Your Flight is Now Boarding

with Director Brian Staufenbiel

Director Brian Staufenbiel (center). Philip Newton photo

Operas, like airports, are filled with stories.

Some are familiar, some violent, some funny. Like airports, they are crammed with messy human lives journeying to a final destination. To push the metaphor, operas can transport us all over the world and connect us to what is happening now. Indeed, today we’re seeing more and more new operatic stories that are relevant, inclusive, and speak to our modern world—even to the point of setting an opera about a true story that took place in an airport. Jonathan Dove’s Flight is a funny, poignant, and thought-provoking exploration of colliding souls, each of whom is looking for something better, searching for that elusive dream state we sometimes call happiness. At the heart of the show is a story inspired by that of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris for almost eighteen years—from August 1988 until July 2006.

Notes from Composer Jonathan Dove

© Marshall Light Studio

I had written the opera I wanted to see, but I had no idea how an audience would react.

Unlike many operas, mine wasn’t based on a hit play or a best-selling novel or blockbuster movie (although six years later, the same true story would inspire Spielberg’s The Terminal)—and while I hoped people would relate to the experiences of a group of travelers stranded in an airport, I didn’t know if they would laugh at any of the jokes, or enjoy the music.

The story of Jonathan Dove's Flight

Tina (Karen Vuong) and Bill (Joshua Kohl). Philip Newton photo

Full of intense drama, humor, pathos, anguish—and profound beauty—Flight was written in 1998 by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist April De Angelis for the Glyndebourne Festival. The work has been performed and is much beloved all over the world. Seattle Opera's April 2021 presentation is both Flight’s Seattle premiere, and the first time it’s been reimagined for film. Learn more about the characters and story below.

MEET THE CHARACTERS 

Refugee has been living in the airport for weeks. He cannot leave the airport because he does not have a passport or other documents to allow him to enter the country legally.

Controller is an omniscient presence at the airport who sees everything going on. 

Bill and Tina are a married couple going on holiday to try to rediscover romance in their relationship. 

Opera takes wing at The Museum of Flight

Sarah Larsen (Stewardess) and Joseph Lattanzi (Steward) and the Museum of Flight's T.A. Wilson Great Gallery. Philip Newton photo 

Seattle Opera films new production of Flight amidst historic, vintage aircrafts. Streaming April 23–25, 2021 for $35. seattleopera.org/flight

Picture yourself at the airport: the excited rush of people coming and going. The roar of planes taking off. Familiar sights of suitcases, pilots, people lining up, and—the enchanting sounds of opera?! In Seattle Opera’s Flight, a unique collaboration with The Museum of Flight takes pandemic programming to new heights. The streaming opera created by composer Jonathan Dove and librettist April De Angelis was filmed on location at the museum, across several exhibits of the T.A. Wilson Great Gallery. Historic aircrafts are suspended in a 6-story exhibit—a jaw-dropping set that wouldn’t be possible in McCaw Hall. Other parts of the museum easily replicate the look and feel of a real-life airport.

What's at stake when Asian Americans are invisible?

Kathy Hsieh (center) sitting between Angel "Moonyeka" Alviar-Langley (left) and Matthew Ozawa (right) during the 2017 panel discussion "Asian Arts Leaders Respond to Madame Butterfly." Jacob Lucas photo 

As "forever foreigners" in their own country, Asian Americans have often had little say in how they've been represented in mainstream theater and opera. In our July 2017 panel discussion, “Asian Arts Leaders Respond to Madame Butterfly,” Seattle Opera collaborator Kathy Hsieh provided a moving, and personal testimonial on cultural appropriation, invisibility and powerlessness, what it was like to grow up Chinese American in Seattle, and what's at stake with works like Madame Butterfly and The Mikado. Below are her words from the 2017 panel. A full transcript is available on Seattle Opera's website.

Praise for Don Giovanni

Laura Wilde (Donna Elvira), Vanessa Goikoetxea (Donna Anna), and Andrew Stenson (Don Ottavio). Ken Christensen photo

"Attractively sung, fluidly staged, and handsomely produced." — The Seattle Times 

"Although the all-female creative team is historic, the most impactful artistic difference on this production is the film format. Seattle Opera has consistently impressed me during the pandemic with their willingness to experiment with presentation and format. As their experience and the amount of time to plan their approach has grown, the results have become increasingly sophisticated." — Gemma D. Alexander 

"Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya led the performance with brisk, crisp tempi and encouraged singers to use long phrases. She is an excellent conductor and I hope to listen to her lead a full orchestra in the not-too-distant future." — Broadway World 

"The performances were nuanced and expressive just like one would imagine from almost any Seattle Opera performance." — Eclectic Arts 

Young singers work with Holocaust Center for Humanity

Youth Opera Online participants learn about the first performances of Brundibar in the Terezin concentration camp.

By Gabrielle Nomura Gainor

Amid a global pandemic and social unrest, Brundibár—a youth opera closely associated with the Holocaust—could easily hit an unsettling note. But Sara Litchfield was surprised to discover that this 1938 Czech work is a beacon of hope; a work of art for right now.

Litchfield, Youth & Family Programs Manager for Seattle Opera, is currently leading participants ages 7-18 in an 11-week online program. The final product, a streaming Brundibár performance, will be viewed by participants and families in April. In addition to working with Seattle Opera staff, the young artists had the chance to learn from individuals with the Holocaust Center for Humanity, which provided guest speakers, a virtual tour of its museum, and more to deepen participants’ understanding of the context and significance of the opera.

Meet the Artist: Jay Rozendaal

Jay Rozendaal

By Glenn Hare

Jay Rozendaal has been a staff Coach-Accompanist at Seattle Opera since 1991, working primarily behind the scenes to support singers throughout the rehearsal process. In this interview, Jay talks about how the pandemic has challenged the way he works, his desire to learn the piano as a child, and his recent thrust into the limelight.

As one of Seattle Opera’s coach accompanists, your work is done mostly behind the scenes. However, during the pandemic you have been in the spotlight. Your piano playing has been heard in the Don Giovanni production and you took center stage during The Elixir of Love performance. What do you make of this recent notoriety?

I’d have to say, it is gratifying to be in this position, being in the spotlight. Nevertheless, it is interesting how most people don’t realize that David McDade (Head of Coach Accompanists) and I even exist. What is more surprising, is explaining what we do, even to people who know a lot about opera.

What do you tell them?
I remind them how expensive it would be to have an orchestra playing at all the rehearsals. They go, "Oh, right." Our role throughout the rehearsals is to emulate the orchestra—to serve as a sort of substitute. Of course, we can’t sound exactly like an entire orchestra, so choices have to be made—what to play and what to let go. There are times when the piano score is close to the orchestra score. But when that doesn't really represent the true orchestration, we have to make adjustments. Mainly, we try to best represent what the singers will be hearing when the orchestra is added.

Don't miss The Big Opera Show on April 11!

Top, left: Seattle Opera's Big Opera Show is written and presented by Lamar Legend, hosted by Rebecca M. Davis, and features performers Lawrence Brownlee, Cheryse McLeod Lewis, Karen Vuong, and Kenneth Kellogg. 

Singers and actors sparkle in ‘The Big Opera Show’; online variety show raises critical funds for Seattle Opera at 5 p.m., Sunday, April 11. Learn more at seattleopera.org/bigoperashow

Join Seattle Opera for a special, one-night only event. The company’s fundraiser has gone virtual this year with a raucous streaming adventure written and directed by Lamar Legend. A performer, director, and writer, Legend is the recipient of The Broadway League’s Rising Star Award. Attendance to the Big Opera Show is free and open to the public (advance registration requested, but not required). 

The myth behind Mozart's Don Giovanni

Left: Illustration (c. 1914) of a scene from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (1787), in which Don Giovanni attempts to seduce Zerlina. Credit: World History Archive. Right Jared Byee (Don Giovanni) and Laura Wilde (Donna Elvira) in Seattle Opera's streaming Don Giovanni. Ken Christensen image 

Mozart's infamous character Don Giovanni is based on the legend of Don Juan, one of the most famous stories in European cultural history.

By Seattle Opera Dramaturg Jonathan Dean

Even though many people have aspired to be Don Juan (and a few have racked up numbers of sexual partners to rival his), he never really existed. He first appeared as a fictional character in a Spanish play printed in 1630, The Prankster of Seville and the Stone Guest by Tirso de Molina (pen name of the monk Gabriel Téllez). Molina was writing during the Golden Age of Spanish drama; but this play is no masterpiece. Much of it is pretty typical of its period: proud Spanish gentlemen defending their sacred honor with drawn swords and bristling mustaches while virtuous damsels swoon. But Molina was the first to introduce into the story of the great seducer the old folktale about the offended dead person who comes back for revenge. Don Juan ensures his damnation by blaspheming; he insults the corpse of a father who died defending his daughter’s honor. Audiences for the last four centuries have delighted in the scene where the statue of the dead man comes to dinner, invites Don Juan to dine with him, and then clasps Don Juan in his grip of death.