Our first production of Wagner’s great song of love and death.
Explore the 1980/81 Tristan and Isolde Program!
Explore the 1994/95 Lohengrin Program!
Glynn Ross begins introducing his favorite opera tetralogy to Seattle.
Speight learns to listen to young people at final dress rehearsals.
Hear the great Canadian tenor sing one of his most gorgeous roles.
Explore the 1978 Ring Program!
The making of the Ring
The first time the world ended at Seattle Opera!
The moment when the difference between Speight Jenkins and Glynn Ross became apparent!
Speight remembers how Nuremberg came to Seattle.
By 1980, Seattle’s Ring was a well-known west coast cultural phenomenon.
Speight remembers consecrating McCaw Hall with Wagner’s most Wagnerian opera.
Explore the 1984 Ring Program!
Listen to excerpts from Seattle Opera’s English-language RINGS!
Excerpt from The Journal of the Wagner Society of Northern California
Duesing implores the Evening Star to bear his love to the lady of his heart.
The unforgettable opera that opened McCaw Hall!
Speight: “A remarkably easy RING!”
Listen to a clip from Perry Lorenzo’s famous RING lectures!
“Gloomy captain, go on land; seek a faithful woman’s hand! Another seven years rush by; another woman soon must die.”
Revival of the 1994 production directed by Stephen Wadsworth.
Speight’s dreams come true with a match made in operatic heaven.
How the first go-around of “Ring 2” had some strengths and some weaknesses.
A new Siegfried added to the excitement of Seattle Opera’s most ambitious summer program yet.
The once-controversial “Ring 2” finally earns complete acceptance.
Explore the 1972/73 Die Walküre Program!
Explore the 2004/05 Lohengrin Program!
The first full performance of Seattle Opera’s beloved “Green” Ring.
The first Wagner production at Seattle Opera!
Explore the 1971/72 Flying Dutchman Program!
Speight remembers how the “Green” RING began its life.
Hear Asher Fisch conduct the TRISTAN Prelude!
A new Brünnhilde headlined our second complete cycle.
Hear Seattle’s first malevolent Lord of the Ring.
Explore the 1984/85 Tannhäuser Program!
The most familiar music from Wagner’s RING!
Explore the 1998/99 Tristan and Isolde Program!
Explore the 1973/74 Siegfried Program!
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s founding General Director!
A 1982 article about Glynn Ross and Seattle’s Ring.
The first complete presentation of the imaginative Rochaix/Israel Ring 2.
Watch Director’s Talk Video with Peter Kazaras
Wagner News: “An opera experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”
Explore the 2001 Ring Program!
Hear the mezzo who was Seattle’s original Queen of the Gods.
Explore the program for our Summer 1981 Wagner festival, featuring the Ring and Tristan and Isolde.
For Seattle Opera’s only production of this masterpiece, we projected titles above the stage for the first time.
Explore the 2010/11 Tristan and Isolde Program!
A serenade gone hilariously wrong!
The final cycle produced by Glynn Ross.
The first Ring performed complete within a week in the U.S. in a generation.
Explore the 1986 Ring Program!
Hear two of the great Wagner voices of our time, at the peak of their powers.
R. M. Campbell’s obituary recaps the remarkable career of Glynn Ross.
Seattle Opera’s only production to date of Wagner’s sunny comedy.
Explore the 2000/01 Das Rheingold, Die Walküre Program!
Explore the 2003/04 Parsifal Program!
RING 2 achieved widespread acceptance this summer, and the number of performances increased to three.
From the book, “Classical Music in America”
Leonie Rysanek’s unforgettable Seattle appearance!
Our first RING in McCaw Hall–and Greer Grimsley’s first Wotan.
Explore the 2013 Ring Program!
Explore the 1979 Ring Program!
The “Green” Ring looked better than ever this summer.
Speight’s story of saving his first-ever RING from disaster.
Speight finds a new Siegfried–after the final dress rehearsal!
Three-minute complilation of footage from the final dress rehearsal of 2009’s DAS RHEINGOLD.
The great Viennese soprano’s only Seattle appearance!
Explore the 1983 Ring Program!
Hear the voice of Seattle’s original Ur-Mutter.
Wagner’s mighty epic performed for–and by!–kids all over Washington State.
The award-winning performance in the first opera in the renovated McCaw Hall.
Explore the 1977 Ring Program.
Listen to Asher Fisch conduct overwhelming music from the first show in McCaw Hall!
The Making of the Ring
Edward Sooter made a great addition to our Ring cast at its fifth consecutive summer.
Hear Archie Drake sing Gunther–in English!
Listen to the voice of Seattle’s reigning king of the gods.
One of our favorite baritones sings Alberich’s curse.
Explore the 1980 Ring Program!
A second Ring opera is added to Seattle’s repertory.
The final outing of Ring 2 was a great success, artistically—and financially!
The last summer for Ring 1!
From the 2009 Ring cycle performances
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s first Music and Education Director!
Explore the 1995 Ring Program!
Explore the 2005 Ring Program!
Johanna Meier and Alberto Remedios joined our cast this summer.
Greer Grimsley’s first Wagner opera—complete with giant animatronic swan!
Speight remembers his first great success with the RING.
Explore the 1988/89 Flying Dutchman Program!
Explore the 1985/86 Die Walküre Program!
A complete list of Wagner performances in Seattle.
It’s love at first sight (and hearing!) when Seattle Opera meets Richard Wagner.
Explore the 1974/75 Ring Program!
Speight remembers when the “Shiite Wagnerites” demanded his head.
From the 2009 Ring
Speight finds a new Siegfried–with two days notice!
Hear the bass who was with us from before the beginning.
The orchestra mourns the death of a fallen hero.
A game of musical chairs ensued when several Ring singers switched parts.
Explore the 2007/08 Flying Dutchman Program!
Explore the 1989/90 Master-Singers of Nuremberg Program!
Explore the 1991 Ring Program!
Speight gets the swan just the way he likes it!
Watch clips from our imaginative second production of Wagner’s Ring.
Hear the winners of our International Wagner Competitions!
Wagner’s rollicking sea yarn came to Seattle with a famous cast.
Speight remembers how supertitles came to Seattle Opera.
From 2009 Ring cycle performances.
This preview of our third RING production featured the first two operas in the cycle, presented in full one year later.
Pete Olds’ quick-thinking saves the day.
A cast substitution with unexpected results.
A minimalist new production directed by Peter Kazaras that was inspired in part from the Ambrose Bierce short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
Explore the 1987 Ring Program!
Explore the 1982 Ring Program!
Watch a Video Excerpt
Explore the 1974/75 Gotterdammerung Program!
Watch Video: Music with Maestro Asher Fisch
“Ride of the Valkyries” — sung in English!
Simon Estes was a strong Hagen, and Ute Vinzing joined our Ring for the first time as Brünnhilde.
Hear the voice of Noel Tyl, one of our first Wotans.
Perhaps the wildest animal ever to appear on our stage…
Explore the 2009 Ring Program!
Hear the SIEGFRIED Riddle Scene–in English!
Explore the 1976 Ring Program!
Hear the voice of Seattle Opera’s resident tenor in the ’70s!
Part one of our series previewing 2009 RING Cycle focused on the artists involved and their rehearsal process.
Hear the bass-baritone who often sang Wotan in Seattle in the ’80s.
