AN INDEFATIGABLE OPERAGOER

Verna Parino – August 2013

​A few days ago I reflected on the passing of Jon Vickers, one of the great artists of the twentieth century. Opera, however, lives because of those who love it,  most of them nameless in the press. A friend told me of the passing away of one of the more remarkable opera lovers I have ever known, certainly the most dedicated Ring devotee.​

​Verna Parino, who lived in Marin County north of San Francisco for at least a half century,​ passed away ​a few days ago​ at 98. She had attended 76 Rings in her life, including the nine productions in Seattle since I became General Director, in 1983. No city was too far away for her to travel if Brünnhilde was Ho-jo-to-hoing. Her last Ring took place in Sofia, Bulgaria, and she also attended the Cologne Ring given in Shanghai with Greer Grimsley (whom she had seen in many Seattle Rings) as Wotan. I last saw her at our 2013 Ring at which, if I remember correctly, she attended not only the four performances but the seminars and interviews as well. I even think she came to my question-and-answer sessions after each performance.

Her love for the Ring can only be truly understood by those of us who share or at least aspire to her enthusiasm. She knew every note, every difficult passage, every motive and special melody. Non-Wagnerians can never understand why people return and return to the cycle; I have tried over the years to explain that it is a portrait of life that never grows old, that always offers new insights to real problems. Verna understood this as well as anyone I have ever known. She could go to a cycle that bore little relation to what Wagner intended or to one in which the singers or the orchestra were not up to the composer’s demands and come away talking about a small moment that moved her. Some may call this addiction or even insanity; I think it showed that she really understood both the complexity and the infinite variety possible to find in those amazing 16 plus hours of music.

Unlike so many others who have become a specialist in a particular type of opera, she never in my experience was negative. This is not just obituary writing but very much a part of my experience. If I presented a singer new to her who was successful, particularly one such as Alwyn Mellor, Seattle Opera’s most recent Brünnhilde, she was warm in her enthusiasm, but if the artist proved less than wonderful, she was still complimentary for the artist’s taking on a tough Wagner assignment.

Monte Pederson as Wotan with Joyce Castle as Fricka, 1995

She had a particular affection for the late Monte Pederson, who sang often in San Francisco and portrayed Wotan in Seattle in 1995. She had followed his career and was enthusiastic over both his voice and acting. His early and sad fatal illness was a real loss to her as it was to many of us.

I have no idea how many performances she attended at the San Francisco Opera; I would guess that she went to everything, even as recently as last fall. She would have loved to see Les Troyens this summer, but unfortunately her health prevented her going. She was one of the founding members of the Northern California Wagner Society, one of the most active such groups in the United States. Having spoken often there, I can testify that she never missed a meeting when I was present.

She nurtured many young singers, certainly not all Wagnerians, and was a force in the Girl Scouts in her area. Born in Minneapolis, she became infatuated with opera and Wagner via the Texaco-Metropolitan Opera Saturday afternoon broadcasts which brought so many of us to opera.

The  intensity of her love for the Ring, Wagner, and opera in general is what has kept this expensive and disaster-prone art form going for now 415 years. The sharing of her love with so many and her concern for those who made opera happen proclaims more than words its value; she added fuel to a torch that burns so much brighter because of her.