Preparing for The Ring

Hi all! It’s Rachel, the Education Department Intern. The other interns and I have been researching Wagner’s Ring cycle in preparation for the upcoming production and the "Experience the Ring" program in August.

Before jumping into the Ring, I have spent a lot of time looking at Wagner’s life and background, as well as other events and movements in the time period that would have affected Wagner’s life. Perry Lorenzo, the head of the Education Department, gives a lecture series with each Ring performance in Seattle, and he stresses the historical happenings that paralleled Wagner’s life. For example, Wagner and Verdi were born in the same year. Two composers with huge impacts on the art of opera, as well as nationalism in their respective countries, and they never met each other. As a matter of fact, they hardly knew of each other and neither of them listened to the other’s music.

In my Music History classes, much of the discussion on Wagner focused on Tristan und Isolde and the famous "Tristan chord". So, many of what I’ve read regarding Wagner is new to me! Not only was Wagner a music revolutionary by pushing the boundaries of tonality, he also participated in the Dresden Revolution and had to flee the German states to avoid arrest! I had no idea!

In studying the Ring, we interns have met with Seneca Garber in group meetings to listen through the entire Ring. This gives us time to pause and share our thoughts with how Wagner uses the music to enhance the story. His famous leitmotif technique is prevalent throughout the Ring as one would expect, allowing the audience to make connections between characters and events within the plot. I love this technique because it creates a cohesive sound picture to match the plot, there are no stagnant moments where musical form takes over and the plot is put on hold. Since there is no set "recitative-aria" form in the Ring, the vocal melodies tend to lie somewhere between recitative and aria styles. Like recitative, the Ring features dialogue set to music, but it is less dry and with full orchestral accompaniment rather than chords played on a harpsichord.

It also fascinates me how Wagner used a variety of different influences to create his Ring cycle. The story originates from Norse myths that Wagner put together to create a cohesive plot. However, the presentation of the 4 operas is divided into a prelude (Das Rheingold) and a trilogy (Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung). This is modeled after the great Greek dramas that Wagner studied as a youth. Similarly in Greek drama, long-lost siblings reuniting and even incest occurred in many plots. However, Wagner was not only influenced by art of the past, but also events in his lifetime. The Humanist revival that Man was greater than God(s) is a main theme in the Ring. But Wagner also added bits of himself to his characters. Ideas such as failed marriage, adultery, a man seeking fulfillment through love, alone against the world: were all things Wagner experienced in his life.

This study has opened my eyes to a world Wagner created, and having this background makes me very excited to see how Seattle Opera will bring this world to life in August!

Seattle Opera to Receive Amelia Grant

Seattle Opera will receive a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the production of Amelia, its newly commissioned opera. The four-year grant, a first-of-its-kind initiative, will provide crucial funding for contemporary opera, enabling Amelia to be produced by two other American opera companies following the opera’s world premiere in Seattle in May 2010. In addition to the Mellon grant, the company announced that the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences will be Amelia’s production sponsor, with a generous $300,000 gift in support of the production.

The Mellon Foundation grant will underwrite the rental and royalty expenses for up to two additional opera companies to produce Amelia. A portion of the grant will also help Seattle Opera make costumes and sets that are easily alterable for other companies, cover any necessary score or libretto revisions, and fund the creation of new audience development methods.

General Director Speight Jenkins said the company is deeply appreciative of the grant. “If there had not been a second performance of The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, or Madama Butterfly, these works might well have vanished,” Jenkins said. “By virtually ensuring additional performances, the Foundation has laid out a possible course for future grants and served opera immeasurably.”

These announcements coincided with the arrival of Amelia’s orchestral score in Seattle, hand-delivered to Jenkins by composer Daron Aric Hagen on Friday. Amelia features an intensely personal libretto by poet Gardner McFall and a story by director Stephen Wadsworth. The creative team includes set designer Thomas Lynch, costume designer Ann Hould-Ward, lighting designer Duane Schuler, and conductor Gerard Schwarz.

The Ring, By The Numbers

For any theatrical production, audiences gather to enjoy the performers and spectacle onstage, blissfully unaware of the flurry of activity that goes on behind the scenes – comparable to that huge part of an iceberg that floats unseen underwater, supporting what’s visible at the top. When The Ring Cycle at Seattle Opera comes around every few years, the size of that support grows to be bigger than ever, from the number of staff, to the amount of rehearsals, to everything that goes into the final onstage product. The production department has already been hard at work for months to coordinate these elements. So, let’s look at some of the cold hard facts that add up to make your four-day aesthetic experience at the theatre so magnificent and so exceptional. For a reference point, we will use numbers from a standard opera in repertoire, and one that many of you may have enjoyed in May at Seattle Opera, The Marriage of Figaro.

Rehearsal period:
Figaro – 22 days
The Ring – 72 days

Rehearsals scheduled on the first day:
Figaro – 2 sessions
The Ring – 13 sessions

With four operas melded into one production, it only makes sense that we need more time to mount The Ring. We rehearse over four times longer than usual, and, if I may say so, four times more intensely to get it all done! Usually, there is a music rehearsal and possibly a staging rehearsal on the first day of a production, but for The Ring we dive right in, scheduling all four operas to start rehearsing at once.

Spaces used for rehearsals:
Figaro – 4 rooms
The Ring – 5 rooms and 1 hallway

That’s right, because so many rehearsals take place simultaneously, beware of giants working on their fighting skills or Rheinmaidens flying in the air in the hallway outside to our usual rehearsal rooms!

Production staff:
Figaro – 4 stage managers
The Ring – 9 stage managers and 2 scheduling coordinators

Music staff:
Figaro – 5 conductors and pianists
The Ring – 8 conductors and pianists

Without question, these 19 people are the unsung and un-applauded gods of The Ring Cycle. They put in unthinkable hours of sweat (and probably a few tears) working as the rehearsal support staff, not to mention the 3 directors, and even 2 van drivers that you can spot zipping around town in our Ring van transporting the artists to rehearsals.

Now that you have a more tangible idea of what goes on in the 3 months before opening night, stay tuned for a look at the numbers behind what you will see onstage!

Confessions: Shoot #2

We had our second “Confessions” shoot this week, and it introduced me to a lot that I have never experienced before!

I showed up at the Seattle Opera offices on Monday morning, and we shot some footage of me entering the building. A few minor technical difficulties ensued, but the wonderful Reel Grrls crew fixed them promptly.

Then I went on a tour of the costume shop led by Susan Davis, Seattle Opera's Costume Shop Manager; I have never seen so many pieces of clothing in my life! I saw so many things in the costume shop that I can hardly remember them all! I saw people working on costumes for the Ring (apparently there’re 214 costumes!), I saw never-ending racks of costumes from past Seattle Opera shows (I swear the fabric went on forever!), I saw the dying room where they dye fabric that needs to be just the right color, and I even saw bloody bandages (fake blood – or so I hope).

But the best part of my tour was when I got to try on a Ring costume! It was a costume of one of the Valkyries – it had a long skirt, a vest of armor, a jacket, and a hat. The hat normally sits on a large opera wig, but I don’t have a wig, so I had to hold the hat on my head. The hat had huge wings that stuck straight out the back – I had definitely never worn a hat like that before!



Then I got to interview Speight Jenkins, the General Director of Seattle Opera. I Googled Speight before interviewing him, so I thought I had a good idea of what questions I should ask, and a good background of his life in relation to opera. I wasn’t too nervous for the interview. But then, as the interview appointment drew nearer, more and more Seattle Opera employees told me “not to be nervous, you’ll be okay.” And I thought, “Don’t be nervous? I wasn’t, but now I am!” Everyone kept telling me he is “God in the opera world” – something I, most certainly, am not. But once I was finally face-to-face with Speight, my nerves were, mostly, gone. He was nice and warm, and answered my questions with long, full answers. Phew! And guess what, he knew all about the "Confessions" project and he even voted!

Then I got to the most exciting part of the day – I got to fly! No, I didn’t fly a plane. I got to fly like the Rhinemaidens in the Ring (that's how they portray swimming in the Rhine River during the opera). I was suspended in the air from two cables attached to a harness at my hips. I was a bit nervous as I slowly rose towards the ceiling of the rehearsal space, but soon I was doing front and back flips! I was so proud of myself! Thanks so much to the crew who helped me not fall to my death!

And I think that basically covers the shoot! Other than what I’ve already mentioned, I squeezed in a lunch break, walked up and down a ton of stairs (the rehearsal space is in the basement of the Seattle Opera office building!), and was interviewed by the Seattle Times. It was a day full of a lot of excitement! I’m starting to see the how the Ring cycle fits together, piece-by-piece. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Photos taken by Ilona Rossman Ho

The 25 ways Seattle was changed because of Speight Jenkins.

By Seattle Opera Executive Director Kelly Tweeddale
.............

On June 11, 2009 the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture announced its seventh annual Mayor’s Arts Awards naming Seattle Opera General Director Speight Jenkins of one of its five honorees. The award ceremony will take place at noon, Friday, Sept. 4 at Seattle Center's Northwest Court. The Mayor's Arts Awards are presented in partnership with Bumbershoot®: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival.

Last July, I paid tribute to Speight’s 25th Anniversary at the Seattle Opera Annual Meeting in a countdown “David Letterman” style I titled “The 25 ways Seattle was changed because of Speight Jenkins.” So as Speight’s 25th season comes to a close, here it is again for our online audience in reprise.

25. You can’t hear the words “It’s going to be a great show” without thinking about Seattle Opera and Speight. It was a promise he began making on Classical KING FM 98.1 when he arrived, and he hasn’t broken that commitment in the 25 seasons that he’s programmed.

24. At least five times out of the year, Saturday evenings in many Seattle homes are dedicated to listening to the Seattle Opera Broadcast (even more popular in Seattle than The Metropolitan Opera’s broadcasts). Since Speight’s arrival to Seattle Opera, broadcasts have reached approximately 1.3 million listeners throughout the region. That equals almost 4 million hours that Seattleites have listened to opera over the past 25 years. I think the ipod has some catching up to do.

23. Over the past 25 seasons the sighting of a white-haired individual in glasses has been enough to slow down grocery store express lanes as the discussion of opera ensued. Unofficially, Speight is responsible for creating the first ever impromptu opera “meet-up” right here in Seattle long before it became the latest internet trend.

22. OK – this one might get me in trouble in the same way it did the all-girl band the “Dixie Chicks”, but in Seattle when you ask: What do you get when you put together a Texas drawl with politics? Overwhelmingly Seattleites respond: Speight Jenkins. Now, moving from politics to the bible . . .

21. The way Seattle has been changed because of Speight Jenkins is in what he begat. So, here we go: Speight begat Director of Education Perry Lorenzo, who begat Education Artistic Administrator Jonathan Dean, who begat Education Associate Seneca Garber, and together this impressive team of opera orators has begat a far reaching life-long learning program that has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of children, adults, and students over the past 25 years. And with that Seattle has begat the largest per capita opera attendance in the nation.

20 – 11. What else could take 10 places on the countdown list than the works of Richard Wagner. Over the past 25 years Speight has made Seattle the only place outside Bayreuth where the top ten operas of Wagner’s canon have been regularly presented with new, stimulating, and compelling productions, drawing audiences from all 50 states and more than 22 different countries. Including the Ring, Seattle Opera has sold over 400,000 tickets, just to Wagner operas, over the past 25 years.

10. For the past 25 seasons, Seattle has been forever changed by the caliber of artists that Speight has brought to our city. Encouraged by a welcoming environment, Seattle audiences have had the privilege of hearing top artists debuting new roles, new artists making their mark, and artists coming together to create iconic signature pieces that have traveled from Seattle to many other opera houses.

9. The Seattle landscape has been enhanced with the transformation of the Opera House into McCaw Hall. Although there were many heroes that made this spectacular building possible, Speight was an unrelentless advocate for the project, ensuring that premier acoustics ruled the stage, that there would be color to punctuate the public spaces, and that we would have a grand staircase whereby he eagerly greets audience members, whether it be a first-time opera attendee or a long-time patron.

8. During Speight’s 25 season tenure, he has changed the face of opera by introducing us to the young talent emerging in the field. By creating the Young Artists Program over 40% of the singers that have studied with us have gone on to credible careers in the opera field. Seattle has been the first to experience what an exciting future opera has with graduates such as Larry Brownlee, Sarah Colburn, just to name a few.

7. Seattle has been known as one of the top creative cities in the world, and no one more than Speight recognizes the synergy of creativity and excellence. Seattle Opera, under Speight’s direction is one of very few companies that house a full-service costume and crafts shop and a 36,000 sq. ft. scenic studio. Universal studio tour look out – when we consolidate under one roof in the future Opera Center at Mercer Arena, and that will be one attraction worth waiting for.

6. Miss Manners would have been proud for the impact Speight has had on business protocol. Over the past 25 years, he has set the Seattle standard by answering every email he is ever sent, personally responding to every patron that writes to give advice, praise, or on rare occasion to complain, and picking up the phone to immediately acknowledge, thank or discuss any issue. I love to think about how many people have been pleasantly surprised with Speight’s attention to the opera audience.

5. After a short period of experimentation, Speight showed Seattle that running a deficit-free arts organization was not only possible, but repeatable. And he did it all without denigrating the quality of art he put on the stage.

4. Seattle patrons have learned the art of fundraising from Speight Jenkins. Never crafty, obtuse, or indirect, over the past 25 seasons Speight has helped fund raise over a quarter of a billion dollars for opera and capital projects in this community. Shows you what a little enthusiasm can do!

3. 25 years is a quarter of a century and during this time Speight has shown Seattle that opera is theater, theater is drama, and drama is what life is made of. Nobody in Seattle expects or would tolerate a stand and sing opera company.

2. Although some in the Seattle community may think that the art of “process” has taken a foothold, Speight has led the effort in Seattle to evangelize the art of spontaneity. Since his arrival the phrases, “Let’s put on a show!” “Of course we can,” “Why not?” and “Anything is possible . . .” has become part of the company’s vocabulary. And for the non-spontaneous, a 12-step program is coming soon . . .

1. And finally, perhaps the most telling contribution that Speight Jenkins has made during his 25 seasons of planning has been his ability to see the extra-ordinary before others. It is his remarkable gift to hear the voice that will come-to-be in a young singer, see the potential in a director, designer, conductor before others are willing to take the risk, to invigorate donors, patrons, and board members to passionately participate in opera giving their lives new meaning, and to coax out the special talent of his staff before they even recognized it in themselves.

Speight, in being able to see the extraordinary in others, you in turn have become extraordinary.

Congratulations on your 25 seasons of producing opera.

Confessions: Shoot #1

We started shooting “Confessions of A First-Time Operagoer” this week! It was a lot of fun. I felt like I was on my own reality show!

The Reel Grrls crew told me they wanted to see what I do in life, how I interact with my friends, etc. So I told them about how on a lot of Mondays, some of my friends and I go to Varlamos, an Italian restaurant in my neighborhood. Monday is “Calzone Night,” so the calzones are cheaper (for a college student with little income – like me – cheaper, is always better).

So the crew followed me to Varlamos. I had to warn my friends before we went that there’d be a camera crew there – my friends aren’t as big of fans of being on camera as I am! When my friends and I got there, we had a table already set up for us (usually we have to wait for a while – it gets crowded!) with lights and cameras and everything! The crew sat one table over and got calzones for themselves (they’re hard to resist!).

The crew filmed my friends and I eating (there’s probably some really attractive shots of me shoving food in my mouth…!), reminiscing about life, and they even interviewed some of my friends, testing their opera knowledge and seeing if they thought I could make it through this project! Hopefully my friends didn’t say anything too embarrassing about me…! And hopefully they don’t hate me too much for making them go on camera! I told them this “Confessions” project can be like “Laguna Beach” and one of them can have their own spin-off afterwards…

I’m getting really excited for next week’s shoot. I’ll be diving head first into the excitement of the Ring cycle! Wish me luck!

Backstage at THE RING: A chat with Stephen Wadsworth

Today we are joined by Stephen Wadsworth, stage director for Seattle Opera's production of The Ring.



SG: This is the third time you’ve directed this particular production of The Ring. How has it evolved from 2001 when it first premiered? In the current economic climate has it limited anything or brought about more creativity to use resources you have available?

SW: This is a Ring based as much on the actors as on anything else, so it evolves very much through the actors. Some actors keep returning, so their portrayals deepen, and some actors are new (many this year), so they bring different perspectives and change into the room. These developments are always big, though they aren't as visible as a change in the scenery, say. There were some small things we wanted to change in the physical production this year, but "the current economic climate" did prevent them from happening, but they are so unimportant when compared with the growth actors can provide: the performers are the director's greatest resource. If you were to compare the staging of certain scenes with the same scenes in 2005, you would see something almost completely different this year.

SG: The rehearsal process for The Ring is unlike anything else in opera and this year it started earlier than ever. What is a typical day like during rehearsal? For example, looking at today’s schedule, how do you switch gears from working on Walküre, Act 1 in the morning, Götterdämmerung, Act 2 after lunch and then working on Walküre, Act 2 and Siegfried, Act 3 simultaneously after the dinner break? Do you take notes, have assistants, etc? Do you find this quick transition difficult for cast members as they sometimes take on different roles in the different operas?

SW: My day has three three-hour sessions, morning, afternoon and evening. We have three principal rehearsal rooms and a number of coaching rooms, and sometimes we are also rehearsing in an open hallway in the rehearsal building as well. We all have to jump back and forth among the four operas. I have two associate directors, Gina Lapinski and Tomer Zvulun, who are more than assistants---they take charge of certain scenes, usually scenes which the actors involved have done before, but not always. Sometimes they take over for a while after I have started a scene, sometimes they start the scene and pass it on to me. They are extremely interesting people and both artists of great sensitivity. I do worry sometimes that jumping back and forth among scenes might be confusing for the actors, but if someone needs to progress more in order, he or she tells me, and we try to make that happen. I also worry about my own ability to adapt: I recall that story about Sir Thomas Beecham showing up at the theater to conduct and saying, "What is it tonight? Aida? Meistersinger? The Bartered Bride?"



SG: During the rehearsal process, do you have a unified vision for every moment of the action or do you like to see where it goes at any given moment and develop the drama in that fashion?

SW: I always have a template for the scene, in terms of where characters move, and why and how, but it very rarely ends up happening as I've designed it, and that template is really more a way of studying the scene than it is a blueprint of how the scene will look. Obviously if we have done the scene previously with the same actors, they will remember it easily and do it in largely the same way, always with interesting variations. But when the people in the scene are new, things change, as noted above. One really interesting thing here is that some actors love to get a pattern in their feet, on their bodies, as soon as possible, and then work out how to own it, and some need to work it out as they go along. People's minds and hearts work at different rates and often in very different ways, and I have to allow for those differences, encourage them even. We all love when things come up in rehearsal and everything goes in a new direction---intention, feelings, blocking. Of course, sometimes it's wrong, and we have to fix it later.

SG: You put such an emphasis on the textual meaning of the drama. When working with singers do you allow them to interpret the characters they’re playing? With this focus on the text do you find it challenging working with some singers who may not have been in productions where the acting and text was as strongly emphasized as in your production of The Ring, and if so how do you overcome this?

SW: When you say text, do you mean the words, or the musical text? Text in opera means both words and music, so emphasizing textual meaning means studying both and talking about the relationship between them. This conversation is big in the rehearsal room. Often we refer to the words to guide us toward a clearer understanding of the moment, but often we refer to the music for that clarity. Interpretation is a tricky word. On the one hand I want not to be interpreting the piece, but doing what it IS; on the other hand, with a work rife with symbols and ambiguities, such as The Ring, there's really no saying what it IS, there is only interpretation. In any case, director and actors and conductor share the burden of interpretation: it's up to us to find a way to play the scene in which all parties can invest. I do think, yes, that the way I work is unusual in opera and that it surprises some singers who may not be used to being perceived as actors, but 99.9% of them seem to enjoy it. I'm very rigorous with certain elements of craft, and very watchful, and I ask a great deal of them, so I spend most of my time feeling extremely grateful for their indulgence with my peculiar ways.

SG: Without giving away too many secrets, will the audience see any major changes to the staging from previous performances?

SW: I don't think the audience will be aware of the differences, unless they really know this production. Perhaps they will feel more in certain scenes because of how we are doing them this time around, but you know, perhaps they will feel more, or less, because of where they have come in their lives since they last saw this Ring, or any Ring, or because of what they ate at dinner or because of the distressing phone call they had with a family member earlier in the day. There are so many variables that set people up for how they receive a performance in the theater. We try to make the work on the stage compelling and unfailingly human, so that they are drawn in regardless of where they have come from in their busy lives.

SG: While I’m sure there isn’t much free time now, were there any books, plays, or other operas you were exploring in order to prepare for The Ring?

SW: When people ask me what to read to get ready to experience the Ring, I say: Aeschylus' Oresteia, the three-play cycle about the House of Atreus which influenced Wagner so seminally in conceiving both form and content for The Ring. And I also say: Frederic Spotts' book on the history of Bayreuth, because Wagner and his family history are so arrestingly similar to Wotan and his family history. Of course there have been new chapters in that drama since the Spotts book came out, but the parallels are vivid and in a way very revealing of essences in The Ring.

SG: This production has received quite a bit of critical praise, taking into consideration your other works, where would you rank this production in terms of enjoyment of working on and success of your vision of the production realized for the stage?

SW: To have an opportunity to work on this masterpiece---long, exacting, ridiculously complex, ravishing and moving---is an honor. Even when the endless logistical difficulties cow me, I am mindful of this honor. And to have a chance to do it with a brilliant, enthusiastic producer like Speight is, well, unique. It's hard to imagine doing it anywhere else in the world and having so much care lavished on all aspects---except maybe Bayreuth. Add three of the greatest designers the American theater has produced, and a company of wonderful singing actors, and Seattle, a place very dear to my heart, and you have a lot of blessings on one project. Enjoyment? Well yes, profound enjoyment all the time, but also physical and emotional exhaustion. Doing The Ring is a little like having the ring itself: you're really in for it.

Backstage at THE RING: A chat with Marie Plette

Today we have Marie Plette, a full-lyric soprano, joining us. Ms. Plette has been involved with all three productions of our current Ring and comes back this summer to take on the roles of Freia in Rheingold, Ortlinde in Walkure, and Gutrune in Gotterdammerung.



SG: What is it like coming back and working on this project for the third time?

MP: It's much more relaxed and very comfortable. This production is really Stephen's jorney and we do our best to realize that vision.

SG: Since this is your third time in this production how do you keep it new and interesting each time?

MP: It's a lot of fun to re-visit these parts every 4 years. This is the third different production I've been in of The Ring and it's by far the most beautiful one. I was in the Otto Schenk production at the Met and that was just amazing. Seeing all the turntables and lifts working to making everything happen on stage was incredible. I was also in Tim Albery's Ring in Scotland, which was a concept production on a much smaller scale than either the Met or Seattle's, but was still very effective. The thing about Seattle's is it can't be beat for sheer beauty and honesty. It looks like they've taken a northwest forest and put it on stage and I think it's very true to the original intentions of Wagner for the piece.

SG: Which of the three characters do you most enjoy playing?

MP: Well all three are great. Ortlinde is just a lot of fun and it's easy for me. Friea is the most heartbreaking. Her interactions with Fasolt are pivotal to the plot in Rheingold. Gutrune is probably the hardest it sits so low. She is stuck in a man's world and is Hagen's pawn throughout the opera.


SG: With three very different roles in the shows what does a typical day of rehearsal look like for you? Is it a challenge to switch between these characters?

MP: Not only do I have the three roles, but I'm also doing some cover work. The other day Margaret Jane Wray was out and I was playing Sieglinde with Stuart Skelton in Walkure. It was the love scene on the ridge, and it is tricky because you want to inject your own personality, but to be fair to the other performers you want to recreate what it's going to be like when Margaret Jane comes back so that you don't throw them off. It can to a challenge to remember what show you're working on at any given moment. The set of Rheingold is the trickiest to work on, it's got such a huge rake and I have to run around on it and get manhandled by the giants and it's very tiring physically.

SG: Is there anything you do to prepare to sing Wagner?

MP: Since I'm a full-lyric soprano, or a spinto, I don't do a whole lot of Wagner. I have to convince myself that my voice is just fine in these roles because if I try to out sing everyone else it's not going to work. One the biggest challenges is to maintain my confidence as a singer since I don't have a true Wagnerian voice. Luckily my voice can usually go over the top of the bigger Wagnerian voices. But the main reason I keep coming back is The Ring is one of my absolute favorite things, that and I get to wear Marty's [Martin Pakledinaz, Costume Designer] dresses.

Backstage at THE RING: A chat with Greer Grimsley

Throughout this summer we will have the chance to chat with some of the cast and crew of The Ring who make this operatic masterpiece come alive. Today we are happy to have Greer Grimsley, bass-baritone extraordinaire, join us. This summer he reprises the role of Wotan, which he performed for the first time during Seattle's 2005 Ring.



SG: Thanks for taking a break out of your busy schedule and joining us today. Since 2005 have you played the role of Wotan anywhere else?

GG: Yes, I did the role in Venice and the Rheingold Wotan in a concert production in Indianapolis.

SG: How, since your last performance here in Seattle, has your conception of the character evolved since 2005?

GG: Well, it's still all there, but in a much deeper fashion now. The last time I was here all three operas were new. As an actor the goal is to find the actual feelings that this character is going through in any given scene and being as honest as possible in the portrayal. At the same time I'm always finding new things and seeing new layers.

SG: He is one of the most complex characters, not just in The Ring, but in all of opera. Wotan has a broad range of emotions from almost youthful exuberance in Rheingold to a fatalistic pessimism by the end of Siegfried, how do go about creating all these different emotions?

GG: Well it's important to always use the text as a lead and as an actor when you try to play the emotion it fails. Instead you have to give a true representation without that filter, you have to just be there in that characters shoes and translate your own life experiences. In the theater you have to use a piece of yourself, but not play the character for it's own cathartic experience, if you do the audience won't be able to connect to that experience.

SG: It seems like working with Stephen Wadsworth would be an exciting process for that reason, since he seems to have a clear idea, but wants to get the most out of every singer as an actor as well. Would you agree?

GG: Stephen always has a great beat on the story-telling. He brings his own ideas and we all do our best to realize those ideas. But we also bring our own interpretation and he'll catch us doing something and say, "I like that, keep doing that." It becomes a complete collaboration. It's interesting because the staging process is very similar to 2005, but with new people involved and our own growth it becomes an entirely new show. Stephen is able to bring all of this together; he takes the full picture of all these interactions, and he focuses them for the audience as if he were a film director behind a camera lens.

SG: You mentioned that there are some new faces in the cast this time. How do you go about creating new dynamic relationships between Wotan and Loge (Kobie van Rensburg) or Brunnhilde (Janice Baird)? Similarly reviving partnerships whether it's with Stephanie Blythe as Fricka or Richard Paul Fink as Alberich?



GG: The Fricka/Wotan scene in Walkure has grown in the four years since we last performed. It's become a more intense reading since Stephanie and I have both grown since then, and we've stayed in contact along the way, so it has been a lot of fun to delve back into those scenes. It's very exciting with all the new energy as well, it brings a number of new ideas to the scenes.

SG: You've been involved with this project since 2001, how has it been to go from the role of Gunther in Gotterdammerung to Wotan?

GG: I have been absolutely grateful to pursue so many rewarding opportunties in my life. I've never regretted any of the roles that I've played. The role of Wotan has been such a gift, it's like King Lear and Henry V all wrapped up into one. Wagner really created the idea of epic cinema and a full development of character. We've seen it with the films of The Lord of the Rings as well, and that sense of myth brought to life. I thought of the role of Gunther as a sort of 'apprenticeship.' In 2001, I was just thinking that maybe I'd want to take on the role of Wotan and it was really a gift to watch a talented performer like Philip [Joll] and watch him work every day. I can't thank him enough to have had the opportunity to observe and learn from him.

SG: Can you tell us what a typical rehearsal day looks life for you during The Ring?

GG: It can be pretty crazy. We are constantly shifting and we might do Rheingold in the morning, Walkure in the afternoon and Siegfried in the evening. The character is light years apart from the beginning of The Ring to the end of it all. It's a challenge at times. We'll finish a rehearsal and I'll have to find a quiet place for a few minutes in order to get myself to a place for Wotan in the scene we're going to work on next. Since it's a constant change and the character undergoes so much change it assures that I'm nimble and always prepared and it might spark a new idea, which only adds to the characterization.

Winner Announced for “Confessions of a First-Time Operagoer!”

After over 6,500 votes and a race down to the very last minute of the voting period, we are excited to announce the host of our new reality-style video series chronicling an opera-newbie’s experience at the Ring this summer. Meet Cassidy Quinn Brettler, a 19 year old Seattleite and student at Emerson College. If you didn’t see Cassidy’s audition video during this past week of voting, watch Cassidy’s contest submission below:

Summer Interns at Seattle Opera

Greetings!

My name is Rachel Erie and I am a summer intern with the Education Department here at Seattle Opera! I am originally from the Seattle area, having grown up in Kent and Auburn and graduated from Auburn High School in 2003. Music, specifically singing, has been a part of my life from the beginning. My mother studied voice, as well as many other instruments, and graduated from the University of Washington with her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Singing became a passion of mine at an early age. However, opera did not gain my attention until later. I did not learn my first aria until preparing for college auditions, for which I was applying as a Music Business major. I did not see my first opera until 2003 when my mom took me to the Seattle Young Artist’s performance of La Boheme. It was in that show I realized I wanted to be involved in opera.

After my first year of college at DePaul University in Chicago, IL, I decided Music Business was not where I was called. I had only taken one class in the curriculum, but it focused on popular recording arts and planning world tours, things I was no longer interested in. Not once in that class did we discuss the classical realm of performance, how to run a symphony center or an opera company. I changed my major to Vocal Performance and transferred to Indiana University to complete my degree. Throughout my college career, a love for opera has grown immensely. Not just performing and observing, but also the study of libretti, musical analysis, costuming and sets. As a visual learner, I love how opera brings together both aural and visual elements to convey the story.

As I complete my Masters degree in Vocal Performance this coming year, I am required to take two classes in an outside field. For that, I am exploring Arts Administration. As I have continued my classical music studies, I have been drawn to administration again, but with a focus on classical music and non-profit. Although performance is something I am passionate about, I also feel a need to share with people the wonderful aspects of opera and similar forms that have inspired me so much.

I had been looking into possible internships in administration when my mother mentioned this summer’s education program with Seattle Opera. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to expand my knowledge of Wagner and his Ring cycle as well as learn about the company from the inside. I am thoroughly enjoying my work with Seattle Opera so far this summer as we in the Education Department prepare for the Ring of the Nibelung and the Experience The Ring program for students ages 14-21. I am delving in to Wagner’s Ring to learn the inspiration behind the work as well as the story, musical meanings connected with leitmotifs, and how this series of operas connects to us today. For me, the experience of researching, compiling, and presenting will resemble many of my college classes. However, this experience will be a view into how an opera company works, from the rehearsal process, and creation of schedules to the design of sets and costumes, and production of promotional materials. This summer looks to be very rewarding for the student, performer, and potential administrator within me.

Thank You for Voting!

The voting period for the host of "Confessions of a First-time Operagoer" is now closed. Thank you to everyone who voted (over 6,500 votes!). Check back tomorrow, June 6, when we announce the winner right here on the blog!

Seattle Opera's Summer Programs for Students

Everyone knows that The Ring is back this summer at Seattle Opera. Everyone knows that besides the operas themselves Seattle Opera does tons of public events to really make The Ring a festival experience. What everyone doesn't know is that we are also offering two exciting programs for students of all ages to take part in The Ring as well.

For younger students, grades 3-6, RingFest is a chance for students to take part in an hour-long adaptation of Das Rheingold. Students will take on the roles of the Rhine Daughters, Alberich, Wotan and the rest of the cast as well as help create some of the props and costumes for the performance. At the end of each session all their hard work will be performed for Ring goers from around the world on the day between Siegfried and Gotterdammerung during the first two cycles in August. A number of scholarships have been generously donated by Wagner and More to allow students to attend RingFest.

To get more information and download a registration form check out the Seattle Opera website here: Seattle Opera RingFest

For high school age students, 14-21, we offer Experience The Ring. This week-long program allows students to study each of the four operas in-depth as well as take a behind-the-scenes look at the opera house with a backstage tour. Students will get to attend the final dress rehearsals of this critically acclaimed production of The Ring and will have a chance to interact with other opera fanatics in the making. Each day, students will have the opportunity to respond to this momentous operatic creation by taking part in one of several different activities; maybe they will be inspired to create a production concept all their own, or create a piece of art from a particularly powerful moment in The Ring, or they can take part in a great debate to decide if Wotan's punishment of Brunnhilde was morally just. Over the years, The Ring has effected audiences of all ages, and this is the perfect opportunity to introduce high school students to one of the greatest artistic achievements in western culture.

To get more information and download a registration form check out the Seattle Opera website here: Seattle Opera Experience The Ring

Vote Now for Your “Confessions” Host!

Meet our five fantastic finalists! This summer, Seattle Opera is creating a new reality-style documentary chronicling the “Confessions of a First-time Operagoer,” and we need YOUR vote to choose our host. Watch our finalists’ audition videos and vote now through 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 5. The winner will be announced on our blog this Saturday, June 6!

HERE ARE THE FINALISTS VIDEOS

Amy Tower


Jeff Powell


Colton Carothers


Howard Wu


Cassidy Brettler


Each applicant is fairly new to opera and has never before seen Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen. The selected host will experience Seattle Opera from the inside out, participating in exclusive backstage tours and events and conversations with the artists, crew, and General Director Speight Jenkins, all of which culminates in attending – for their first time - the Mt. Everest of all opera experiences: Richard Wagner's Ring cycle.