and continued to hone his skills, producing operas for various companies around the country and abroad, until he was hired in 1963 as general director of Seattle Opera.Īs a director and promoter, Ross was a high-octane brand. Injured in combat, he ran a soldier's rest camp on the island of Ischia and staged operas in Naples to entertain the troops. Although an acting career eluded him, Ross stayed close to the stage by producing operas in Los Angeles until drafted into the army during World War II. As a young man, he dreamed of becoming an actor and experienced his first opera as an extra in Lohengrin. A farm boy from Nebraska, Ross was all of those - and more. Ross has been called a 'hustler,' 'an opera impresario,' 'a fund-raising hit-man, a culture catalyst,' and 'a dreamer, dynamo and workaholic. The first half-century of Seattle Opera history basically is a tale of two ambitious, driven, and utterly devoted leaders: Glynn Ross, whose no-holds-barred marketing made Seattle Opera a magnet for opera fans worldwide, and Speight Jenkins, who brought a connoisseur's vision to the company that he became synonymous with. Aidan Lang served as general director of the company from 2014 to 2019, after which Christina Scheppelmann, former artistic director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, took charge. He introduced new operas, the use of supertitles, and created two new productions of the Ring - the first quite controversial - while focusing on education and expanding the audience for opera. 1937), brought a fresh aesthetic to the company during his 30-year tenure. He produced two world premiers and initiated annual productions of Richard Wagner's four-part Der Ring des Nibelungen. During the 20 years of Ross's leadership, he brought international stars to Seattle, including Joan Sutherland, Brigit Nilsson, Igor Stravinsky, and Beverly Sills. Foster (1905-1986), with Glynn Ross (1914-2005) as managing director and Seattle Symphony conductor Milton Katims (1909-2006) as musical director.

The two entities combined boards under president Albert O. Seattle Opera was formed in late 1963 with the merger of two briefly competing groups - Seattle's Western Opera Company, founded in 1962 by Helen Jensen (1886-1974), and the Seattle Opera Association, a committee of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.

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