Seattle Opera's Ring Master Speight Jenkins concludes 2009 Ring Cycle; Next Ring cast?

Seattle Opera/VIP Valhalla Lounge/Ring Cycle 2009/Speight Jenkins/Cindy Warner/Photo: Dean Chesnut

Seattle Opera's general director with the writer at Gotterdammerung as the Ring Cycle 2009 concludes

Seattle Opera had 5.9 million in ticket sales and two million in donations according to Alvin in marketing on closing night of the epic Ring series. Stephen Sprenger, on the board of directors, said Greer Grimsley has done so remarkably well this Ring and had received Artist of the Year last time, in 2004 . . . but Stephen refused to tell me who the next cast is. HIlda Cullen the PR director emails the next cast is unconfirmed. Stephanie Blythe won Artist of the Year playing Fricka to Greer Grimsley's Wotan this year and she will be coming to San Francisco this fall. Greer arrives in October to perform in Salome and he's slap your mama good. For true, as they say in New Orleans, Greer's home town. Greer like Speight demonstrates political activism.

Rheinmaidendom

Stephen himself has been on stage at Seattle Opera as a super. He was in Ariadne auf Naxos with Julianne Gearhart. Julianne sang a spectacular and energizing Forest Bird this Ring Cycle. She also showed her comedic charms as a Rheinmaiden this Ring Cycle.

Act III of Gotterdammerung opened with a refreshing splash of comic relief. The Rheinmaidens frolick in the pool all the while bewailing their lost treasure, tugging each other suddenly under the surface. One spit out a stream of river water when she surfaced. Siegfried teased them pretending to offer the return of the ring then snatched it back. It was actually a refreshing change of scenery back to the lush green forest and pool with it’s maiden voices.

Act II in the dark and ascetic Gibichung Hall had been one big murder plot against the innocent hero Siegfried. Similarly Act I had been in Gunther's castle on the Rhine. Gunther, king of the Gibichungs, and his sister, ask the killer-to-be of the hero for counsel. Hagen begins to plot with them a consolidation of power. This plot would require the marriage of the brother and sister to the hero and heroine, Siegfried and Brunnhilde.

Moreover the Rheinmaidens for their final bow came swimming on stage above the rest of the cast, maidens flipping in unison, one dangling upside down as the maidens were suspended while frolicking. Rheinmaidens Woglinde, Julianne Gearhart who sang the Forest Bird; Wellgunde, Michele Losier; Flosshilde, Jennifer Hines.

Fine Rhine Wine at the VIP Valhalla Lounge

Getting back to the VIP Valhalla Lounge, Greg Mattson poured fine Rhine wine, pictured below. The opera also swerved the popular Rhinegold chocolates, white chocolate nuggets wrapped in gold foil. Note the Siegfriedesque red tinge in his beard.

Seattle Opera/Ring Cycle 2009/VIP Valhalla Lounge/Greg Mattson bartender/Photo: Cindy Warner

My date and I sampling . . . he in his navy and white stripes; I in my navy and white polka dots.

Seattle Opera/Ring Cycle 2009/VIP Valhalla Lounge/Cindy Warner/Photo: Cindy Warner

I snapped this picture of Stephen (right) ascending with Richard Eidal (left) and Mitzi Morrow-Jamerson (behind).

Seattle Opera/VIP Valhalla Lounge/Stephen Sprenger right/Richard Eidal left/Mitzi Morrow-Jamerson (behind)/Photo: Cindy Warner

Each night of the four part Ring Cycle of Seattle Opera, America's Bayreuth, I would point out Sheri Grennawald of San Francisco Opera's Merola Program. She sat just below my date and me in the orchestra section on the aisle. Sherri sat each evening with the Ring Master, Speight Jenkins, who brings visitors from all over the world and the United States to Seattle. I finally paid my respects to Sherri and to Speight the final evening in the VIP Valhalla Lounge. She stopped by the closing night of the entire series, three entire Ring Cycles which ended Sunday, August 30. Here's the writer with Sherri on the left.

Seattle Opera/Ring Cycle/Cindy Warner/Sherri Grennawald/Photo: Dean Chesnut

That night after about fourteen minutes of Wagnerian strength applause from what looked like a continuously sold out house, I wondered just who is this man Speight Jenkins? I had barely crossed paths with him as a super in Rigoletto back in 2004, the first year after the spectacular renovation of the opera house.

According to Seattle Opera's PR department, Speight Jenkins, general director of Seattle Opera, is recognized nationally as a leading authority on opera. He's much more than that as a politically active arts advocate, and one of the most influential and accomplished general directors in the country. Jenkins became general director of Seattle Opera is 1983. At that time, he was already well known to opera professionals and aficionados through his hosting of the Metropolitan Opera telecasts, his music lectures, his articles and reviews (he wrote for the New York Post and was once an editor of Opera News).

. . . Jenkins’ knowledge of opera is reflected in his shrewd casting and in Seattle Opera’s innovative productions . . . Jenkins has an instinct for effectively pairing directors and designers who have never worked together . . . His commitment to opera as a complete theatrical experience is further reflected in the pairing of director Stephen Wadsworth and designer Thomas Lynch (Ring III) . . . and a pairing of Bartlett Sher and Francesca Zambello . . . Note Francesca will direct San Francisco's Die Walkure or Part Two of the Ring Cycle in June of 2010.

Celebrity sightings

My date and I had been going to the restaurant and bar called Ten Mercer for dinner and drinks so we saw Thomas Lynch outside our window that night. My date and I applauded and I blew kisses to Lynch outside on the sidewalk. Stephen Wadsworth was inside.

My date was facing the front door so while we sipped our Taittenger champagne and Cosmos, he also indentified the baritone Gordon Hawkins (Donner/Gunther) as well as the set designer Thomas Lynch, and director Stephen Wadsworth.

Design Innovations

I loved the Pacific Northwest sets with singers emerging through a winding forest path. They would descend to stand on the cliff’s edge. They faced the cliff wall over Fafner the dragon’s cave. It's also the site where Siegfried and his magic sword Notung slayed the dragon, only to become the site of Siegfried’s murder.

Innovations come with some risk as well as rewards though, especially when you play with fire.

During Gotterdammerung, the last evening of the entire series of three Ring Cycles, Sunday, August 30, the curtain caught briefly on Brunnhilde's burning mountaintop. Stagehands in black scurried to free the curtain. The curtain fell as it was supposed to without further incident. Valhalla would go up in flames on schedule in the final act.

Meanwhile applause broke out for entry of the famous horse of Brunnhilde, Grane, who emerged calmly from their cave on the mountaintop. Grane, performed by the real horse Star, walked calmly with Siegfried into glory. Grane/Star would reappear in the fiery finale entering the flames which Brunnhilde ignited to burn the world to the ground. Brunnhilde and their steed would join her husband Siegfried in death. The marriage had never been consummated sexually.

In the libretto Brunnhilde’s horse leaps into the flames. Such fearlessness in fire would be counter to a normal horse's nature, given their aversion and instinct for self-preservation. They usually need to be blindfolded to get through fire.

Casting innovations

We see Wotan with Fricka, the First Norn (played by Greer Grimsley's real life wife Luretta Bybee) and Loge in Valhalla going up in flames. Flames projected over a screen curtain covering the entire stage. It becomes the projected Rhine subsurface. The Rheinmaidens swim in the new world, where equilibrium has been restored upon return of the ring to the maidens, the ring bequeathed by Brunnhilde.

Physical affection and demonstrativeness

Another innovation in this family drama would be the appearance of eighteen year old Emma Grimsley as a Woman in Black. She's the only child of Greer Grimsley and Luretta Bybee. Emma's Woman in Black, a kind of lady in waiting, was treated with fondness by Gutrune (Marie Plette). Similarly Emma's character turns to the older woman/grandmother figure when Siegfried’s body is brought back to Gutrene. Hagen was the boar who gored our hero to death. Again, right down to it's youngest member, the cast seemed to be a demonstrative and intimate family, physically affectionate.

Jenkins the mastermind

But getting back to Jenkins and his genius for casting. In 2006 Jenkins inaugurated Seattle Opera’s International Wagner Competition, developed to discover and promote outstanding young singers who show promise of major careers in Wagner operas . . . which explains the presence of Sheri Grennawald from San Francisco's Merola Program.

Jenkins' genius extends to the political realm. In 1999, Jenkins played a crucial role in speaking out for Proposition One, a levy designating $38 million in city funding for the renovation of the Seattle Center Opera House.

Jenkins is a graduate of the University of Texas and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After gaining his law degree at Columbia University, he served four years in the United States Army as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He is married and has two children and three granddaughters.

For more than three decades, Jenkins has been an annual guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz, an intermission feature on the company’s weekly broadcasts. His opera previews of every Seattle Opera production are broadcast on 98.1 Classical KING FM . . .

In 2008, Jenkins celebrated his 25th Anniversary as General Director of Seattle Opera. Mayor Greg Nickels proclaimed April 25, 2009 as Speight Jenkins Day. Under Jenkins’ influence, Seattle Opera’s productions have captured international acclaim, bringing visitors to the city from all 50 states and 23 countries, boosting the economy and raising the profile of Seattle as a thriving center for the arts . . .

Where to stay in Seattle

As for experiencing Seattle while in town for the opera, my date and I liked staying a couple of blocks from the opera house at the Mediterranean Inn. The inn has wonderful amenities and a great location on Queen Anne but the website fails to mention their roof top view deck. Here we are taking in the view of Elliot Bay, the sea planes, the ships and the Space Needle. My date flies a small plane so he would identify each one over Elliot Bay.

It's a short cab ride to Pike Market and the waterfront so one night after the opera we went to McCormick & Schmick's. My date ordered some fresh Washington oysters which we had with a fresh lemon squeeze. I had a lemon drop to drink and he and I shared a lovely crab bisque. McCormick's serves a port wine reduction squirted in a circular design in the bowl before they spoon the bisque into the bowl.

We also loved Sunday breakfast on Queen Anne at Five Spot. My date had some of the best sausage ever while I loved my pirate pancakes. Banana with a rum sauce and coconut butter. My date also loved the coffee, made in Seattle on Capitol Hill.

Meditteranean Inn/Seattle/Cindy Warner and date/Photo: Cindy Warner

He and I had also considered a bed and breakfast, a room in a private home where I have stayed before. It's owned by a local food writer. Magnolia has a wilderness area with cliffs over Puget Sound and a wooden staircase to the beach and lighthouse.

Seattle/Magnolia Bed and Breakfast/Photo: Cindy Warner

Magnolia also has a new ice-cream spot where after our hike my date bought me a honey-lavender ice-cream cone. He likes his mint chip.

Seattle/Magnolia/Photo: Cindy Warner

He and I considered also the Gaslight Inn on Capitol Hill, recommended by my Seattle friend Amy. The owners told me everybody in the house was in town for the Ring Cycle.

We also took the water taxi to Alki Beach and the ferry to Bainbridge Island from Seattle's waterfront. That day, just before the 5 1/4 hour Gotterdammerung and knowing the opera has no late seating, we encountered a ferry accident. Another ferry had crashed into a dock and the system was operating on one ferry to Bainbridge, which we found out once across Elliot Bay as we docked at the island. I had some apprehension we would not make it back in time. We did though with tons of room to spare on the cavernous ferry. My date had even gotten a pooch smooch, some puppy love from Lola.

Seattle/Ferry to Bainbridge/Lola the puppy/Photo: Cindy Warner