In his own time and country, his nemesis Giacomo Meyerbeer was also pushing the boundaries of tradition as, in France, was Berlioz, but it was Wagner who first gave such instruments as the trumpet and bass clarinet consistently interesting parts, who had new instruments designed (Wagner tubas) and plucked others from obscurity, expanding the tonal resources and imaginative possibilities of the orchestra in the process. Orchestration is another sphere revolutionised by Wagner. Most operas since Wagner also unfold in through-composed scenes rather than self-contained numbers and a musico-poetic synthesis of some sort is also the norm. Wagner did not (quite) invent the notion of the leitmotif, but he did develop it as a structural principle and the technique has been imitated to a greater or lesser extent by virtually all subsequent composers of opera. Those structures were themselves shaped according to tonalities and networks of ‘ leitmotifs’ – short motifs identified with specific objects (sword, spear, ring), characters, ideas or emotions. This in turn predicated a breakdown of the conventional operatic numbers – aria, duet, chorus and so on – in through-composed scenes that still retained elements of those forms but now organised in large-scale structures. Sometimes called a ‘musico-poetic synthesis’, this was a fusion of text and musical line that captured all the expressive nuances of the former in a setting that was neither recitative nor aria, but a kind of heightened arioso – somewhere between the two. In place of the conventional melody and accompaniment that had until then characterised opera composition, he created a new way of setting the text (which he always wrote himself).

Other returning artists include Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Margaret Jane Wray as Sieglinde, Stuart Skelton as Siegmund, Dennis Petersen as Mime, and Richard Paul Fink as Alberich.Wagner’s works were revolutionary in other ways too. Greer Grimsley returns to Seattle Opera for the third time as Wotan, a role for which he won Seattle Opera’s 2005 Artist of the Year award. Mellor is a Brünnhilde of choice for Den Nye Opera, Oper Leipzig, Longborough Festival Opera, Paris Opera, and Opera North Vinke has sung Siegfried in Cologne, Leipzig, Berlin, Salzburg, Venice, and Lisbon. Making their Seattle Opera debuts in this production are Alwyn Mellor as Brünnhilde and Stefan Vinke as Siegfried. Fisch, who has conducted Parsifal, Lohengrin, Der Rosenkavalier, Der Fliegende Holländer, and Tristan und Isolde for Seattle Opera, “ranks among the finest Ring conductors of our time,” according to Opus Magazine. Seattle Opera’s production of the Ring, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and featuring sets by Thomas Lynch, costumes by Martin Pakledinaz, and lighting by Peter Kaczorowski, returns for its fourth incarnation, this time under the baton of Asher Fisch, Principal Guest Conductor of Seattle Opera. Seattle Opera is proud to honor Speight, and mark the company’s 50th Anniversary, with two signature productions-the Ring Cycle, the work that’s the heart of the company, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Wagner’s optimistic hymn in praise of art and the cultural tradition.' “Speight’s ear for the world’s best voices, his instinct for what makes exciting theater, integrity, diplomacy, his broad base of knowledge, and his tireless, contagious passion for the art form have made Seattle Opera one of the great opera companies and given this city and its visitors decades of compelling opera. “It was a great day for Seattle when Speight Jenkins came here to lead the opera company in 1983,” says William Weyerhaeuser, President of the Seattle Opera Board of Trustees. These back-to-back Wagner summers celebrate several important milestones: the 2013 bicentenary of Wagner’s birth, the 50th Anniversary of Seattle Opera, and the conclusion of Speight Jenkins’ 30 years as general director of Seattle Opera. In August 2014, the company presents Meistersinger for the first time in more than 20 years. Seattle Opera’s so-called“Green” production of the Ring, first seen in 2001, returns in August 2013. Seattle-Today, Seattle Opera officially announces its summer 2013 production of Wagner’s four-opera epic, Der Ring des Nibelungen, as well as the composer’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which will open the 2014/15 season the following summer. Company’s 50th Anniversary, Wagner Bicentennial

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