Today Seattle Opera announced the lineup for the company’s first full season with General and Artistic Director James Robinson at the helm.
I’m especially pleased to see Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers – more timely than ever – among the three company premieres. Last summer’s Santa Fe Opera season included The Righteous, a collaboration between Spears and poet Tracey K. Smith, and the production knocked me out. Fellow Travelers is set during the McCarthy era and is based on the Thomas Mallon novel about the “Lavender Scare” that affected workers in the federal government.
Budget tightening obviously plays a big role here, but the rest of the season is quite a mixed bag: Seattle Opera’s first venture into Gilbert & Sullivan territory with The Pirates of Penzance; a Richard Strauss rarity, Daphne, but in concert format, which will star Heidi Stober as the mythic protagonist and with David Afkham conducting; and the perennial Carmen, which will star Sasha Cooke in her role debut (alternating with J’Nai Bridges in one of her signature parts). Another plus: Ludovic Morlot will conduct.
So we’re now done to just four mainstage productions, one of them in concert format, and no more season opener in August – when the Ring used to be the center of attention, so long ago.
Here’s the complete program:
Performance Information (see full cast lists at seattleopera.org)
The Pirates of Penzance
Music by Arthur Sullivan
Libretto by W.S. Gilbert
Conducted by David Charles Abell
Directed and Choreographed by Seán Curran
October 18, 19, 24, 26, 28, 29, November 1, 2025
McCaw Hall (321 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109)
seattleopera.org/pirates
Gay Apparel: A Holiday Show
December 12 & 13, 2025
The Opera Center (363 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109)
seattleopera.org/gayapparel
Daphne in Concert
Music by Richard Strauss
Libretto by Joseph Gregor
January 16 & 18, 2026
McCaw Hall (321 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109)
seattleopera.org/daphne
Fellow Travelers
Music by Gregory Spears
Libretto by Greg Pierce
Conducted by Patrick Summers
Directed by Kevin Newbury
February 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, & March 1, 2026
The Opera Center (363 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109)
seattleopera.org/fellowtravelers
Carmen
Music by George Bizet
Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy
Conducted by Ludovic Morlot
Directed and Choreographed by Paul Curran
May 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16, & 17, 2026
McCaw Hall (321 Mercer St, Seattle, WA 98109)
seattleopera.org/carmen
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MEMETERIA by Thomas May 