Glynn Ross

Glynn Ross (December 15, 1914 – July 21, 2005, Tucson, Arizona) was an American opera impresario. Ross was the first general director of the Seattle Opera, serving that company from 1963 to 1983, and the second general director of the Arizona Opera, from 1983 to 1998.

He was born Glynn W. Aus to a Norwegian immigrant father and a mother of Swedish descent, in Omaha, Nebraska. He attended the local schools and, upon graduation from high school, managed his family's farm for five years. After his father's death, and with the encouragement of his mother, Ross left Nebraska to pursue his dream of a career in theatre, attending the Leland Powers School of the Theatre, the alma mater of his high school drama teacher, in Boston from 1937 to 1939.

After early involvement in theatre and opera, Ross was drafted into the U.S. Army and served for the duration of World War II. After recovering from a wound received in North Africa, he was sent back to Europe by the Army, charged with operating a rest camp for soldiers on the Italian island of Ischia. He was one of the first patients ever to be administered penicillin, still in its test phase. During this time and with the Army's encouragement, he staged operas in Naples for the entertainment of U.S. troops there.

In 1948 he was hired by the San Francisco Opera as stage director. During the 1950s, Ross staged operas for various companies in the United States, but in 1959 moved to Naples, where he became the first American to stage an opera for the Teatro di San Carlo.

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