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Under the leadership of General Director Speight Jenkins, Seattle Opera has become known as "America's Bayreuth," drawing worldwide audiences to its acclaimed productions of all of Richard Wagner's major works, especially sold-out performances of Der Ring des Nibelungen, the composer's cycle of four epic operas-Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. Seattle Opera's last Ring cycle performances in 2005 drew audiences from 49 states and 19 countries and sold out many months in advance.
Seattle Opera and the City of Seattle are now making preparations for Seattle Opera's next three Ring cycles, to take place from August 9 through 30, 2009. Tickets are currently on sale to Seattle Opera subscribers. Tickets go on sale online to the general public beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. Tickets for the general public will be available by phone or in person beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 15, 2008.For the first time Seattle Opera will expand the activities surrounding its McCaw Hall performances of the Ring into the 21,000 square-foot Fisher Pavilion in Seattle Center, just steps from McCaw Hall. Among the events scheduled for Fisher Pavilion are Seattle Opera's signature Symposia, where leading Wagner scholars and authors examine the complexities of the Ring. Exploring the Ring is a series of in-depth, three-hour seminars on each performance day, hosted by international Wagner authority and lecturer Perry Lorenzo, the Education Director of Seattle Opera. Other Fisher Pavilion events include Tech Talks with the company's Technical and Facilities Director Robert Schaub, where he describes the special effects that enhance the productions. New for 2009 will be Ring Fest Performances: hour-long English adaptations of one or more of the Ring operas by singers from Seattle Opera's renowned Young Artists Program and Ring Fest participants.
Events scheduled for McCaw Hall include Overtures to the Ring-entertaining and informative introductions held an hour and a half before each performance, hosted by Education Artistic Administrator Jonathan Dean, and free post-performance Q & A with Speight Jenkins sessions in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall. After each performance of Das Rheingold, there will be a Rheingold Revelry Opening Night Celebration in McCaw Hall-a champagne reception followed by a late supper-hosted by Speight Jenkins and attended by Ring artists. Plans are already under way for these and other special events throughout the city. One eagerly awaited activity is the revival of Das Barbecü, a witty take on the Ring as a Texas fable, written by Seattle composer Scott Warrender and lyricist Jim Luigs to be presented by ACT-A Contemporary Theatre. The work, performed by five actors playing more than 30 outrageous characters, was originally commissioned by Seattle Opera in 1991 and has since had a successful off-Broadway run and has been performed in community theaters across the country. The proposed dates for Das Barbecü are July 31 through September 6, 2009. Six special performances will be reserved exclusively for Seattle Opera Ring attendees on August 11, 13, 19, 21, 27, and 29, 2009.
"I thought up the idea of Das Barbecü while talking to Scott Warrender in a Seattle park while we both were walking our dogs," said General Director Speight Jenkins. "I never wanted a parody of the Ring-there are too many of those. I wanted a musical about what the Ring characters do when they are not onstage. Scott and Jim Luigs set the piece in Texas, and Scott wrote very tuneful, American music to a clever libretto. It has been a big hit all over the country and an even bigger hit when the audiences know the Ring. After a fourteen-year absence from Seattle, I am happy to welcome Das Barbecü back." The 2009 Ring cycle cast includes American soprano Janice Baird as Brünnhilde, Danish tenor Stig Fogh Andersen as Siegfried, and Australian tenor Stuart Skelton as Siegmund, all of whom are new to the production. Bass-baritone Greer Grimsley returns as Wotan/The Wanderer, a role that he first sang in the 2005 production and for which he won the Seattle Opera Artist of the Year award. Other returning singers are baritone Richard Paul Fink as Alberich, soprano Margaret Jane Wray as Sieglinde and the Third Norn, and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, First Norn, and Waltraute (Götterdämmerung). Ms. Blythe previously sang Fricka and the Second Norn in all Seattle Ring performances since 2000.
The 2009 Ring is directed by Stephen Wadsworth, with sets designed by Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting by Peter Kaczorowski. Robert Spano, music director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, who conducted his first Ring for the company in 2005, returns to Seattle Opera to conduct the 2009 performances. Seattle has been recognized as the Wagner capital of America for more than a quarter of a century, producing one-week cycles of Wagner's Ring in the tradition of the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, which since 1876 has been the international shrine of Wagner productions. During his 25-year tenure, Speight Jenkins has created new productions of the composer's 10 canonical operas, including two new productions of the Ring. TicketsTickets for the three 2009 Ring cycles are currently on sale to Seattle Opera subscribers and donors of $100 or more to the Ring fund. Tickets will go on sale to the general public during an online presale beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. Tickets for the general public will be available by phone or in person beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 15, 2008. Seattle Opera's Ring cycles are among the most anticipated events in the Pacific Northwest.
