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| Photo by Fay Fox. |
Russell Thomas, “a tenor of gorgeously burnished power” (The New York Times), returns to the McCaw Hall stage this January. Thomas sang the role of Ismaele in Nabucco (‘15), and we are excited to welcome him back as Aeneas in Les Troyens in Concert on January 17 & 19.
In this interview, he shares his favorite roles, his inspirations, his future goals, and more.
Up next at Seattle Opera: a concert presentation of Part Two of Les Troyens, the epic based on Virgil’s Aeneid by Hector Berlioz. For two performances only, January 17 and 19, Seattleites will have a chance to hear this incredible show, rarely given in the United States, starring some of today’s leading singers, and with an orchestra of 80 and chorus of 60. Opera-lovers who heard Seattle Opera’s extremely successful concert presentation of Samson and Delilah in 2023 have an idea of what to expect. Although there won’t be full costumes, hair and make-up, sets, props, or complex staging, you’ll enjoy the music and follow the story thanks to lighting, supertitles, and intense performances by singers focused on touching you with their voices.
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| Mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in our 2023 concert presentation of Samson and Delilah. Photo by Sunny Martini. |
Lucidity, the new chamber opera from composer Laura Kaminsky and librettist David Cote, opened this week at On Site Opera in New York City and arrives in Seattle one week later. The opera explores the connections between music and memory loss by following the entangled lives of four musicians at different stages of their lives and careers.
In conjunction with Lucidity’s premiere, NPR and The New York Times each sat down with the opera’s creators and performers to learn more about how this trenchant new work came to be.
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| Photo by Todd Rosenberg |
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| An image showing the charting of brainwave trajectories of individual neurons using the Expansion Selective Plane Illumination Microscope (ExA-SPIM). |
The opera Lucidity delves into the fragmented, bewildering world of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, a space where memory dissolves and identity blurs. It confronts a cruel paradox: characters who know that they don't know, those who don’t know that they don’t know, and others who are painfully aware of the knowledge lost by those around them. Amid this narrative of memory loss and fading recollection, one aspect remains untouched—music. Music cuts through the fog of memory loss, reaching into the deepest parts of the human brain, stirring something enduring even when other aspects of cognition fail.
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| Sarah Joyce Cooper (Minnie Tate), Greg Watkins (Benjamin Holmes), Aundi Marie Moore (Maggie Porter), Darren Drone (Edmund Watkins), Lisa Arrindell (Ella Sheppard), Marin Bakari (Greene Evans), and Tiffany Townsend (America Robinson) in Jubilee. © Sunny Martini |
"This may be the best show in my 30ish years of Seattle Opera attendance." –Seattle Opera Patron
On October 2, Christina Scheppelmann was awarded the Leadership in Opera Award at the 2024 International Opera Awards in Munich, Germany. With over three decades of leadership experience, this award recognizes Scheppelmann’s many career achievements across three continents. Her award recognizes that “Christina has truly transformed the world of opera, navigating challenges and breaking barriers along the way.”
In the 1920s, Seattle was in the midst of a transformation. No longer a bustling wartime city, tensions were high between employers and labor unions. The wartime population grew while accommodations became scarce. Trauma from the outgoing Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (Spanish flu) fostered a culture of social distancing and isolation. And the Red Scare, as well as the re-emergence of the KKK, further exacerbated and codified racial animosities against minorities in the majority white town. Despite these adversities, Seattle still advanced. It became a cultural hub, attracting all manner of artists and musicians. It is in this context that the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their first appearance in Seattle.
On October 12, Seattle Opera will present the world premiere of Jubilee, a new opera which highlights the early years of the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University. Created and directed by Tazewell Thompson, this new opera follows the unique journey of the Jubilee Singers as they shared African American spirituals around the world, ultimately changing music forever.
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| A map of the Underground Railroad, a network of routes used by enslaved African Americans seeking freedom. |
In October 2024, Seattle Opera presents the world premiere of Jubilee, a new opera telling the story of how the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University popularized African American spirituals in the years following the Civil War. These traditional songs, created, refined, and shared anonymously by enslaved Americans, are the foundation on which all American music has been built. The music is wild and intense; beautiful and painful; full of despair, hope, and uplift. African American opera singers have long championed the spirituals, often concluding concerts and recitals with these beloved songs. Jubilee makes of the spirituals a full evening’s entertainment.
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