Glynn Ross Receives 1972 First Citizen Award
Seattle Opera's First General Director Glynn Ross
“The pioneers of Seattle would not have believed tonight’s event possible. Seattle’s first citizen? A lumberman, of course, or perhaps a banker or a fishing tycoon or a railroad promoter. But grand opera – why that plaything of the idle rich, that mark of an effete civilization – opera had no place in this great west where men are men.
Well, of course, our worthy forebears…could not have foreseen the maturing of Seattle. Nor could they have foreseen a dynamo by the name of Glynn Ross. At a time when the national impression of Seattle was unemployment and breadlines, we started getting headlines around the country like
“Out in Seattle, opera lives”, in the New York Times,
“Opera flourishing” and “Seattle on the move,”, in the Los Angeles Times,
“Opera is alive and well in Seattle”, in the National Opera News,
“It’s like man, wow! Seattle Opera House sells it like it is”, in the Wall Street Journal, and
“Seattle triumph for Grand Opera” in the Portland Oregonian.
It was obvious that the lights weren’t out in Seattle. You can’t build the most dynamic opera company in the world on breadlines.