Speight Jenkins, who built Seattle Opera into a force, dies at 89

Speight Jenkins, who served as Seattle Opera's general director from 1983 to 2014 and led the company into the international spotlight, died May 30 at age 89.

A lawyer by training and a music critic by trade, Jenkins had no experience working for an opera company when he succeeded Seattle Opera founder Glynn Ross in 1983, becoming the company's second general director.

Soon enough, he had built Seattle Opera into an internationally renowned arts company and a hub for emerging artists, as well as a Wagner epicenter by producing all 10 of Richard Wagner's major operas and multiple complete productions of his four-opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen."

"It was such a big deal, you could hardly get in," said Melinda Bargreen, former longtime Seattle Times classical music critic. "It was electric, and (Jenkins) was the most supercharged ambassador for opera in general, but of course, for the ‘Ring' most of all. He really gave the company a tremendous boost."

Jenkins' passion for opera formed early. As a young man he moved to New York to attend Cornell Medical School - but his real goal was to attend The Metropolitan Opera, he told the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011. After flunking out of Cornell, he moved on to Columbia University, where he trained as a lawyer (and continued his love affair with The Met) and later served as an editor for Opera News, a music critic for the New York Post and the host of "Live From the Met" broadcasts on public television before making the leap to Seattle.

"The overwhelming thing about (Jenkins) was his complete and passionate conviction that opera was the greatest art form, and that we were all incredibly lucky to have it here. He felt that with everything that was in him," Bargreen said.

With his white hair, wide grin and soft Texas twang, Jenkins was a casually striking figure who welcomed and inspired countless audience members during his 31 years leading Seattle Opera.

"He was really an old-world impresario," said Seattle Opera's current general and artistic director, James Robinson, who first came to Seattle when Jenkins hired him to direct a 2004 production of "Carmen" starring Stephanie Blythe. "He was involved in everything - the singers, the conductors, the production - you name it, he was there."

On the occasion of his retirement in 2014, Blythe told The Seattle Times: "Speight is the single most involved general manager I have ever encountered. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of opera and an incredible passion, and is one of the most supportive souls I have ever met."

Even during the hubbub of the Ring" cycle, Jenkins would take the time to come into the orchestra pit to chat with the musicians before every performance, said Seattle Symphony associate principal horn Mark Robbins, who joined the Symphony in 1981 and played with the Opera throughout Jenkins' tenure.

Robbins also described Jenkins as a consummate problem solver, whether practical (as in his commitment to making sure McCaw Hall had enough women's restrooms) or musical. When Robbins was to play the legendary (and difficult) offstage French horn solo from Wagner's "Siegfried," Jenkins had him clambering all over the hall until they found the spot with optimal acoustics. When Seattle musicians were struggling with Wagner tubas (Wagnertuben), a treacherous and inconsistent instrument that the composer himself designed for the "Ring" cycle, Jenkins asked Robbins for advice, then sent him hunting around the country scouting the very best instruments available, to ensure Seattle would have the best possible music going into the future. In 2014, just before Jenkins retired, a set was built for Seattle Opera by an Austrian workshop, and all four tubas were inscribed with Jenkins' name.

No surprise, Jenkins' professional accolades were many: a 2009 Mayor's Art Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honor in 2011 and the Governor's Arts Organization Leadership Award in 2014. In 2000, The Times named Jenkins one of the 150 most influential people in Seattle/King County, and Opera News dubbed him one of the 25 most powerful people in U.S. opera in 2006.

But his legacy will be more keenly felt as a generous and hands-on collaborator, as well as a prodigious spotter of talent.

Jenkins filled Seattle Opera with world-class singers, often early in their careers, such as Jane Eaglen, Vinson Cole, Gordon Hawkins, Mary Elizabeth Williams and Lawrence Brownlee.

"Some people enter our lives and, through the simple yet profound act of believing in us, alter the course of our journey forever," Brownlee, an alumnus of Seattle Opera's Young Artist Program, said in a statement. "Whatever I have or will accomplish will be thanks to my dear friend, Speight Jenkins."

It was at Seattle Opera in 1990 that Renée Fleming first sang the title role in Dvorak's "Rusalka," a part for which she would become famous, after Jenkins heard her sing in The Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions in 1988, along with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and tenor Ben Heppner. He hired all three.

Jenkins also mentored young stage directors such as Stephen Wadsworth, Francesca Zambello (who is now artistic director of Washington National Opera) and Peter Kazaras, who directed Seattle Opera's Young Artist Program from 2006 to 2013.

"His faith in an artist was a serious business, and so many people in our world today are doing what they do because Speight believed in them at a crucial juncture," Kazaras said in a statement.

A trademark Jenkins move, Robinson said, was delivering all feedback in the form of a question, and with genuine curiosity. "He would say, ‘Tell me what you're doing here,' or ‘Why is this singer doing this?'" Robinson said, and the constructive tack both helped a director clarify their own thinking and prepared Jenkins for the audience questions he fielded during his popular postperformance Q&A sessions.

"I learned (from Jenkins) that opera doesn't run on its own," Robinson said. "You have to be in there watching things come together, being attentive to your audience, educating people about opera and igniting their passion and curiosity."

Jenkins is survived by his wife, Linda; two children; and three grandchildren.

He will be remembered for his unflagging artistic zeal, for putting Seattle Opera on the international map and, as Bargreen recalled, for his indelible and perennial phrase: It's going to be a great show. Don't miss it."

Information from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.

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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 4:52 PM.