Seattle Opera at 60: Singing stars’ favorite memories

On May 7, 1964, the curtain went up on Puccini’s “Tosca” at Seattle Opera, marking the newly founded company’s first production. To celebrate its milestone 60th anniversary, Seattle Opera raises a musical toast on May 11 with a special concert sampling from some of the varied repertoire it has brought to audiences over the decades.

There will be a variety of formats as well at the matinee concert, from solo arias and duets, plus a trio, to rousing pieces that highlight the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera Chorus. The international cast of nine solo artists who will appear — some of whom shared with us their memories of performing at Seattle Opera — represent a range of experience with the company, from longtime favorite Greer Grimsley to several emerging stars. 

After making his Seattle Opera debut in 1994 in “Lohengrin,” Grimsley’s repeat appearances as Wotan, one of the protagonists of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, played an indispensable role in building Seattle Opera’s international reputation. The highly sought-after bass-baritone will reprise one of the most stirring scenes from the “Ring” when he sings “Wotan’s Farewell” at the anniversary concert.

Soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams is another longtime company favorite. Though she made her debut as Leonora in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” in 2010, her history here goes back to the beginning of the century, when she participated in the Young Artists Program. Williams will sing “My Man’s Gone Now,” Serena’s aria from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess,” with which she made an unforgettable impression in 2018.

“The fact that I have sung through three different general director administrations is very meaningful to me,” Williams said. “This is the only relationship I have with an opera company that encompasses my entire career.” 

Ginger Costa-Jackson, a mezzo-soprano who made her Seattle Opera debut in 2018 as Dorabella in Mozart’s “Così fan tutte,” praised Seattle Opera for opening many doors for her as a singer and actress: “I’ve sung Carmen as a seductress, the nice girl Cinderella as a bel canto role, Musetta from ‘La Bohème,’ which is a soprano role, and even early music with Handel’s Bradamante [in ‘Alcina’], which is cast for alto.” 

Costa-Jackson’s versatility will be on display in the concert, in which she sings Adalgisa to Williams’ Norma in a duet from Bellini’s “Norma,” as well as Carmen’s character-defining “Habanera.” She will also join bass Adam Lau for a comic duet from Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers.”

Costa-Jackson’s two sisters are also professional singers and have appeared in various Seattle Opera productions with her. Costa-Jackson fondly recalled “the little tricks” they would play on each other. A similar thing happens whenever she shares the stage with baritone John Moore, an artist familiar to Seattle audiences who is also part of the anniversary concert lineup (in a drinking song from Ambroise Thomas’ “Hamlet” and a duet from “Don Pasquale” by Donizetti). “There’s a passage where Musetta is raising a Champagne glass,” Costa-Jackson said, referring to their “La Bohème” in 2021. “I just dipped my fingers in and sprinkled water on John. If you throw something at him, he will twist it, turn it, flop it and throw it right back to you.” 

Among the newcomers is tenor Duke Kim, who made his debut last season as Alfredo in Verdi’s “La Traviata” and who is currently singing the young Count Almaviva in “The Barber of Seville.” Kim recalled that one of the main challenges of playing Alfredo was enacting the character’s humiliation of his beloved, Violetta, whom he falsely believes has betrayed him. 

“He goes to a party and screams at Violetta and then throws the money he has won from gambling at her. I had to channel his anger outwards, so that the audience could feel it and see it.” Kim was directed to jump on top of the gambling table. “Physical action helped me feel the anger I needed on a visceral level.” 

Along with arias from Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” Kim will join with baritone and Seattle Opera resident artist Michael J. Hawk for the friendship duet from Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers.”

Amitai Pati, another young tenor new to the company, made his debut as the lovestruck Nemorino in Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” in 2022, his only role here to date. The assignment had added significance as his debut in the part marked Seattle Opera’s return to a full season of live productions after theater closures. He will reprise Nemorino’s heartbreaking aria “Una furtiva lagrima” in the concert.

Sarah Coburn’s history with Seattle Opera reaches back to the 2001-02 season, when she took part in the Young Artists Program. Following her debut in 2006 as Adèle in “Die Fledermaus,” the soprano has appeared in numerous productions, making an especially memorable impression as the hyper-virtuosic Zerbinetta in Richard Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos” (2015). Coburn will sing from the “Mad Scene” in Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” and also in a duet from his “Don Pasquale” and another duet from “Pagliacci.”

Coburn emphasized the benefits of being challenged to grow from collaborating with great fellow artists. “My favorite singing memory is of Zerbinetta, when I got to sing alongside the phenomenal Kate Lindsey [as Ariadne],” she said. “To be able to sing such sublime music with someone of that caliber is an opportunity that doesn’t come along very often.”

But Coburn also finds some comic moments equally unforgettable. The most hilarious of these involves the tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a fellow Young Artist from the early 2000s who has gone on to become an international superstar.

“We were singing in Rossini’s ‘Le Comte Ory’ [2016] when Larry’s bejeweled codpiece accidentally came ‘unhinged’ right at the moment he revealed his identity, as he sang, ‘Oui, le voici!’ The audience went crazy. It will always be a favorite memory of mine.”