A Met tour of a beloved opera.
350 schoolchildren starred in a Seattle Opera production in 1973!
The fledgling company’s first production.
Wagner’s rollicking sea yarn came to Seattle with a famous cast.
A game of musical chairs ensued when several Ring singers switched parts.
A cast substitution with unexpected results.
A seductive production of Carmen that had it all.
A lively production of Rossini’s great comedy.
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s founding General Director!
Hear the mezzo who was Seattle’s original Queen of the Gods.
R. M. Campbell’s obituary recaps the remarkable career of Glynn Ross.
Hear the voice of Seattle’s original Ur-Mutter.
Explore the 1964/65 Lucia di Lammermoor Program!
The return of this great American work, first performed in Seattle in 1970.
Romanian soprano Mariana Nicolesco was a beautiful Violetta.
Simon Estes was a strong Hagen, and Ute Vinzing joined our Ring for the first time as Brünnhilde.
Our second production of Puccini’s perennially popular tragedy.
Beverly Sills’ only Mimì!
Explore the 1966/67 Lakme Program!
as told by Hans Lehmann
Seattle Opera’s only production of this tuneful comedy.
A huge cast assembled for Strauss’s great comedy.
Beverly Sills sang Lucia in Seattle.
A new Siegfried added to the excitement of Seattle Opera’s most ambitious summer program yet.
A starry production of Verdi’s great melodrama.
Seattle Opera’s only production of Tchaikovsky’s Pushkin-inspired tragedy.
Explore the 1965/66 Lohengrin Program!
Dorothy Kirsten’s Seattle appearance.
The Seattle Opera debut of Julian Patrick!
Explore the 1965/66 Il trovatore Program!
Seattle Opera opens its doors with Rigoletto.
The first Wagner production at Seattle Opera!
Starring Kaaren Erickson as Susanna.
Listen to excerpts from Seattle Opera’s English-language RINGS!
Explore the 1965/66 Samson and Delilah Program!
Starring Norman Treigle as the devil!
Hear Archie Drake in this thrilling American premiere.
Seattle Opera’s first-ever performance of Mozart’s intriguing comedy.
Nilsson as the Ice Princess.
By 1980, Seattle’s Ring was a well-known west coast cultural phenomenon.
Starring June Anderson as Rosina!
Our only performance of this charming operetta.
A multi-national cast brought Verdi’s tuneful melodrama to Seattle.
A sexy devil bewitched Seattle Opera in 1974.
Opera education and outreach, ’70s-style!
Explore the 1966/67 Turandot Program!
Seattle Opera’s first production of Verdi’s comic Shakespearean masterpiece.
Seattle Opera’s first production of Puccini’s beloved tragedy.
Joan Sutherland wowed the opera-goers of Seattle in 1970 by singing all three ladies in “The Tales of Hoffmann.”
Starring husband-and-wife James McCracken & Sandra Warfield!
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s first Music and Education Director!
A favorite young composer of ours in the 1970s!
Seattle Opera’s first original commissioned work.
as told by composer Carlisle Floyd
Explore the 1969/70 Turandot Program!
Seattle’s first French-language opera production!
Klara Barlow was Seattle’s first necrophilic nymphomaniac princess.
An Aida featuring several RING singers.
Starring Seattle Opera’s first African-American singer!
Sir Geraint Evans returns!
A second Ring opera is added to Seattle’s repertory.
The world’s first ‘rock opera’ was Bette Midler’s only Seattle Opera appearance!
How Glynn Ross organized the two casts necessary for presenting opera in Seattle.
Glynn Ross begins introducing his favorite opera tetralogy to Seattle.
Our first production of Wagner’s great song of love and death.
The first contemporary opera presented by Seattle Opera.
The final cycle produced by Glynn Ross.
Hear an astonishing “Si, pel ciel” from a great American tenor!
Listen to Sutherland and Tourangeau sing the famous “Lakmé” Flower Duet!
Explore the 1964/65 Boris Godunov Program!
Hear the SIEGFRIED Riddle Scene–in English!
A fantastic cast brings Bizet’s stunning opera alive.
Korean soprano Sung-Sook Lee was Seattle Opera’s second Butterfly.
A precursor of Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program.
Explore the 1964/65 Faust Program!
World Premiere of a new Pasatieri opera!
Sherrill Milnes’s Seattle Opera debut!
Italian baritone Matteo Manuguerra shines in Seattle Opera’s second staging of Rigoletto.
with Glenn Ross in 1970
Seattle Opera’s first Traviata wasn’t ours at all—it came from the Met.
Johanna Meier and Alberto Remedios joined our cast this summer.
Jon Vickers as Britten’s tragic fisherman misfit.
Explore the 1966/67 The Barber of Seville Program!
The unforgettable Seattle debut of Franco Corelli!
Jerome Hines sang his greatest role in Seattle.
Régine Crespin’s Seattle Opera appearance!
Explore the 1964/65 Rigoletto Program!
Fiorenza Cossotto stole the show with “O don fatale.”
James McCracken brought down the house!
The world’s favorite operetta, starring several popular television stars of the day.
Franco Corelli at Seattle Opera.
Excerpt from The Journal of the Wagner Society of Northern California
Remarks from the award ceremony
A 1978 production of Bizet’s thrilling opera.
Giovanni Martinelli’s one Seattle Opera appearance!
Seattle Opera’s first production of Mozart’s great fairy-tale.
Joan Sutherland’s Seattle debut!
The first Seattle Opera appearance of the appealing Mary Costa.
Polish soprano Zdizislawa Donat was a memorable Lucia.
Hear the bass who was with us from before the beginning.
Seattle Opera goes psychedelic!
Cinderella comes to Seattle Opera for the first time.
Thomas Pasatieri’s opera based on the Checkov play.
Explore the 1965/66 La Boheme Program!
A 1982 article about Glynn Ross and Seattle’s Ring.
“Ride of the Valkyries” — sung in English!
as told by Julian Patrick
Edward Sooter made a great addition to our Ring cast at its fifth consecutive summer.
A pioneer opera education program, which later became a model for programs nationwide.
The first time the world ended at Seattle Opera!
Archie Drake’s first outing as Benoit/Alcindoro–a role he owned for decades at Seattle Opera.
Joan Sutherland returned to Seattle as Donna Anna.
It’s love at first sight (and hearing!) when Seattle Opera meets Richard Wagner.
Roberta Peters was Seattle Opera’s first Lucia.
Listen to Corelli’s stunning “Ah, lève-toi soleil!”
Anna Moffo’s Seattle Opera appearance!
Our first production directed, designed, and built entirely in-house!
Joan Sutherland in a Massenet rarity—also starring the young James Morris!
Glynn Ross’s third and final Turandot–a production worthy of an MGM Bible epic spectacular!
The first Ring performed complete within a week in the U.S. in a generation.
Carol Neblett made her debut as Puccini’s coquette.
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s resident tenor in the ’70s!
A splendid production of Verdi’s masterpiece–complete with live horses!
A great star, but a compromised performance!
Hear the voice of Noel Tyl, one of our first Wotans.
Hear Archie Drake sing Gunther–in English!
The first performance of Bizet’s classic tale in Seattle Opera history!
A new Brünnhilde headlined our second complete cycle.
Hear Seattle’s first malevolent Lord of the Ring.
Seattle’s first completely comic opera!
