San Francisco, original home to the Deadheads, fan-atic followers of the Grateful Dead, also has its share of Ringheads, those who attend Wagner's four-opera massif Der Ring des Nibelungen repeatedly and anywhere in the world.
One of the most prominent San Francisco Wagnerites, Verna Parino, died last week after a long illness, at age 97, having attended 76 Ring productions (that's about 1,200 hours of performance time), in venues ranging from Bulgaria to Shanghai.
Terri Stuart, president of the Wagner Society of Northern California, eulogizes her predecessor:
Verna Parino was not just a Wagnerian, she was also a hard-working member of the Marin Chapter of the San Francisco Opera Guild for many years. She also served as the director of preview lectures for the San Francisco Opera Guild Chapters.
Verna scoured the globe and invited scholars to visit the many Guild Chapters to lecture about the San Francisco Opera's performances each year. Along the way she befriended many scholars, authors, artists, and singers. Nothing invigorated Verna more than sharing her love of music, opera, and Wagner with others.
An SFCV profile by Maria Goodavage four years ago, Parino explained how it all started:
Parino’s passion for Wagner’s music started when she was about 16, while listening to Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on Saturdays in her family’s Minneapolis duplex. It stayed with her through college, her marriage, the birth of her daughter (Cat Taylor, who plays electric violin in the Celtic folk rock group Avalon Rising), the sudden death of her husband when Cat was only 11, and the subsequent jobs Parino would work to make ends meet.
She didn’t see the opera in person until 1971, when she needed something to fill in for lonely weekends without her husband. There was no turning back.
A fellow opera enthusiast, Suzanne Turley recalls:
She was always cheerful, enthusiastic, and looking forward to her next Ring. She had several serious health scares in recent years and triumphed over all but the last one.
Watch Parino talk about music in her life and the lives of young people. A website has been set up in memory of Parino, allowing the addition of tributes and memories online.