ROSS, Glynn

The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona July 22, 2005, page B1 Glynn Ross, ex-Arizona Opera chief, dies at 90 credited with the artistic and financial growth of Arizona Opera during his 15-year tenure with the company, died at his Tucson home Thursday. He was 90. When Ross became Arizona Opera's general director in 1983, the company was near bankruptcy and presented only three operas a season. By the time he retired in 1998, the company's debts were minimal, and five operas a season were performed, both in Tucson and in Phoenix. His accomplishments were just as impressive at the Seattle Opera, where he was founding general director from 1963 to 1983. "Glynn was a true visionary and had an enormous impact on the appreciation and understanding of opera here in Arizona, as well as in Seattle," said Joel Revzen, Arizona Opera's current director. "He's someone that believed in the transformational power of opera to affect the human spirit." Ross was born in Omaha, Neb., and grew up on a farm, according to the Washington State History Online Encyclopedia. He put aside his dream of a career in the theater to manage the farm when he graduated from high school. His diligence and attention kept the family business thriving during the Great Depression. After five years, his mother encouraged him to pursue his dream. He enrolled at what later became the Leland Powers School of Radio, Television and Theater in Boston, where he paid his way by waiting on tables in the dining hall of the private school. The wealthy students often passed along tickets to the Boston Opera, and his love of the art form was born. The dream got waylaid a bit by a stint in the Army during World War II. But while stationed in Naples, Italy, he staged operas for the troops, and he realized opera was the art for him. After the service, he traveled the world directing operas before he settled in Seattle. During Ross' years at the Seattle Opera, he became a sort of P.T. Barnum of the opera world. His belief that opera isn't elitist led him to promote it on cement trucks with the slogan, "Get mixed up with opera." Another of his marketing quips: "Get ahead with Salome." But he was also known for stretching a dollar. One of his oft-heard sayings was "don't spend a nickel if you don't have a dime." When he came to Tucson, the then-12-year-old company was a $750,000 operation with a $500,000 debt, according to Star archives. By renting sets instead of having them built, spotting budding talents and securing them before they made a name for themselves, and offering seasons full of much-loved standards, Ross retired the company's debt within the first year, said Liz Warren with Arizona Opera. Its annual budget was $5 million by the time he retired. While his tactics frustrated some who wanted sets built locally or wanted to see more adventurous opera, attendance grew and the company became more secure. When in Seattle, Ross brought national attention to the company by staging Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" cycle - a series of four operas centered on a mythic-symbolic history of the world from creation through its destruction and redemption. The operas, which Richard Wagner wrote over 26 years, are usually performed over several days. Ross hoped to do the same here, and he staged the cycle in Flagstaff in 1996 and 1998. Arizona Opera discontinued the "Ring" cycle after Ross' retirement. Ross, who maintained homes in both Tucson and Seattle, never abandoned Arizona Opera. At almost every opening since his retirement, he was seen with his wife, Gio, holding court in the Tucson Music Hall lobby, cutting an elegant figure in a tuxedo with a white silk scarf around his neck, and an opera cape jauntily thrown over his shoulders. But there was another side of Ross: the father of four. "He was as intense about being a family man as he was about opera," said his daughter Melanie Ross from her Bellevue, Wash., home. "Growing up on the farm, he had extreme discipline and responsibilities, but he also had incredible freedoms once his studies and chores were done," she said. "He brought a lot of that to his parenting - a lot of discipline, but he didn't have you on a leash. He'd let you go out and play and fall on your nose." And he had advice that he drummed into his children, she said: "He told us whatever you choose to do, do it well." In addition to his wife and daughter, Ross is survived by three other children, Stephanie Rogers of San Francisco, Claudia Ross-Kuhn of Seattle, and Tony Ross of Des Moines, Iowa; and seven grandchildren. The Arizona Opera is planning a celebration concert in his memory, but details are not available. The family asks that donations be made in Ross' memory to the Arizona Opera's "Flying Dutchman" production in the spring (Arizona Opera, 3501 N. Mountain Ave., Tucson, AZ 85719), or Seattle Opera's "Ring" cycle (Seattle Opera, P.O. Box 9248, Seattle, WA 98109). Page: B1