And one man in his time plays many parts… In the case of tenor Frederick Ballentine, the parts are as different yet eerily alike as the Gershwins’ “happy dust”-peddling Sportin’ Life, in Porgy and Bess, and Richard Wagner’s Loge, the sinuous, insinuating god of fire in Das Rheingold. Seattle Opera has cultivated the Wagner canon so faithfully as to have earned the sobriquet “Bayreuth West”—and as the company broaches its latest “Ring” cycle, Ballentine’s presence could well prove transformative. Ludovic Morlot, conductor emeritus of the Seattle Symphony, takes the podium, in tandem with the director Brian Staufenbiel, whose credits include memorable productions of Jonathan Dove’s Flight (set in an airport) and Joby Talbot’s Everest (set on the roof of the world). Denyce Graves, once a reigning Carmen, goes Teutonic in a cameo as the dreaming earth goddess Erda. Greer Grimsley, well known to Seattle audiences as Wotan, the saga’s chieftain of the Norse gods beset by human failings, reprises his seasoned interpretation. —Matthew Gurewitsch