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