Seattle Opera

Founded in 1963, Seattle Opera has presented the classics of the European repertoire as well as new works of American opera.

The world premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men was produced here in 1970. More recently, the company has co-produced such new works as Daniel Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas, the final version of Marvin David Levy’s Mourning Becomes Electra, and a revised version of Jake Heggie’s End of the Affair.

Seattle Opera goes beyond the standard repertoire to present such operas as Prokoliev’s War and Peace, Delibes’ Lakmé, Weber’s Freischütz, and Britten’s Turn of the Screw.

Called the “Pacific Bayreuth” for its productions of Richard Wagner’s operas, Seattle Opera has created three different productions of Der Ring des Nibelungen as well as productions of all of Wagner’s major works. As part of its commitment to fostering the works of Wagner, the company also established the International Wagner Competition in 2005.

With its Scenic Studios and Costume Shop, Seattle Opera builds many of its own productions. The shops also provide a wide variety of production services to other organizations. Through its Education Department, the company has presented hundreds of events each year to create greater awareness and appreciation for the art of opera.

For now and for the future, the company remains committed to its mission of “producing musically extraordinary, theatrically compelling operas” by “employing uniformly high quality casts, dramatically savvy conductors, and innovative yet textually concerned directors and designers.”