In Memoriam Sherwin Sloan

Sherwin Sloan, attendee at Seattle Opera's very first complete RING cycle (in 1975) and co-founder of the Wagner Society of Southern California, passed away on Monday. The LA Times has the story.

I have many fond memories of Sherwin, from time spent hanging out with him and the late Perry Lorenzo on my first trip to Bayreuth, back in '96 when I was basically a grubby kid fresh out of college backpacking across Europe, to the fascinating presentation he gave at the 2001 Seattle RING on "Wotan's Missing Eye". An opthamologist who became a Wagnerite, Sloan spoke about the mythical, historical, and psychological significance of that eye from a professional perspective.

The LA Opera is dedicating this coming Sunday's performance of Götterdämmerung to him.