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