From The Vancouver Sun, Wednesday, April 7, 1982
By Christopher Dafoe

"If you want to see true Wagner, you must go to Seattle," said the late Wini­fred Wagner, daughter-in-law of the mighty composer. Thousands have taken her at her word.

Every summer for the past eight years, Wagnerites have trekked to Seattle from all over the world to see something unique in North America: a Wagner festival in which the master's great operatic cycle The Ring of the Nibelung is presented in both English- and German-language productions in the authentic Wagnerian manner with traditional costumes and decor.

This summer, the German language performances of Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdam­merung will be staged July 24, 25, 27 and 27, with English versions following on August 1, 2, 4 and 6.

Veteran opera producer Glynn Ross, general director of the Seattle Opera, will again be in charge. This week he was in Vancouver to talk about the only complete production of The Ring staged anywhere in the world this year.

Eight years ago, when the project was first launched, Ross and his col­leagues were unaware of the enormity of what they were undertaking.

"I didn't know that it was impossible for us to do The Ring — so I did it," he recalls. The gamble paid off artistical­ly almost at once and Seattle swiftly be­came a Wagnerite shrine.

"We get people from all over the world," Ross says, "and many of them come year after year. They come back like pilgrims or communicants. Any place that can give you a very special experience above and beyond the mere sidewalk experience, an experience be­yond words, becomes a place of pil­grimage."

There is, Ross feels, a "Wagner audi­ence" and an "opera audience" and the two are often quite distinct.

"Ring-goers," he says, "are a world elite." He tells of one elderly woman who came to Seattle from Switzerland in order to see The Ring performed in traditional Wagnerian style. As she boarded the plane for the return jour­ney to Europe she said: "Now I can die happy."

Another enthusiast postponed open-heart surgery in order to take in the Seattle Ring. One woman claimed that she came to the Wagner festival in order to be "spiritually recycled."

Ross feels that exposure to the entire Ring Cycle in a period of days involves an almost religious experience for many Wagnerites.

"It represents," he says, "at least a seven-day chunk of their lives. During that period they become welded togeth­er like a mob. They have gone through a kind of communion with each other."

The power of Wagner's Ring, he feels certain, lies in its sheer weight.

"The Ring," he says, "is not unlike sex in that it requires total immmer­sion in order to give complete satisfac­tion, The only way to go to the Ring is to go in a one-week period and hear it all." Isolated productions of individual operas from the cycle, he feels, turn people off because the overall impact of the work is lacking.

In Seattle, many local Wagnerites cut themselves off totally from life dur­ing the Ring period.

As Ross points out: "You don't want to go to the office or follow your usual routine, after a performance of Die Walkure. You have to have total immersion in the experience."

There were rumors earlier this year that anti-Wagner forces in Seattle wanted to do away with the Wagner Festival, and Ross admits that the ap­proval of the outside world is not totally reflected in Seattle.

"We have many detractors who say that the regular opera season has suf­fered because of the Ring," he says, "but somebow we must find a way of cleaning up the image of two very sepa­rate markets, the Ring as a world event, the regular opera season as a re­gional service."

There may be nay-sayers at home, but communities outside Seattle are watching the Seattle festival with an eye to emulation. Dallas, Cincinnati, Philadelphia and San Francisco have expressed interest in following the Seattle example. Ross doesn't mind: "The more the better."

Information about tickets and per­formances for this year's Ring can be. obtained by writing to the Pacific Northwest Wagner Festival, P.O. Box 9248, Seattle, Washington, 98109.