Opera japonica/Speight Jenkins

Speight Jenkins

Photo: Susan Rothchild

Texan journalist turned opera producer, Speight Jenkins will be celebrating his 20th year with Seattle Opera in August 2003. He has brought international recognition to his company, not least for the outstanding quality of their Wagner productions. Maria Nockin interviewed him late last year and they talked about his lifelong enthusiasm for, and legendary knowledge of, opera, and his ongoing work in Seattle.

Maria Nockin: Where did you grow up?

Speight JENKINS: I grew up in Dallas and I was interested in opera from the very beginning. From the time I was very young it fascinated me. My interest began when I first heard of opera, and I asked about it. I started reading about it and I started listening to Metropolitan Opera's broadcasts on the radio. I loved it from the beginning.

I went to my first opera when I was seven and I started going to the Metropolitan Opera in Dallas as soon as touring was resumed after World War II. That was when I was nine years old. I was always committed to it.

Nockin: When did you first become interested in Wagner?

JENKINS: I loved his music from the beginning. I listened to Die Walküre when I was seven years old. Wagner was what I loved first and always.

My parents were not what I would call opera lovers. I asked about it and they made it available to me. They would go to the opera and enjoy it but it was not a major item in their lives and they would have gone for any length of time without thinking about opera. Besides, it was not always available to them in Dallas at that time. They probably never thought much about it until I showed an interest in it, but they sure thought a great deal about it afterwards.

Das Rheingold (2001): Laura Tucker as Flosshilde, Mary Phillips as Wellgunde, Lisa Saffer as Woglinde and Richard Paul Fink as Alberich (above) Stephen Milling as Fasolt (on the ground), Greer Grimsley as Donner, Stephanie Blythe as Fricka, Phillip Joll as Wotan, Thomas Studebaker as Froh, Marie Plette as Freia, and Peter Kazaras as Loge (below)
Photos: Gary Smith

Nockin: Have you done any performing?

JENKINS: No, I've had many, many speaking engagements, but I've never sung on stage. I never wanted to be a singer. I never wanted to be a conductor. I probably always wanted to do what I'm doing now, but as a youngster I had no idea what I could do in opera and it was a great frustration to my parents. I just knew that I loved it. I did, however, know that I could write, so that is how I ended up writing about it for 15 years.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, I attended Columbia Law School, because I wanted to be able to go to the Met. The year before I began at Columbia, I had gone up to New York to study medicine at Cornell, but I flunked out! I found that I could not do medical school and go to the Met on a regular basis, but I was able to do opera and law school.

Then I went into the US Army for four years, after which I decided to come back to New York. I thought I could write, so I went to New York as a freelance journalist and I worked at that for eight months, after which I joined the staff of Opera News. I was an assistant editor of that publication for seven years.

After I left Opera News I returned to freelance journalism, but three months later I was offered a job as a music critic for the New York Post and I stayed there for exactly eight years to the day! At the same time I was actively fulfilling speaking engagements and I began to do some television during the newspaper strike of 1979. I did even more when I left the Post to become host of the PBS show 'Live from the Met'. That show is different now because the Metropolitan Opera's televised performances are no longer live.

Die Walküre (1987 and 2001): The Valkyries (above) and Phillip Joll as Wotan (below)
Photos: Ron Scherl (above) Gary Smith (below)

Nockin: Was Seattle Opera the first company you ran?

JENKINS: Absolutely, I never dreamed I would have that opportunity until their board of directors asked me to do it.

Nockin: How has your company changed since you took over the helm?

JENKINS: Well, in some ways we aren't able to judge our work as well as other people can. We began with a company that was, like all regional companies at that time, not in the operatic mainstream and we have progressed into a company that is very much in the mainstream . . . . Our budget is now six times as large as it was when I arrived!

We went from 3 million dollars in 1983 to 18 million for 2003/04, and we increased the number of subscribers from 7,000 to 19,000. The number of performances given has grown from five of each production to a minimum of eight performances and a maximum of 12.

Siegfried (2001): Alan Woodrow as the young hero slaying Fafner the dragon
Photo: Gary Smith

Nockin: What are some of the memorable productions that you have done in Seattle?

JENKINS: First and foremost, the two Wagner Ring cycles in 1986 and in 2001, then the 1998 Tristan und Isolde which was a production by Francesca Zambello featuring Jane Eaglen and Ben Heppner singing their roles for the first time.

Among my other favorites are: The 1988 Orfée et Euridice, done in French, directed by Stephen Wadsworth with Mark Morris dancing his own choreography. The 1989 Meistersinger production by François Rochaix. The 1990 Dialogues des Carmélites and the new production of Rusalka with Renee Fleming and Ben Heppner that same year. The 1991 Don Giovanni with Dale Duesing in the title role. The 1993 Pelléas et Mélisande, with sets by the fabulous glass artist, Dale Chihuly, which were exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum [See note below]. The 1994 Lohengrin was a truly major production with Ben Heppner and Stephen Wadsworth. It had a wonderful animatronic swan that looked real. The Norma with Jane Eaglen, that same year, was also outstanding. The 1997 Rosenkavalier with Nadine Secunde and Angelika Kirschschlager was another favorite.

Rusalka (1990): Renée Fleming in the title role (left) and with Ben Heppner as the Prince (right)

Photos: Gary Smith

I've made a CD of my Ring Lectures and will do a new one for the 2005 production. Wagner's Ring is 127 years old. Everything that can ever be said about it has probably been said, but I want to introduce people to it. I'm a proselytizer. I love it and I want to give my perspective on it.

I'm going to do a CD on Parsifal, too, prior to the new production of it which will open the new house on August 2, 2003. My goal is always to make the people coming to the opera more aware of what they are going to see, to get them more involved so that they will derive more enjoyment from the performance.

If you produce Wagner with a great deal of care and you make it theatrical, it is theater. If you simply have people standing on the stage singing it does not work, but you have to have to start off with good singers. If you don't have good singers, forget it. Nothing else will work. That's the gospel truth.

Nockin: I am told that you are having a major success with your young artists' program.

JENKINS: We have only done our young artists' program for a few years. Tenor Brandon Jovanovitch is one of the graduates. I just heard him sing a very fine Macduff in Bordeaux. He's doing a lot of good stuff. Adina Aaron, too, has been doing some excellent singing, including Clara in the televised Porgy and Bess. It's really too early to talk about many of them but I'm very pleased with Brandon who is from that first class. I wasn't sure he would go so far right away, but really, it's been wonderful.

Of course, the most interesting recent singer is Lawrence Brownlee. He is a remarkable performer. He is probably the finest natural singer we have ever had in the program. His talent is of extraordinary proportions and if he continues singing as he has been he should go a long way. The program began with 11 weeks but this year it will run for 9 months, because of a contribution from the Reader's Digest Foundation.

Der Rosenkavalier (1997): Julian Patrick as Faninal and Jane Giering-De Haan as Sophie
Photo: Gary Smith

Nockin: When did you first install supertitles?

JENKINS: We put them in for the Tannhäuser production in 1984. When I first saw them, in September of 1983 in Toronto, I knew that it would be right for us, but that was my predecessor's year.

In the beginning, we did not realize that we should put them on for English language operas. That is why we did not do it for The Ballad of Baby Doe which was our first opera. If we had known then what we do now, we'd have done it for Baby Doe, too.

Nockin: How much contemporary opera do you give?

JENKINS: We don't do as much as I would like to but we're going to do one the first year in the new house, Marvin David Levy's Mourning becomes Electra.

I'm very much music bound when it comes to new operas. I really want music that moves me before I'm going to spend the money and time on a contemporary opera. The opera world is very heavy into librettos now. Most of the new works being done have great librettos and the music isn't there very much. We've done some contemporary works here but not a lot. But I've always felt that the music should be exciting, and then we can see whether it expands the meaning of the text.

Daniel Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas (1998): Yvonne Gonzáles as Rosalba and Sheri Greenawald as Florencia (above) and Sheri Greenawald as Florencia and Erich Parce as Riolobo (below)
Photos: Gary Smith

Nockin: You did Daniel Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas.

JENKINS: I loved Florencia. See, that 's what I'm talking about. That libretto is not heart stopping, but it's a great story because of the music. It's an opera. The music is what is predominant there. I will bring Florencia back here and, although I'm not saying I will do it, I'm very interested in Catan's next opera, Salsipuedes.

We're in the Arena this season, not the new house, so there are only two new productions, Norma and Fidelio. Norma is quite beautiful, not the most elaborate thing we've ever done, but it has been spectacular. The cast includes Christine Goerke as Norma and Ewa Podles as Adalgisa. I'm very excited about it. Then, our final opera of the season will be Fidelio with Jane Eaglen doing the part for the first time. The Florestan will be Richard Margison.

We will open the new house on August 2, 2003, with a new production of Parsifal featuring Linda Watson, Christopher Ventris, Greer Grimsley and Stephen Milling which will be conducted by Asher Fisch.

Nockin: Thank you.

Pelléas et Mélisande (1993): Sheri Greenawald as Mélisande and Sheila Nadler as Geneviève
Photo: Gary Smith

Note: There are pictures of Dale Chihuly's work for Pelléas et Mélisande at: www.chihuly.com/installations/pelleas/)