Speight Jenkins Celebration

[Helene]

I'm still too verklempt to write about it, the the Speight Jenkins Celebration took place last Saturday in McCaw Hall.

alert!!!!!: Seattle Opera just sent out email to attendees with a reminder that the concert will be broadcast on KING-FM including online on Saturday, 23 August. Unfortunately, there's no time listed and the schedule as of this moment only goes through 22 August. Perhaps tomorrow it will include 23 August.

The concert raised a million dollars; the singers donated their fees for the concert.

This is the program:

Part I:

Act II, Scene 1, Die Walkure, Wagner

Alwyn Mellor & Greer Grimsley; Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor

"Ah! que j'aime les militaires", La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein, Offenbach

Stephanie Blythe & Choreus Men; Carlo Montanaro, conductor

"Au fond du temple saint", Les pecheurs de perles, Bizet

William Burden & Brett Polegato; Carlo Montanaro

"Vi ravviso", La sonnambula, Bellini

Arthur Woodley; Carlo Montanaro

Act I Finale, Die Walkure, Wagner

Clifton Forbis & Christiane Libor; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

Death of Boris, Boris Godunov, Mussorgsky

Peter Rose & Chorus; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"Pace, pace mio Dio", La forza del destino, Verdi

Mary Elizabeth Williams; Carlo Montanaro

Iago's Credo, Otello, Verdi

Gordon Hawkins; Carlo Montanaro

Act III Duet, Otello, Verdi

Antonello Palombi & Nuccia Focile; Carlo Montanaro

Pierrot's Tanzlied, Die tote Stadt, Korngold

Brett Polegato; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

Liebestod, Tristan und Isolde, Wagner

Alwyn Mellor; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

Part II:

Entry of the Guests, Tannhauser, Wagner

Seattle Opera Chorus; Carlo Montanaro

"Mein lieber Schwan", Lohengrin, Wagner

Issachah Savage*; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"J'ai gravi la montagne", Samson et Dalila, Saint-Saens

Stephanie Blythe & Greer Grimsley; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"Kuda, kuda", Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky

William Burden; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"My Man's Gone Now", Porgy and Bess, Gershwin

Mary Elizabeth Williams & Chorus; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"Soave sia il vento", Cosi fan tutte, Mozart

Alwyn Mellor**, Kate Lindsey, & Peter Rose; Carlo Montanaro

"Vissi d'arte", Tosca, Puccini

Christiane Libor; Carlo Montanaro

"Non piu mesta", La Cenerentola, Rossini

Kate Lindsey; Carlo Montanaro

"L'atra notte", Mefistofele, Boito

Nuccia Focile; Carlo Montanaro

"Wotan's Farewell", Die Walkure, Wagner

Greer Grimsley; Sebastian Lang-Lessing

"Wach'auf!", Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Wagner

All soloists and chorus; Carlo Montanaro, conductor

The set was designed by Robert Dahlstrom for Ariadne auf Naxos, with a Serra-like sculpture in the center of the stage through which the singers could walk. John Keene was the Chorusmaster.

*There was a cancellation, and as part of the Celebration concert, Speight Jenkins chose his favorite from the Wagner Competition last Thursday, Issachah Savage, who re-prised his second competition selection from Lohengrin.

Edited to add:

Some chatty news from Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.com/html/nicolebrodeur/2024292213_nicolenamesxml.html

The review:

http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2024283644_speightfarewellgalaxml.html

[sandik]

Thanks so much for the playlist! It must have been a wonderful program.

[Helene]

It was a fantastic program. It's funny that in programs like this, there are a wide range of "favorites" and "bests." I was just happy to see the love and respect shown towards Jenkins.

The KING FM schedule is up for 23 August, but only until a listing for 6:51pm, for the Myslivcek Sinfonia in C. A YouTube recording of this piece clocks in at 8:35, which leads me to guess that the taped broadcast will begin at 7pm. It was a long and rich program.

I hope they include Joyce Castle's appearances as MC, even if some of the jokes were visual, the spoken tributes by Grimsley and Blythe, and especially Stephen Wadworth's ending tribute and Jenkins' comments from the stage.

[Helene]

KING confirmed that the broadcast of the Celebration will start at 8pm PDT (11pm EDT) next Saturday, 23 August.