Good News, Bad News In Seattle

The Seattle Symphony and the Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet will both finish their fiscal years in the black, or at least close to it, but Seattle Opera has dipped into the red for the first time in over a decade. The opera’s deficit could be as much as $280,000 and comes just as the company is preparing to embark on a complete Wagner Ring cycle later in the summer, which will push its annual budget up by some $8 million. Meanwhile, no one’s really breathing easily at the symphony, where the accumulated deficit has been reduced but is still impressive, and the musicians’ contract is up for renegotiation.