Meet Seattle Opera’s Subsequent Normal and Creative Director

Seattle Opera: What excites you about being Seattle Opera’s subsequent Normal Director?

James Robinson: I’m excited as a result of Seattle is an “Opera City!” That’s not true for each American metropolis. It’s within the metropolis’s DNA, and I’m honored to have the ability to construct on that wealthy custom. I can’t wait to get to work creating artwork with and for the passionate audiences which have made Seattle Opera into the corporate it’s at present. 

And Seattle is a spectacularly stunning metropolis. It’s a dynamic metropolis—a rising and youthful metropolis. I can’t wait to be a full-time member of the neighborhood.

Seattle Opera: How would you define your method to inventive excellence?

James Robinson: Creative excellence begins with getting the perfect folks in place for his or her respective roles. Luckily, in my thirty-plus years on this enterprise, I’ve labored on the finest opera corporations with most of the finest conductors, designers, singers, and others. My primary objective is to keep up the excessive inventive requirements Seattle Opera already has and add my experiences to that.

Seattle Opera: You’ve constructed your profession, partially, on creating new works and taking over newer works. Inform us about your philosophy on commissioning new work.

James Robinson: After I began at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, I used to be captivated with elevating the profile of the corporate. We started by taking a look at adventurous programming: creating new operas and doing productions of newer works that will have been uncared for. We began the New Works, Daring Voices initiative to provide fully new works likes Terence Blanchard’s Fireplace Shut Up in My Bones and to take one other have a look at up to date works that had been prepared for a re-examination. Tobias Picker’s Emmeline was a type of items, as had been a revised and expanded model of Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier and a brand new model of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, amongst many others.

We developed the New Works, Daring Voices program in such a approach to assist creators who may embark on their first operas and to offer them the leeway to jot down the tales they needed to jot down. It was essential to put the groundwork with our native communities because the operas had been being developed so simply so that they had some insights into the method, but additionally to generate enthusiasm. Recently, now we have been working with neighborhood members to establish tales that they needed to see on stage. That was an offshoot of New Works, Daring Voices known as the New Works Collective. As I at all times say: Like politics, all arts are native.  So, it’s very important to incorporate the neighborhood in the course of the growth course of on many ranges.

Seattle Opera: Why is it essential to create new operas?

James Robinson: All operas had been new at one level! I’d wish to suppose that we’re not simply in enterprise of historic preservation. New works are very important to the artwork type usually and extremely essential to the event of audiences. 

Seattle Opera: Then how do you stability the previous with the brand new?

James Robinson: Familiarity breeds familiarity. Which means audiences love the classics they usually come again to what they know and admire, and there’s nothing improper with that. I like them too. However I don’t suppose you possibly can construct a complete season with the standard repertoire. You’d exhaust that rep actually quick! However, for many individuals these items are the entry factors to opera. However it’s additionally a incontrovertible fact that new works usher in new folks. You may’t ignore that new items can promote extremely nicely. I’ve seen them outpace customary rep on many events on the field office. Balancing the standard with the brand new have to be approached strategically. And we should understand that one measurement doesn’t fit most. We now have to supply many varieties of experiences.

Seattle Opera: Among the many conventional repertoire, what are a few of your favorites? 

James Robinson: The place to begin? I’m an enormous Handel fan and contemplate Julius Caesar one of many biggest operas ever written. Madama Butterfly and La bohème nonetheless go proper to my coronary heart. Tristan is a private favourite, particularly act three.  I feel The Marriage of Figaro is an opera I can’t dwell with out.

Seattle Opera: What would you say are opera’s largest challenges?

James Robinson: I say this jokingly: Opera was invented in 1607; in 1608, opera was in disaster. Opera has at all times confronted challenges, however it has soldiered on. Greater than that, it has continued to rework itself over the centuries and has at all times discovered new voices. Popping out of the pandemic, our largest activity is simply getting folks to return again to the opera home. Opera isn’t an expertise you may get on Netflix. It’s our job to remind folks of the nice time they’ll expertise within the opera home. We should create buzz about each single challenge that’s performed. However look, opera isn’t the one business going through this dilemma. Symphony orchestras and theatre corporations are struggling a bit, too. The film business and different types of leisure are going by the identical factor.

Seattle Opera: On the other facet of that coin, what excites you about opera’s future?

James Robinson: My goodness, dwell opera is likely one of the most spectacular experiences anybody can have! The good singing, the nice music, the nice tales all working collectively to make nice LIVE performances. There may be nothing prefer it.

Seattle Opera: What do you love to do if you’re not fascinated with opera?

James Robinson: I’m an avid outside individual. To remain sane, I work out at Orange Idea and I’m glad to see there’s an Orange Idea studio close to the Opera Middle! I’m additionally a runner. I’m massive into cooking. My husband I are each cooks, and my signature dish is veal osso buco. I additionally make a imply Moroccan tagine.  

I’m additionally a basic film buff. Two of my favorites are A Place within the Solar and All About Eve. However now that I’m fascinated with it, there are twelve different films that I may add to that checklist. Each Hitchcock film! And I like various kinds of music—all the things from Wagner to Sarah Vaughan to Nirvana. My new obsession is the singer Samara Pleasure.  

Seattle Opera: What’s the final piece of music you added to your play checklist?

James Robinson: Philip Glass’s Piano Etudes, carried out by the composer. I learn in The New York Occasions that Glass wrote the etudes to enhance his personal piano abilities. On the identical time, I used to be at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis directing Glass’s Galileo Galilei. Philip Glass filled my head, and I performed the recording of the etudes time and again.

Seattle Opera: It is a powerful query. What would you say is your favourite opera?

James Robinson: I hope this is not going to scare people, however I simply love Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. I feel it’s probably the most stunning scores ever written and the ethical fable it’s primarily based on is so touching. It’s humorous, poignant, and harrowing. It additionally has an ideal libretto. I feel folks consider Stravinsky nonetheless as a thorny modernist, however this opera has such coronary heart and emotion.