The Ring in Review

What a great summer it has been for Seattle Opera! The Ring was a great success, and we wanted to send you off into the fall with a few of our favorite reviews.

Elise Bakketun Photo

Melinda Bargreen’s Seattle Times review “This Siegfried is a Superstar,” is a perfect example of the excitement generated by the singers, Stephen Wadsworth's directing, and Asher Fisch's conducting. She described Stefan Vinke: “Huge of voice, unflagging of stamina, imaginative and energetic on the stage: this was the finest Siegfried Seattle has ever presented.” Have a look here, here, and here for a few more reviews.

Elise Bakketun Photo

If you’re still wondering how in the world Seattle Opera managed to make those massive set changes in seconds, create and extinguish the onstage fire, and twirl singers about in the air, indulge yourself in some of our behind-the scenes coverage here and here.

And finally, in case you missed it, this piece from the Seattle Times, reported the Ring cycle’s positive impact on Seattle’s economy.

Thanks for being a part of our Ring tradition. Onward to our exciting 2013/14 50th Anniversary Season!

RETURNING TO THE RING: Michael Moore, Scenic Studios Manager

Michael Moore, Seattle Opera’s Scenic Studios Manager, has been making Seattle Opera’s sets come true for the past 34 years. We talked about the challenges of the current Ring set, the dragon (of course!), and some of his favorite Ring memories.

This production—so often called the “green” Ring—is known for its beautiful naturalistic scenery. What’s most challenging about representing nature in a set?
Nature has had millions to billions of years of opportunity to make things tricky and complex and pays no attention to time or budget for that matter. We have to evolve our scenery in weeks or months at best.

It is also difficult to make things chaotic. With an organic shape or form, it’s difficult to avoid obvious repeating patterns. Some of the art is being able to step back and assess what you’re doing.

What are the trees made of in the ridge terrain set?
If you’ve ever tried to lift up a tree, you know they’re pretty heavy, and our set, of course, has to be lightweight and portable. People like you and me have to be able to pick them up and move them into and out of a truck and get them to and from the stage. So the question was: how to make a forest that’s featherweight but that looks very convincing. In this case, we used the aircraft industry from the ’20s and ’30s as a model: we stretched Dacron fabric (used to cover the wings of antique airplanes) over a super lightweight aluminum frame. Then we apply Vacuform plastic bark and aluminum twigs. In the end, the trees are little more than paint.

The forest of Das Rheingold's "Ridge Terrain" set
Elise Bakketun photo

Can you give an example of how a design idea evolves—from designer to scenic studio to stage?
You have to start with a piece of paper and sketch up how you’re going to do it, which goes back to the question of what does the director want to do? What does he have in mind? Can you storyboard out the action? Just about any of these challenges start with a plan of action from the point of view of the stage director. The designer then provides an illustration of what it might look like, but ultimately, what the set has to do and physically be comes across my desk out here. So I find out everything I can and stay awake several nights. The ideas don’t come to me at two o’clock in the afternoon; it’s more like 3 a.m.

Do you keep a notebook by your bed?
I keep a digital recorder. When I’m deep into a project, I can roll over, punch the button, and in the middle of the night jot down the idea I’ve been dreaming about and then I can go back to sleep. That’s a regular occurrence in my life. I guess you could say I have a dream job.

Brünnhilde's ledge in Götterdämmerung
Elise Bakketun photo

And it’s always something new.
Virtually everything we’ve built is a prototype. The designer brings the design to us—this is something that nobody has asked us to design before—and we need to get it done on time on budget and trot it out on the stage and lift up the curtain before three thousand people, hoping with our fingers crossed that it works the first time.

We can’t talk about the Ring set without talking about the dragon! How many dragons have you made for Seattle Opera?
There was the Ring from the ’70s, which was the John Naccarato design we first produced. Then the Bob Israel dragons: the first one was larger than the building so all we saw was a giant claw. There were a couple other versions—and quite different versions—in the course of that show. Then we’ve done dragons for other companies. So our current dragon is at least the seventh dragon that I’ve had a substantial hand in.

Stefan Vinke (Siegfried) consoles the dying Fafner
Elise Bakketun photo

For photos of the new dragon Michael Moore and the Seattle Opera Scenic Studios created for our neighbors at the Experience Music Project, CLICK HERE.

Where is the RING set stored?
When it’s not at the opera house, it joins the rest of our scenic inventory of 30 or so operas that we store in the warehouse down in Kent Valley. All of those shows except for the Ring are rented out to other opera companies. So they’re really all over the world.

What kind of work do you need to do to get the Ring set ready again?
Needless to say, there’s some wear and tear that occurs to all these things, so at the end of the run, it goes back into the warehouse, and we work the repair into our schedule. Take the dragon, for instance. Siegfried does a little battle with the tail of Fafner when he comes across it in the cave, and the dragon can’t really fight back. He can wiggle the tail a little bit, but he suffers every blow, and when it’s time to put him back on the stage, it’s time to patch up his tail. So over the last couple of months we brought the tail out here and fit it around other projects.

What is everyone working on now?
Right now everything is on the stage. We wrapped up our work on the Ring with the tail of the dragon about two weeks ago.

Siegfried and the Rhine Daughters on the "Gorge" set
Elise Bakketun photo

How long did it take originally to build this Ring set?
Before the curtain hit the deck on the Bob Israel Ring for the last time in 1995, I think Speight had already spoken with Tom Lynch as a designer and Stephen Wadsworth and started that ball rolling. There were a couple years spent in the conceptual phase, and then we spent about two years in the shop.

How many trucks does it take to load in the Ring set?
About 60.

Do you have a favorite scene?
Of course I have a particular fondness for the dragon. In fact any number of friends have come up over the years and said, “You know that Fafner is so wonderful. Couldn’t he win just once?”

Do you have any favorite memories from the Ring?
One of my favorite moments that perhaps the audience could appreciate was during the Bob Israel Ring. Off stage left is a room that we call the prop room, and that’s where Wotan’s spear lives and Nothung and all the stuff that gets chopped in half. One day someone brought in a box of kazoos, and one of the stage hands picked one up and played one of the motifs. Somebody said, “I know what that is! They’re forging Nothung.” Then somebody grabbed another kazoo and started playing another motif. This snowballed, and pretty soon we had a group of about 14 stagehands playing Wagnerian themes doing name that tune on the kazoo! It was a priceless moment.

RETURNING TO THE RING: Cristine Reynolds, Assistant Stage Manager

Cristine Reynolds, one of Seattle Opera's Assistant Stage Managers, has been cueing Ring performers onstage on time and with props in hand since 1995. When she’s not working on the Ring, she works for Seattle Repertory Theatre and Seattle Children’s Theatre.

What are the responsibilities of an Assistant Stage Manager?
No singer goes onstage without being cued by an Assistant Stage Manager or Stage Manager. That’s different than theater (and musical theater) because in theater, actors are not cued on stage.

Why the difference?
My guess—and this is a guess—is that a long time ago, performers were coming in from different countries, they didn’t all speak the same language, and the rehearsal period was so short that they didn’t necessarily know their colleagues’ vocal parts. So they needed somebody to make sure they got on stage on time. That’s my guess.

Someone needs to know the whole thing.
That’s us. The big picture. It totally boils down to supporting your colleagues. And making sure your onstage singing colleagues have everything they need to sing the best show they possibly can.

I know the singers appreciate it…
They’re awesome. They are such a great group of people. All of the singers are so supportive of each other. The attitude is “we’ll help you, we’ll get through this together.” Sometimes I think it’s like summer camp for singers and stage managers.

Which shows are you working?
This time I am working on Rheingold and Götterdämmerung. This is the first time I’ve focused on Götterdämmerung, so that’s exciting.

Cristine Reynolds marking her scores of the operas
Yasmine Kiss, photo

I know stage managers use a score to follow along with the opera. Is it ever tricky to keep track?
I’m finding the more tired I am the more visual information I need from my score. So I’m going crazy with my highlighter. This green mark means I need to say “go” to someone. In one section of Götterdämmerung, for instance, they say “Heil!” four times, and if you lose your concentration, and haven’t counted the “Heils,” you’re hosed. Everyone’s score is different. You have to figure out what works for you. Some assistant stage managers scores are really spare in their cueing/markings. They’re like haiku. Mine, on this show, is not a haiku; it’s more “in your face.”

Are you also responsible for the props?
Before everyone goes onstage, we literally say: “Do you have your prop?” I’d say to Siegfried before he enters in Act I: “You’ve got your Nothung, you’ve got your Nothung holder, you’ve got your Tarnhelm, you’ve got your baldric, you’ve got the ring….” Every time someone walks onstage you have to make sure they have their prop because all of the props are very important. If Freia doesn’t have her apple bag? Well, there we go. That’d be the end of Rheingold, thanks very much.

What challenges are particular to the Ring?
Big scenery, long rehearsal period, and not necessarily a challenge but a plus is working with so many artists and so many stage managers. Knowing how to play well with others is a huge part of it.

Do you have a favorite scene?
One of the great things about working with Stephen Wadsworth is that there is such an intellectual and dramaturgical approach to the piece. There’s often a lot of discussion within the rehearsal process of: Why are you doing this? Why is your character on this journey? What is their process? That is always very exciting for me to listen to. It creates a deeper understanding of what’s happening in the scene for me. I think Rheingold Scene 4 is one of my favorite scenes and also the scene with the Three Norns. I love that scene. That scene in particular is why I wanted to do Götterdämmerung this time around. The three women have such good acting skills, and they know what their characters are feeling. They each have a different journey; you can see that journey in the studio. It’s just thrilling to be in the room with those three women and Stephen and the Associate Directors. You think, “Wow, it doesn’t get better than this.”

Do you ever wish you could watch from the audience or do you like being backstage?
I have seen all of them once from the audience. I like being able to do both, though it’s hard sometimes to shut off my brain about what’s happening backstage.

Do you have a favorite Ring character?
Everyone calls me Erda. Since 1995 I’ve always been the oldest member on the stage manager staff. So I think people think I’m the voice of reason, the all-knowledgeable one. Do I identify with Erda? That’s a very good question. I don’t know.

You’ve been a part of this tradition for many years now. How do you describe the ride that is Seattle Opera’s Ring?
On one hand, there are little benchmarks. When the big banner went up on the side of the opera house, I thought about how we’re going to be a part of something that’s bigger than ourselves, and that’s exciting. It’s fun to be the flavor of the city for a few short weeks.

I am also finding myself very emotionally full during this whole process. Every person involved in the Ring has probably experienced great joy in their lives—people getting married—and also great sorrow. I think about the things that are benchmarks in my life during the Ring and how I feel about those things when I am doing this project once again.

RETURNING TO THE RING: Sande Gillette, Violinist

Audiences have been loving the incredible sound of our orchestra, led by Maestro Asher Fisch. Wagner’s Ring is probably the supreme challenge for any opera orchestra, and although our orchestra benefits from Seattle’s long tradition of presenting these operas frequently, that doesn’t make them easy to play! Sande Gillette has played second violin for Seattle Opera’s Ring cycles since 1976, and she says she’s still learning.

What is your history with Seattle Opera’s Ring?
I started playing the Ring in ’76. Seattle Opera did that production each summer until 1984, and I played them all, every single one. I learned the story very well, because of the two casts they had at the time. They had one cast that sang the operas in English and one that sang in German. (They did not have supertitles.) I can’t tell you how many times I was asked: “Is it harder to play in German or in English?” [laughs] I’d smile and say, “Well, it doesn’t much matter to the violin players!”

One international language!
It’s some of the hardest music I’ve ever learned, and it isn’t even orchestral music, it’s opera music.

Is opera normally easier to play than orchestral music?
Yes, on the whole, opera music is less demanding for the orchestra than our usual symphony work, our usual repertoire. There are exceptions to that; and Wagner is consistently very difficult, some of the hardest music I’ve ever learned. And yet it’s written to be an accompaniment to the stage. Except with Wagner, the action moves back and forth between the orchestra and the stage. Wagner does that consistently in the Ring by developing the various themes both onstage and in the orchestra. Sometimes the stage is very static, and the bulk of the activity and the development of the themes is in the orchestra. Then the reverse happens—the orchestra becomes much more static and quieter and a lot of the drama is shifted to the stage. It’s part of his genius that we’re both just as important in the storytelling.

What was it like to play it for the first time?
For the first couple of cycles I played, I don’t think I did anything else besides practice, eat, sleep, go to work, come home, practice, eat, sleep, go to work, come home.... It was so amazing to try to learn all of that. I’m still learning. We all are. It’s fabulous music, and so very well-written. Wagner scores the music so beautifully that the orchestra can be roaring away and when it’s time for the singer, the orchestration and the dynamics are such that the voice comes right through. You just have to play what Wagner wrote, and it works. It’s a masterpiece on so many levels. I find it amazing that one man could write the music, write the lyrics, build a stage, do all the stage direction...it’s truly a masterpiece and I always feel like the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

So when you say it’s some of the hardest music you’ve had to learn, can you characterize that? What is so hard about it?
Technically, it’s very difficult in places. Most of it is playable with a lot of practice. It’s very dense, and it’s non-stop for strings in particular. And you have to work very, very hard to learn this music and get it up to tempo. I think it’s an endurance contest more than anything, because it’s so long. Our parts are 70, 80, 90 pages long for each opera!

Sande Gillette in action

Do you get a break?
The strings play most of the time. I think there are two or three places where we rest for about 10 minutes—in the whole cycle! We try to take good care of people who are playing it for the first time, because it’s so difficult and people can get easily discouraged. You’re always convinced that you’re the only person in the pit NOT playing every note, when in fact some passages are meant to be an effect, a rush of sound.

Is it actually impossible to play all the notes?
Most of it is very playable. There are passages that are renowned finger-tanglers. In the fire music in Walküre, it is, I would say, virtually impossible for any orchestra anywhere to have every player play every note at exactly the same time. It’s divided up, first of all, so you have different people on different parts; it’s hugely dense; it’s fast. Wagner was way ahead of his time in lots of things, but he gave, in the fire music, a tonality and a time frame, and basically: “There you go, have at it! Get as much of it as you can!” So you get most of it...and the effect is what is so fabulous in a place like that. But most of the Ring is highly playable.

There are moments where it’s so big, and so loud for the audience...how loud is it down there in the pit for you?
Very, very loud. Many of us keep foam earplugs stuck in our scroll box, where the pegs are on the violin, and put them in as needed and then stick them back in the scroll box! If the brass are four feet away, you have to have some type of protection.

Do you have either a favorite opera or a favorite passage to play?
In the third act of Siegfried, after he wakes up Brünnhilde, the music is just so glorious. It’s worth sitting there for four hours, just to get to that point.

What about the violin passage just before that, when Siegfried climbs out of the fire?
It’s very slow, very quiet, and very exposed, and the rhythms are a bit unusual. The entire violin section plays it together—we’re the only thing you hear!

Violin section solo from Act 3 of Siegfried

How long did it take to get this music in your fingers, to learn it?
I think all of us are always learning. I really have to work at it every single time. When I first played it, back in ’76, it involved incredible amounts of practicing. It was at least the third year before I really started to feel a wee bit comfortable on some of those hard, hard passages. I had to change my style of fingering. String players ordinarily shift from one position to another in a very logical manner; but with Wagner, you don’t have time—and it doesn’t fit the music. So you grab large chunks of notes, and jump from one chunk to the next, so you end up with what I call “chunk-style” fingering, which works very well! But until I figured that out, some passages were harder than they needed to be.

Do you have any favorite Wagner-related reading?
I’d like to recommend George Bernard Shaw’s book The Perfect Wagnerite. He alternates chapters in the book talking about the music and talking about Wagner as a person. And I agree with George Bernard Shaw in that all of Rheingold, all of Walküre, and two acts of Siegfried are actually music drama; and then starting with the third act of Siegfried, where he wakes up Brünnhilde and this poor tenor who’s been singing for four hours has to compete with a fresh soprano who’s been resting for three days—from that point in that act through all of Götterdämmerung are actually opera. Of course, you get to the end of Götterdämmerung, when the Rhine River overwhelms everything, and you end up playing the same music you played at the beginning of the week for the Rheingold, so it truly is a cycle. You could turn that over and start all over again! No thank you!

INTERVIEW BY JESSICA MURPHY

Lori Phillips to sing Brünnhilde on 8/9/2013

Lori Phillips, who sang Brünnhilde at Seattle Opera’s August 7, 2013 performance of Siegfried, will sing Brünnhilde at tonight's performance of Götterdämmerung. Alwyn Mellor continues to recover from the indisposition that affected her on Wednesday. Ms. Mellor is scheduled to sing Cycles #2 and #3.

Phillips made her Seattle Opera debut as Gerhilde in Die Walküre in 2001, and she returned to the company as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and most recently in the title role of Turandot. Last season, Ms. Phillips made her role debut as Aida at Hawaii Opera Theatre, and she sang Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana at Arizona Opera, a role she has also performed at Vancouver Opera and at Opéra de Québec, and the title role of Turandot with Opera Lyra Ottawa and Portland Opera. She has also performed Turandot at Atlanta Opera, New York City Opera, and in concert selections at Alice Tully Hall and at Tokyo’s International Forum. In 2011, she sang Lenore in Fidelio for Portland Opera. In 2010, Ms. Phillips debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer, a role she has also performed at Washington National Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Syracuse Opera, and Sarasota Opera. Also that year, Ms. Phillips made her role debut as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre with Hawaii Opera Theater and Maddalena in Andrea Chénier at Nashville Opera. She has also sung the roles of Madama Butterfly at New York City Opera and Utah Opera, Lady Macbeth at Arizona Opera, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos at Vancouver Opera, Minnie in La fanciulla del West at Utah Opera, and Leonora in Il trovatore at Florentine Opera. The soprano made her U.K. debut as Elisabetta in Don Carlos at Opera North. This year she will perform Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer with Michigan Opera Theater and Arizona Opera and is featured on a new Naxos recording of Darius Milhaud’s Oresteia of Aeschylus as Clytemnestre and the Spectre de Clytemnestre, performed by the University of Michigan Musical Society. Other recordings include Ariane in Ariane et Barbe-Bleue with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Telarc), Dallapiccola’s Volo di Notte with the American Symphony Orchestra, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Nashville Symphony (Naxos).

RETURNING TO THE RING: Charles Tim Buck, Fire Designer and Flight Technical Director

Charles Tim Buck is the Ring’s Fire Designer and Flight Technical Director—among the more job cool titles in the universe—and he has been the company’s master carpenter since 1990. I talked with Tim (left, with the Valkyrie Rock burning in the background, photo by Rozarii Lynch) about how he enables the Rhine Daughters to sing midair, how he designs the fire, and what inspires him about live theater.

You designed the harness worn by the Rhine Daughters in the opening scene of Das Rheingold. Is there an easy way to explain its unique features?
People have been using harnesses for hundreds of years to carry somebody, to let them down, or for rescue or safety. These harnesses allow the performer to sing. That’s the difference. Most people who use a harness—rock climbers, for instance—they’re in that harness for maybe three minutes or until they can get to safety. Our harnesses have to be worn and used in the air for twenty-five minutes, and they have to move vertically and horizontally almost consistently. They also have stirrups and shoes so the singers can use foot pressure without having any weight around the middle of the body or through the legs, providing the diaphragm with the freedom to sing. And because the Rhine Daughters do somersaults, they’re hooked up on the sides, rather than a normal harness that goes right down the middle.

Tim Buck (with Flyman Justin Lloyd) helps Rhine Daughter Jennifer Zetlan get accustomed to her flying harness
Alan Alabastro, photo

Was it the Ring that made you come up with this design?
Yes. For Seattle Opera’s 1985-1995 Ring, the track and the rotator and all the rigging of all the flying—they travel vertically and horizontally and also turning both directions—that was all designed for the flying horses. And then I just changed a little bit on the rotator to accommodate people instead of art scenery.

What kind of background and training goes into your job?
I have been working in technical theater since 1971. I have a BFA and a Master’s degree in theater.

How many people does it take to get a singer airborne?
For the flying there are three tiller operators and three rail operators. The tiller operators control the movement of the Rhine Daughters back and forth, and the turning, and the rail operators control the vertical, all their ascents and descents. Three of each. There is also a person who handles the way that the system works. It works as a counter balance, so there’s a bag of sand that takes the place of the singers when the singers aren’t there. There’s a guy that clips on the bags. I do all the hooking up and unhooking. And there are two additional people who put the harnesses on the singers and bring them to the stage.

Your title is also Fire Designer. How did you get trained in that and what does that involve?
To get a Master’s in technical theater you take a lot of structural engineering, engineering, hydraulic and pneumatic systems training, all that kind of stuff. I also worked briefly in the military on explosives.

Can you tell us a little bit about the design?
For the company’s second Ring, we worked a lot with propane and we did a lot of research and development on how other gases work. For that one, the fire was in Götterdämmerung. In this Ring, the director wanted Wotan to start the fire and have it grow. Taking that artistic concept into mind, I started designing this system: there’s a 100 gallon propane tank and of that 100 gallons we fill it halfway so the liquid can convert to gas in the tank. We can then pump enough volume to control the 35 valves and almost 50 igniters. Each section of the ledge has a gas hose going off of the main distribution valve. So the valve opens and the igniter starts igniting for 4 seconds, until the fire is lit. Then the fire starts at one spot, that valve opens, and then that one and that one and that one. The four trees start from the bottom, then the fire leaps up to the next section. It was a lot of fun designing that.

Brünnhilde (Alwyn Mellor), hearing Siegfried's offstage horn call, prepares to greet him as he once again crosses her magic fire
Elise Bakketun, photo

How long does it take? You get the concept from the director…
As far as I’m concerned and as far as my training is concerned, the whole thing begins with telling the story. That is what I’m trying to do and that’s what the effects are trying to do. I’m not trying to create splashy effects just to impress people. The effects are to help tell the story, to make the story everything that it can possibly be. So, the concept comes from the composer originally and then goes through the director to the scene designer and from them it came to me.

Did the composer say there would be fire onstage?
The composer said Wotan would surround Brünnhilde with fire to keep everybody away from her. With this particular Ring there wasn’t a heavy concept laid on it, like in the German Rings that are done in space or in a circle or like the Met in a big machine. This was a very natural, a very historic Ring as far as it follows what the composer had in mind. His whole vision of it being actually someplace in a forest or on a cliff or Gibichung hall or whatever. It’s all intended to help tell that story, the original concept.

Are you backstage for every performance?
In addition to being the designer I’m also the master carpenter. I’m the only person who has a pyrotechnics license, so, yes, I am in control of the fire every time it burns. I’m in control of the flame.

How many people are backstage working on the fire?
On the fire I have my pyro guy Ian who works under my license and controls the mechanical valves on the ledge; there’s a tank operator; and then there are people on fire watch on both sides of the stage who have been trained in putting out fires.

Is there a fire marshal?
For Ring 2 we had a fire marshal onstage for each of the performances, but that fire was the “end of the world fire.” It was 32 feet tall and approximately 27 feet around, so we’re talking about a different scale. For our current Ring, the fire marshal usually comes to one of the rehearsals. Part of the design is a CO2 feedback system. With a flip of the lever, instead of gas flowing into the valve, carbon dioxide flows into the valve, so the fire is robbed of both fuel and oxygen at the same time. We can turn that fire off in a heartbeat. And the CO2 is also very cold, so not only is the fire gone but everything is cold. When the fire went out, the fire marshal said, “I wish we had one of those!”

You don’t think about that…it must get hot up there.
Oh, yeah, it gets hot up there. In Ring 2, I was in the middle of it with Brünnhilde and the flames were above our heads all around us. We actually had a hot dog roast on that set.

Do you have a favorite moment or scene?
I think my two favorites are after the scene change from anything into the ridge terrain because the curtain comes down, there’s a rumble backstage with things moving out, and then the curtain goes up and it’s the forest. People often clap instantly. And the other one is when Wotan sets the ledge on fire.

Tim Buck backstage
Rozarii Lynch, photo

Are you an opera fan?

My passion is theater. I love the telling of stories and the entertainment value in that and the value to people’s consciousness. People have more access to feelings and thoughts in this form of entertainment. And opera is the biggest theater, this is the big thing, this is 63 trucks full of scenery alone, not to mention how many people are working on it. There are 50 people working backstage, and roughly 100 musicians, 70 chorus, 20 principals, there’s a whole third floor of people selling it and promoting it and finances. This is the biggest theater job and mine is the heaviest responsibility job in the business. This is a heavier job than the Las Vegas shows. This is the major league if you were going to put it in baseball terms.

And the Ring is the biggest of the big…
That’s what’s thrilling about it and that’s what’s challenging about it. We have 10 days of load in, and then we go from that into tech rehearsal and orchestra rehearsal, so we’re working 9 am to midnight 6 days a week for the summer. There’s always somebody around saying “your cue is this, keep your eye on the ball.” It’s very taxing.

Sounds like you like that scale…
Oh yeah. If you’re going to do anything, what’s the toughest thing you can do? One of the things that theater teaches is: Go for the big, go for it, do the best, do the biggest…

Seattle Opera's Ring Artist: SAMUEL ARAYA

If you are in Seattle for the Ring, you will see Paraguayan artist Samuel Araya’s work—on your tickets, in programs, and on countless items in the gift shop. Through a crowdfunding effort started by a local Seattle gallery where he’d previously shown his work, he was able to make the trip to Seattle and attend the dress rehearsals for Die Walküre and Siegfried. He spoke to us about his introduction to the Ring (via heavy metal), the research he did for his art, and how inspiring the trip and the opera have been for him.

Did you come to this project with a lot of familiarity with opera?
These dress rehearsals were actually my first time to see an opera other than YouTube videos. I was a little familiar with the story of Siegfried because of references in pop culture and video games. Being a metalhead I had been exposed to countless references to Valhalla and especially the ride of the Valkyries.

What kind of research did you have to do in preparation to create this art?
I tried to familiarize myself with Wagner. I saw a documentary about Wagner and the Ring called In the Eye of the Ring, which I loved, and another documentary about the Met Ring cycle, which has, as you all know, a very particular take on the opera. It was very interesting. I watched one Ring on YouTube and researched Ring art for inspiration. One artist was Kinukko Craft who designed work for Dallas Opera—so lush. I saw production photos of the stage actors, and one thing that struck me from the Seattle Opera production was Wotan. I mean no disrespect to other Wotans, but this particular actor had a very interesting and commanding presence. He looked like a god. So I had to use his likeness for the artwork.

How did you decide which moments to depict?
Siegfried, for example, had to involve the battle with the dragon. It doesn’t get any more epic than that! I also was very impressed with the first scene in Das Rheingold. It caught my attention that everyone put so much effort in depicting the ethereal movement of the Rhine Daughters, so I felt that the art had to reflect upon that.

Was this subject matter a departure of sorts?
Yes, I’m mainly a “horror” artist. I put that in quotes because while I don’t mind being in that genre sometimes I create art that I think is beautiful but gets the “horror” label anyway. This is my first time working in epic fantasy. I hope it is the first of many. I work for gaming companies and role playing games, mostly dedicated to horror and urban fantasy. I get the text and come up with certain concepts. Sometimes I get a description of a scene and it’s so cool it needs to be illustrated. I also work for heavy metal bands, doing merchandising, illustrating CD covers.

What was your reaction to the performances?
When I came to see it, I really felt I was part of something very unique and special. A larger experience. I love it here. I’m in debt to Wagner.

Your readers will have to have patience with me because I may seem naïve, but in Die Walküre I wanted to grab the person next to me and say, “Did you see what she just did? Wow!” I was so enthusiastic, and I certainly felt the same energy and emotional power I felt in many heavy metal concerts! Ha! Another scene that struck the right note with me was the first scene of Siegfried when Mime is looking at the audience. You know this is one evil character. He is up to no good, and you feel intimidated by it, just by the actor standing silently, with the music slowly escalating. That was a very powerful moment for me. Siegfried and Brünnhilde blew my mind. I could sit in my studio and prepare another 30 paintings of the Ring. The experience certainly will reflect upon my coming production in the years to come!

What is your process?
I usually take photographs, I collage them together, and then I paint over that. I “pull” the photographic elements in and out of the painting. You can say it’s 50 percent collage and 50 percent painting. These were purely digital because of time constraints, but I often will print these images and work over them with water colors and gouache. I also had the help of my girlfriend. She has been a muse in the real sense of the word. She modeled for the Rhine Daughters and the Valkyries and did splendid and inspiring work.

How soon after you got the assignment did you make your plans to attend?
I’m here because of a lot of good people. Initially, my work was in a role playing games exhibit at Krab Jab Studio. Then the opera issued an open call and I submitted my work. After my work was chosen, the owner of the studio (Julie Baroh) thought to do a fundraising campaign so I could see my work in Seattle. They raised enough to get me here. I’m so thankful. One of the wonders of art is seeing people conected and helping each other not based on money or material interests but on the emotional power they see in the work. I have witnessed that power, I have witnessed that goodness and generosity, and it’s been quite a ride to Valhalla.