By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
In a scenario that would make great grand opera, the board of directors of San Diego Opera voted to rescind a previous decision to close the company and announced plans for a slimmed-down 50th anniversary season of three fully-staged operas and a “gala concert.” Previous years have featured four full productions.
The company’s board voted on March 19 to close the company and sell its assets due to dwindling fund-raising and ticket sales. About half of those board members have since resigned and the company raised $2,116,376 in donations from 2,461 of donors as of midnight Sunday, May 18, 2014. 48% of these donors have never given before, said the company. The campaign received gifts from six countries — Austria, Australia, Canada, England, Italy, and Mexico — 36 States.
The 50th season will open on Jan. 24 with four performances of Puccini’s La Boheme,• which was the first opera the company produced. Other productions will be Mozart’s Don Giovanni and John Adams’ Nixon in China. All will be presented in San Diego’s Civic Theatre. In place of a previously planned production of Wagner’s Tannhauser, the company will present concerts on April 18 and 19 at the Jacobs Music Center – Copley Symphony Hall, home of the San Diego Symphony, which plays for the opera.
Left unstated were any plans for beyond 2015 or how the company plans to make up the gap between the funds raised and the estimated budget of $6.5 million in contribution income for the season. The reported operating budget for the season is 10.5 million, with ticket sales making up the bulk of the difference. The company is also negotiating a financial settlement after parting ways with long-time Artistic Director and General Ian Campbell and Ann Spira Campbell, the company’s deputy director (and Ian’s former wife).
• The San Diego Union-Tribune story is HERE.
• The KPBS story is HERE.
• The San Diego Opera Web site is HERE
_______________________
(c) Copyright 2014, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.
