Seattle's First `Aida' Was Under The Stars In Husky Stadium

At least they weren't rained out.

The Seattle Opera singers, dancers and orchestra members who performed "Aida" last night, with 10 more performances to come, can at least be certain that the rain will not fall on their heads - barring some bizarre misbehavior of the Opera House's sprinkler system.

That wasn't the case almost exactly 65 years ago, when a gigantic production of "Aida" was staged in Husky Stadium. The cost, a then-staggering $50,000, would provide grand opera for as many as 120,000 people, with four performances in the 30,000-capacity stadium (that's almost 10 times the capacity of the Opera House).

There aren't that many around who remember the 1927 "Aida," probably the first uncut performance of the Verdi classic in the Pacific Northwest. One musician not only remembers it: Clarinetist Ronald Phillips played in it, and he still has the original program, with its quaint descriptions of "this world-famous opera with its colorful pageantry and operatic music."

Phillips, a venerable player who has become the unofficial music historian of Seattle, was just a young sprig back then, but he'd already been performing in several bands and orchestras since he was a teenager.

Organizing the 1927 "Aida" was the Wayfarer Pageant Society, an organization of "Seattle business and professional men," which underwrote the costs. The name of the group was taken from a religious pageant, "The Wayfarer," which was the summer extravaganza of 1921 and 1922 ("Americanus," a pageant about Lewis and Clark, was the 1923 entertainment).

The "Aida" cast included Frances Peralta, Marion Telva, Paul Althouse, William Gustafson and Fred Patton - all well-known names from the Metropolitan Opera roster, and some of them still warmly remembered today. Karl Krueger, who also presided over the Seattle Symphony, was the conductor. And there were 323 in the chorus. That Triumphal Scene must have been quite a spectacle.

"There were no mikes," remembers Phillips.

"They were all out in the open. The staging was quite beautiful. I recall that at the beginning of Act II, a full moon came up over Lake Washington."

Sounds idyllic. The organizers wanted to find a foolproof time to stage this opera, so they consulted meteorological records of the past 40 years, and lo and behold, there had never been rain during the period of Aug. 9-12.

Maybe they were courting disaster by boasting in the program, "The mild, even climate of the Puget Sound country makes it possible to give these mammoth spectacles, concorts, oratorios and operas.. . . the public is guaranteed productions as perfect as it is possible to stage."

In any event, torrents of rain came down over the last two performances - a disaster for the organizers, who lost $30,000.

"It was a total loss," admits Phillips, "but it was a musical success. Nothing like that was ever attempted again."

Today, 65 years later, aesthetic standards have changed and evolved. Operagoers also can be certain that they won't be drenched during the performance. But those of us who love the pageantry of "Aida" may well wish for a glimpse of yesteryear, when the moon rose over the lake and the gallant singers belted out their arias over the masses.