Five years ago, Christina Scheppelmann moved to Seattle with her wife to become the general director of Seattle Opera. Next month, James Robinson will move to Seattle with his husband to become the general and artistic director of the same company.

When Scheppelman took the job in 2019, she made it clear that she planned to return to Europe after her five-year contract expired. Then she immediately had the unexpected and unenviable job of ensuring the survival of the company during the COVID pandemic. She has done that and more: the company is once again on solid financial ground, and audiences are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. Scheppelman will leave at the end of the year to become the general and artistic director of La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels.

Robinson comes here from St. Louis Opera Theatre, where he served as artistic director for 16 years. While there, he produced 16 mainstage world premieres, including two operas composed by jazz musician Terence Blanchard... Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Champion... that have since had highly successful runs at the Metropolitan Opera. He also won a 2019 Grammy Award for directing a Met production of Porgy and Bess.

Seattle audience members might also recall Robinson's 2004 production of Carmen, which sold more tickets than any other opera in the company's history.

Robinson is highly respected as both arts administrator and stage director, and is seen as a visionary with a practical bent. He believes in a community-based approach to programming. "I want to respond to the whole community," he said, "and tell everybody's story. Seattle has the fifth-largest LGBTQ+ population in the country, as well as a large Asian population. I want to see those communities represented onstage."

In St. Louis, Robinson produced four Gay-themed operas on the mainstage; he says all were received well by audiences.

The 2024-25 Seattle Opera season is, of course, already programmed, but Robinson is working with Scheppelmann to plan the 2025-26 season. He is now drafting a five-year plan of repertoire for the company. In the near future, he intends to mount a new opera by Huang Ruo, composer of the acclaimed work An American Soldier, which premiered at St. Louis Opera Theatre. He has also asked Blanchard to compose one for Seattle.

"Not to worry," Robinson said. "I don't intend to alienate the core audience, the lovers of traditional opera." In an interview published on the company's blog, he named a few of his favorite composers: Handel, Puccini, Mozart, Wagner. ("The first question I'm asked in Seattle," he says, "is 'How do you feel about Wagner?'")

Robinson's husband, Jim Kroll, has taken early retirement from his career as a corporate consultant, and is excited about growing a garden in Seattle's favorable climate. "We've lived part-time in Palm Springs," Robinson said, "where everything withers. You're lucky to get one tomato."

Although Seattle Opera is a nonprofit, not a business per se, Robinson expects to attend the Greater Seattle Business Association convention next month. "It's important for LGBTQ-owned businesses to recognize the contribution of an opera company to the community," he said.

Seattle Opera's 2024-25 season
The first production of the current season, Pagliacci, has already completed its run, which garnered critical praise. (See Sharon Cumberland's review in this issue of SGN.) Up next is the world premiere of Jubilee, written and directed by Tazewell Thompson (already known in Seattle as librettist of the opera Blue, which was performed at McCaw Hall in 2022).

Jubilee tells the story of the 19th-century Fisk Jubilee Singers, who traveled the country and ventured as far as England to introduce audiences to African-American spirituals and raise funds for founding Fisk University. Jubilee will run October 12-25.

In January 2025 comes a concert version of Hector Berlioz's monumental work Les Troyens, followed by two of the most popular operas in the repertoire: Mozart's The Magic Flute and Puccini's Tosca.

Smaller works will be interspersed between these offerings. In November, the chamber opera Lucidity, about the tragedy of dementia, will make its West Coast premiere at Tagney Jones Hall. It features a score by Laura Kaminsky and libretto by David Cote.

In December, Robert MacPherson, whose "drunken tenor" recitals have delighted audiences for several years, will return to the same hall in A Very Drunken Christmas Carol.

To round out the season, tenor Freddie Ballentine, a Seattle favorite, and pianist Kunal Lahiri perform a one-night concert at McCaw Hall on April 27.

For tickets and more information, visit https://seattleopera.org