Speight Jenkins steps out from the wings just before the opening curtain on La Traviata to announce that the star of the show, soprano Eglise Gutiérrez, is suffering from a cold...but will perform regardless. Knowing murmurs (and not a few coughs) rustle through the audience: in the opera, the soprano's character has consumption and expires. Was this a pre-excuse for a sub-par performance? more ›

That would be Speight [rhymes with "eight"] the cultural icon, general director of Seattle Opera: white-haired, courtly, soft-spoken. A Texas native, attorney, and journalist who for the past 25 years has run our little band of singers and players, shrewdly and tastefully transforming the local troupe from an also-ran into one of the nation's most respected opera companies. In a city reluctant to bestow official recognition to anything artsy, the official proclamation of April 25 as Speight Jenkins Day is a good thing. more ›

The P-I reports that Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz has announced he'll step down at the end of the 2010-11 season. What is that, 25 years as music director? Like his director-doppelganger Speight Jenkins at Seattle Opera, Schwarz arrived in the mid-'80s and built a good-enough-for-Seattle organization into a nationally noticed one, albeit with more of a brash, East coast management style that's kept the orchestra split into friends-of-Gerry and I-spit-on-your-grave factions. We used to truck Gerry around to donor events when they were building Benaroya Hall, and, man, can that guy work a crowd. (However, he also lost a pen we loaned him, so that's a demerit.) He says he'll hang around town and guest conduct--he's also done some composing which we liked quite a bit. All in all, the future looks pretty rosy for the Schwarzes. more ›