Founded in 1963, Seattle Opera is a leading American opera company. The company presents the classics of the European repertoire as well as new works of American opera. Seattle Opera performs five operas per year. Seattle Opera strives to produce musically extraordinary, theatrically compelling operas, employing uniformly high quality casts, dramatically aware conductors, and innovative yet textually concerned directors and designers. By continuing our emphasis on the work of Richard Wagner and by achieving national and international recognition for the quality of all our programming, Seattle Opera commits itself to advancing the cultural life of the Pacific Northwest through education and performance.
nspired by a true story, eleventh grade honor roll student Diane Tran is the child of two Vietnamese immigrants who are now divorced. With her father rarely around and her mother gone, Diane feels bound to help provide financially for her family, be both sister and parent to her siblings, and also keep up her honor roll studies.
Through the lens of an exhausted dream, we follow Diane as she struggles with familial duties, her mother's abandonment, and the injustices of a system lacking compassion or understanding. As Diane's mother shares her own reasons for leaving family behind, Diane must make an impossible decision in this "land of laws."
Seattle Opera seeks to cultivate the next generation of opera composers and librettists in Washington State through our Creation Lab. Launched in 2020, the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab presents new operas by Washington State composers and librettists that tell diverse stories.
Composers, songwriters, librettists, and lyricists of all genres are encouraged to apply to create new operas that tell compelling, resonant stories through vocal music. Selected participants develop 20-minute operas throughout the season that are presented in a concert format for a public audience. Each opera undergoes a development process that includes a table reading, music workshop, and rehearsal prior to the public performance. The participants receive support from professional composers and librettists as they develop their work.