Seattle Opera closed its latest season with a magical, lyrical and altogether wonderful production of "The Tales of Hoffmann."
Amid the standing ovations and bravos on opening night, Opera general director Speight Jenkins appeared on-stage followed by a trolley bearing a large cake ablaze with a multitude of candles. The cake was in honor of Archie Drake's 80th birthday. The actual date had fallen in March, but that mere technicality didn't spoil the occasion. Jenkins said, "Archie has been the heart of the Seattle Opera for 38 seasons. With the amazing longevity of his voice and his enormous stage presence, the variety of his accomplishments cannot be equaled by anyone else in his voice category."
Archie Drake has a rich bass-baritone voice and an interesting naval background.
He was born in Great Yarmouth, an English coastal town of Dickensian fame. I can't tell you if he lived on Peg-goty Lane or Barkus Street, but he did hail from a seafaring family with an illustrious ancestor: Sir Francis Drake.
Sir Francis was considered Britain's greatest seaman of his time, the reign of the first Elizabeth at the end of the 1500s. Francis was not nobly born. The son of a naval chaplain, he was apprenticed to a North Sea merchant sea captain who, on his death, willed his ship, the Golden Hind, to the young man. Elizabeth knighted Drake aboard the vessel, anchored in the Thames upon his return from the Gulf of Mexico with lots of treasure for Her Majesty.
After that, Drake set out on his third voyage, to circumnavigate the globe - the first English sailor to accomplish this feat. It is possible that during this voyage he actually stopped at one of our local islands.
This was proposed in a Sunday edition of The Seattle Times a few years ago, in an article accompanied by a very impressive portrait - supposedly of Sir Francis Drake, but actually of Phillip, King of Spain. Visual gaffe notwithstanding, I found the story very plausible and would like to think that we have some connection with Sir Francis here in the Northwest.
But back to our own 21st-cen- tury Drake, a certified Queen Anne resident.
Archie is a direct descendant of Sir Francis' brother Edmond. Like his great ancestor, he was apprenticed to the merchant navy and went to sea at the age of 10, carrying on the family's naval tradition.
Young Archie's love of the sea and adventure was well satisfied in the merchant navy. He saw action on convoy duty during World War II, in Sicily and the Mediterranean, including taking part in the Normandy landing on D-Day.
In the 1950s, after traveling around the world, he landed in Vancouver, B.C. There he found his voice at a meeting of an international club and was heard by a well-known voice teacher, who took him on as a pupil and later referred him to the great Lotte Lehmann.
During this time, he became acquainted with the musical works of Benjamin Britten, being offered the leading role in "The Rape of Lu- cretia" at UCLA. Archie's great appreciation of and affinity with Brit-ten's music has continued throughout the years.
His next highlight was being accepted into the Robert Wagner Chorale. At that time the Chorale worked with the State Department on a U.S. cultural exchange, visiting 19 countries. The tour included performing Benjamin Britten's deeply moving war requiem in Hiroshima.
Archie arrived in Seattle in the 1960s and became a regular participant in the Seattle Opera's educational programs, touring Washington state in various productions. One, in 1970, an original opera called "Penelope," starred singer Marni Nixon and featured a young UW drama school graduate, Patrick Duffy (long before his days of fame on the nighttime soap opera "Dallas").
Archie's association with the Seattle Opera started during Glenn Ross' time. After a successful debut in "Fidelio" in 1968, he was offered a permanent position as resident baritone. He went on to perform many and varied character roles, everything from a stone statue to a Russian peasant, even playing Wotan and Gunther in Wagner's Ring Cycle, plus countless Italian villains and comic roles.
In the 1993-94 season he celebrated his 25th anniversary with the Seattle Opera. At that time, with more than 100 roles to his credit, he was award- ed a Silver Tray on the opening night of "The Merry Widow." A little later in the season he was presented an even larger Silver Tray in recognition of his 1,000th performance with the company.
Archie Drake has worked successfully with Glenn Ross and our present director, Speight Jenkins, who shares his appreciation of the works of Britten. They had hoped to present "Billy Budd" in the '80s, but this did not materialize. Archie did, however, have a role in "Peter Grimes," and when "Billy Budd" finally was staged in January 2001, he enjoyed the production along with the rest of us - but alas, a hamstring torn during the presentation of "The Barber of Seville" kept him from being in the production himself.
Drake's capacity not only as a singer but also as an excellent character actor has pleased audiences over the years. Although the baritone rarely gets the girl, he has sung with many of the great prima donnas - Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland and Rita Hunter, to name a few.
To date, Archie has 109 roles to his credit and has appeared in 1,063 performances. Happy birthday, viva and bravo, Archie Drake! We love you, we appreciate you and long may your voice be heard.
TTFN
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