames,
the set elements must be able to move quickly.
If you have only two minutes and 50 seconds of
music to whisk away the Rhine Daughters’ world
at the bottom of the Rhine and replace it with
the gods’ domain, you have to know precisely
Justina Schwartz photo
where that underwater world is going and who
is taking it there.
“When you’re designing a dragon, you need trigonometry,
geometry, physics,” Schaub explains.
“How much weight needs to be on this lever, and
what materials will work? Let’s try to break it!
Will it snap and break if you drop it? What size of
cables will we need? What kind of silk will work
for the dragon’s skin?”
The advance planning required by the Ring
makes the company unusually proactive, a great
advantage in a world where upcoming opera
productions might be scheduled as long as five
years in advance. To cite only one example: The
airborne maneuvers of the Rhine Daughters are
so physically laborious (never mind the singing!)
that the singers take a year to work out with
trainers and exercise equipment. (“They lose 20
pounds, they look great, and they always say
‘Thank you!’” Schaub notes.) “Our staff is stronger
and tougher because of the Ring,” says Schaub,
who is visibly proud of his team. “If we were a
cable TV channel, we’d be, ‘All Ring, All the Time.’
It’s a core value to our company.”
Finally, the Ring has taught the tech team the
virtues of collaboration: sharing the vision, making
things work, not insisting on your own way.
“We have created an environment where great
ideas flourish,” Schaub explains. “After 21 years,
I’m still excited about the challenge.”
Education is central both to the mission and
future of the company, and here again the
[continued on page 78]
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[continued from page 71]
Ring has been at the heart of Seattle Opera’s
community engagement efforts. under two
education directors—the late Perry Lorenzo and
Sue Elliott, Director of Education since 2010—the
company has created Ring-based initiatives for
all ages. Two school productions, Theft of the
Gold (2005-08) and its sequel, Siegfried and
the Ring of Fire (2009-11) took the message
of the current “Green Ring” production (man’s
greed destroying the balance of nature) and tied
it in with the school curricula. The shows were
written by Jonathan Dean, currently Seattle
Opera’s Director of Public Programs and Media,
and performed in the schools by members of
the company’s Young Artists Program—and
the young students, who were enthusiastic
Nibelungs and Valkyries.
“Once you tell 10-year-old girls they can be
Valkyries,” Dean quips, “you’re there.”
Now a new Ring-inspired education program is
in development (in addition to a very full menu
of symposia and talks and other adult-education
enhancements to the 2013 Ring). Elliott explains
that it’s a community engagement project called
Belonging(s), involving stories about people’s
most precious possession set to music. “Wagner’s
magic ring is an object upon which an entire
world projects its conflicts and history. Drawing
from this inspiration, we’re using stories of our
most precious possessions to create new work
as part of a local, communal arts practice, using
ideas and images from you, your friends, and
your neighbors.”
For younger audiences (K-8), the company is
commissioning three new Our Earth operas
based on concepts from the “Green Ring,” with
input from schools’ science, creative writing, and
art classes. The resulting operas can tour with
piano or expand into chamber versions with a
small orchestra (the latter version to be featured
in festivities throughout 2013).
“One barrier for opera is relevance; it is perceived
as ‘long ago and far away.’ We want to change
the perception of what opera can be,” Elliott
notes. “As Wagner wrote: ‘Kinder, schafft
Neues!’—Children, create something new.”
Melinda Bargreen has been writing about the arts
in the Northwest for 36 years and is a freelance
contributor to several national journals and
newspapers.