Seattle Opera just opened its new season with Strauss’s perennially provocative Salome, returning to the company’s stage for the first time since 2002. My review for The Seattle Times:
Filed under: directors, review, Richard Strauss, Seattle Opera
October 19, 2026 • 4:54 pm 0
Seattle Opera Revives Strauss’s Once-Scandalous, Still-Shocking ‘Salome’
October 1, 2026 • 10:55 am 0
Huang Ruo Named Seattle Opera’s Composer-in-Residence
Major announcement from Seattle Opera:
Internationally renowned composer Huang Ruo will serve as the company’s first-ever composer-in-residence beginning in 2027. Lasting three years, the residency launches with the Seattle premiere of M. Butterfly and will culminate in the world premiere of The Wedding Banquet, a comic opera inspired by Ang Lee’s 1993 film as well as Andrew Ahn’s re-imagined version from 2025, with a libretto by screenwriter James Schamus.
“Huang Ruo is one of the foremost composers of opera in the United States, and I couldn’t be prouder to
announce his residency with Seattle Opera,” said general director James Robinson, who has directed several of Huang Ruo’s
operas, beginning with the North American premiere of Dr. Sun Yat-sen at Santa Fe Opera in 2014.
“Beyond his accomplished record as a composer, Huang Ruo is also a compelling advocate for opera who believes deeply in the art form’s power to bring people together. He’s one of the most engaging and enthusiastic people I know, and I think Seattle Opera audiences will be fascinated by his perspectives.”
“I’m deeply humbled and honored by this invitation to serve as Composer-in-Residence for Seattle Opera,” said Huang Ruo, who conducted his chamber opera Bound at Seattle Opera in 2023. “It is rare for opera companies to engage Composers-in-Residence, so I think this partnership demonstrates both Seattle Opera’s bold vision for the future of the art form and an exciting model for how opera companies can work with living creators to create, present, and engage the community around new opera. I am excited for this new adventure and I feel a sincere responsibility as an artist and educator to help people better understand both ourselves and our world through opera.”
I wrote about for The New York Times here.
Filed under: music news, new music, new opera, Seattle Opera
June 3, 2026 • 6:55 pm Comments Off on RIP Speight Jenkins (1937-2026)
RIP Speight Jenkins (1937-2026)
Speight Jenkins died on May 30, 2026, at the age of 89. His passing has triggered some stirring memories of the greatness he brought to Seattle. What an immense legacy he leaves behind. There was, of course, Seattle Opera’s era-defining Ring, which left a profound imprint on my book Decoding Wagner.
But Speight, who died on May 30, 2026, presided over a whole era of visionary opera-making that helped put Seattle on the international opera map. His long tenure as general director, from 1983 to 2014, transformed the company’s profile and helped make Seattle a destination for serious opera lovers. He brought with him not only administrative force, but the sensibility of someone who had spent years thinking, writing, speaking, and arguing about opera at the highest level.
Speight was not simply running an opera company; he was shaping an operatic culture. He cared about singers, repertory, production values, audience understanding, and the larger civic meaning of opera. His Seattle Opera was a place where Wagner could become a defining local obsession, but also where the art form’s wider possibilities were continually tested and renewed.
He was a monumental figure in Seattle culture and in contemporary opera production, nurturing the careers of so many great artists. Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, whom I first heard as a young artist at Seattle Opera, has written a beautiful tribute on his Facebook page: “What I loved about Speight was that he was never performative. He genuinely believed in me and went all in—betting on my future because he cared about me as a person, not just as a singer,” Brownlee writes. “This is a profound loss for me personally, and for the entire opera world. Speight was our greatest ambassador, and he was my biggest champion.”
That testimony says as much as any institutional tribute could. Speight’s legacy lives not only in Seattle Opera’s history, or in the memories of those great Ring cycles, but in the artists he believed in, the audiences he educated, and the seriousness of purpose he brought to the city’s cultural life. He made opera matter here — passionately, intelligently, and with an unsurpassed love of the art and of sharing it with everyone around him.
Filed under: music news, Seattle Opera
May 13, 2026 • 12:51 pm Comments Off on Sasha Cooke Brings Sharp Intelligence to Seattle Opera’s Caribbean-Tinged ‘Carmen’
Sasha Cooke Brings Sharp Intelligence to Seattle Opera’s Caribbean-Tinged ‘Carmen’
Sasha Cooke is making her role debut in Seattle Opera’s revival of its Carmen production. Some thoughts for Bachtrack:
For its season-closing revival of Paul Curran’s production of Carmen, Seattle Opera is presenting alternating casts headed by Sasha Cooke and J’Nai Bridges in the title role. Cooke’s much-anticipated role debut reveals an intelligent, tightly controlled interpretation that resists many familiar clichés surrounding the character while never fully igniting the opera’s destructive energies.
Filed under: Georges Bizet, review, Seattle Opera
March 2, 2026 • 8:29 am Comments Off on Private Passions, Public Peril in Seattle Opera’s “Fellow Travelers”
Private Passions, Public Peril in Seattle Opera’s “Fellow Travelers”
The production of Gregory Spears’ and Greg Pierce’s opera Fellow Travelers presented by Seattle Opera has launched a U.S. tour. Here’s my review of opening. night for the Seattle Times:
Desire unfolds under watchful eyes in “Fellow Travelers.”
Set during the McCarthy-era Lavender Scare of the 1950s, the opera by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce opened Saturday at McCaw Hall, marking the first time a production centered on openly gay subject matter has appeared on Seattle Opera’s mainstage.
Filed under: American opera, culture news, review, Seattle Opera, Seattle Times
January 20, 2026 • 10:11 am Comments Off on A Rite of Spring Turned Inward: Strauss’s ‘Daphne’ at Seattle Opera
A Rite of Spring Turned Inward: Strauss’s ‘Daphne’ at Seattle Opera
My Bachtrack review:
Richard Strauss’ Daphne is among the works most plausibly suited to Seattle Opera’s recent turn toward including concert performances as part of its main-stage season. Written late in the composer’s career, Daphne belongs to the turbulent political and cultural climate of 1930s Germany….
Filed under: review, Richard Strauss, Seattle Opera
February 24, 2025 • 8:04 pm Comments Off on “The Magic Flute” at Seattle Opera
“The Magic Flute” at Seattle Opera
My Seattle Times review of opening night of the popular production of Mozart’s final opera by Barrie Kosky and 1927 Theatre:
A remarkable synergy of musical and visual storytelling enlivens Seattle Opera’s current production of “The Magic Flute,” running through March 9….
Filed under: Mozart, review, Seattle Opera
February 15, 2025 • 9:12 pm Comments Off on Upcoming at Seattle Opera: Barrie Kosky’s “Magic Flute” Production
Upcoming at Seattle Opera: Barrie Kosky’s “Magic Flute” Production
Here’s my Seattle Times preview of the well-traveled production of Mozart’s opera that arrives in Seattle for the first time this weekend:
The Magic Flute has enchanted audiences ever since it opened in 1791, just months before Mozart’s untimely death.
On the surface, Flute is a fairy tale about a prince who sets out to rescue a supposedly kidnapped princess — only to discover that both are destined for a journey of enlightenment. Along the way, the Queen of the Night loses her struggle to topple the high priest Sarastro, who is revealed to be a benevolent ruler….
Filed under: directors, Mozart, Seattle Opera
February 10, 2025 • 7:39 pm Comments Off on Seattle Opera Announces 2025-26 Season
Seattle Opera Announces 2025-26 Season
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
Filed under: music news, Seattle Opera, music, news, opera, seattle, travel
September 10, 2024 • 11:48 am Comments Off on 7 Seattle Classical Music Picks for Fall 2024
7 Seattle Classical Music Picks for Fall 2024
My picks for classical events in Seattle in the fall:
No matter how many other leisure-time options compete for our attention, there really is nothing to replace the connection that happens at a live performance. Fortunately for classical music lovers, local organizations are busting out a new season of enticing variety, from early music innovators to contemporary composers inspired by the findings of science.
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Filed under: music news, Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony
