In 1992 Perry Lorenzo, then a dynamic English teacher who had pioneered an innovative opera education program at Burien’s Kennedy High School, became Seattle Opera’s Education Director. Perry’s wit, wisdom, and contagious enthusiasm for opera and the arts made converts in every corner of Washington and brought Seattle Opera’s good news as far afield as Oxford and Bayreuth.

Perry died at 51 in 2009, following a battle with lung cancer. But he had already made a lifetime’s impression on the people who flocked to his lectures on opera, not only in Seattle but as far afield as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Germany’s Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. Listen to this excerpt from his talks on Wagner’s “Ring,” which were released as a four-cd set (available at www.seattleopera.org/shop/detail.as…5&catID=11).