It has been a few days now and yet I still don’t understand this decision on the part of the San Diego Opera board. But what do I know? I don’t spend every waking moment dreaming about opera, producing opera, conducting opera, etc., so I’ve turned to someone who does.
It’s my pleasure to introduce Viswa Subbaraman, conductor and Artistic Director of the Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee. This young man has run his own opera company in Houston, and is doing his best to shake up the establishment in Milwaukee. Case in point: his very first production at Skylight was a Bollywood rendition of Fidelio. Yes, you read that correctly. A protege of Kurt Masur, Viswa came late to classical music as a profession, but he has come with a vengeance and a deep desire to connect with non-traditional audiences. San Diego, pay attention. Take it away, Viswa!
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It’s taken me a few days to figure out why the entire San Diego Opera fiasco has left me feeling angry and insulted. It is always sad when another American opera company closes its doors. While I never worked at City Opera in New York or at Pacific Opera or even at San Diego Opera, those of us in the business share a kinship with each other, so when a company folds, it feels like we’ve lost a relative. Then you go and read that San Diego has decided to close its doors with dignity. WHAT? With dignity? Evidently, they were facing an aging audience (who in this business isn’t?) with a tighter donor landscape (that makes them unique?) and with less money to work with… Umm.. Cry me a river? Isn’t that what every single one of us in the business is facing? So, let me get this straight. You’re running a fiscally responsible company that does not have a great deal (or any) debt, and you’re facing a budget deficit next season. Suddenly, you can’t afford the Domingos and Pavarottis of the world. You’re afraid that without said talent, “It would be like putting water in the beer.” Huh… So one cannot make great art without stars? Take that all you regional companies in the trenches facing exactly the same problem! You’re actually NOT doing great work. You should all shut down.
As an artistic director of a company with a $3.9 million budget, I feel Mr. Campbell’s pain, though I think as opposed to beer he has suddenly switched to whine. We’re all facing the same problems – an aging audience, fewer young people interested in the art form, corporations drying up for donations to the arts, older donors dying without their kids replacing them. All of us around the country see that landscape. San Diego is choosing to go quietly into that good night. The rest of us are choosing to fight to preserve an incredible 200+ year old art form. You know how? By doing great theater. Would we love to hire the Renee Flemings of the world? Sure! But let’s be real – it ain’t gonna happen in Milwaukee. So what can we do? We can find the future Renee Flemings of the world and give them a shot at learning and honing their craft, so they can go on to those big paychecks and big stages. I’m very proud of companies such as ours and Fort Worth Opera that seem to nurture the next generation of great opera singers. It’s also great for our audience – they have the opportunity to see these wonderful artists develop right before their eyes. We also focus on our communities.
At the Skylight, we’ve started programming each season with a conversation in mind for our patrons. My inaugural season was a conversation on Revolution and Freedom, and because of that, our works were able to range from Fidelio to Hair to In the Heights to Henze’s El Cimarron to Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox with a Les Miserables thrown in for the holidays. We surrounded that season with a discussion series that ranged in topics from art during the Arab spring to the economics of personal revolution to a partnership with the ACLU to discuss Allen Ginsberg’s obscenity trials. We’ve also started a series of educational events at a local bar where we discuss a variety of topics related to opera – our Opera 101 series. It’s in a bar, people drink, they hear about opera, and hopefully, they turn into subscribers. Have we found the magic answer? Who knows? Only by trying something can we find what works. Nobody has found the magic bullet. If they have, they’re being awfully greedy in not telling every opera and orchestra in the country. We’re trying something. It will take time to see whether we can build the conversation we hope to build. But we sure as hell aren’t going out with dignity while we have donors who care and people who want tickets.
All opera companies around the country are searching for the answers to the questions facing San Diego Opera. We’re all trying things to continue to be valuable members of our community and to continue to develop new audiences. It’s part of the new landscape in the arts. It is sad to me that a company with the resources that San Diego has doesn’t understand that downsizing, creating variety in their programming, finding young, talented singers (read cheaper) to mix with the stars on stage isn’t diluting the art form. It’s called progressing the art form. Focus on creating great theater and story telling with the resources at hand and market the hell out of the product. (Self serving, but you should check out our season announcement video: Skylight Music Theatre Season Announcement. See what I did there?)
Try things. You might find that you actually diversify your audience base, which might allow you to start raising even more money. Funny how that can work in so many cities where we create magic with our “diluted” companies! I’m sorry to see San Diego lose its opera company, but man… what an opportunity for some creative opera people to take those resources and bring great art to a community that still wants it.
Good article. SDO closing is all about the Campbells collecting their salaries through 2017 and then their pensions after that. If SDO is in bankruptcy none of that will happen. All about them- always has been.
This is what I’m wondering about. There are obviously many steps they could take to keep it going, and their arguments for not doing so seem transparent and unreasonably defeatist. When you have a management that was so disproportionately well-payed–a lot of large salaries coming out of a not-that-large operating budget–it’s raises questions about their motives.
Goes to show: there’s no substitute for vision.
I think it’s important to remember that a California non-profit organization is a “public benefit corporation.” Donors have given money to the company to do good for the public, and the directors of the company have the obligation to do the best thing for the public with that money. Shutting down when things are not easy is not the best thing for the public. If the executives don’t want to play the game any more, they should take their marbles and go home. If the board members don’t want to play any more, they should recruit successors and resign. But to shut down a “public benefit” company, not because it is impossible to keep it open, but because these particular “trustees” don’t want to work for the public benefit any more is irresponsible.
Super guest post, hits the mark, right on!
The topic in conducting seminar has been creative programming. Very timely.
Well written and insightful. Another factor that leads to success for theatre companies is connecting the audience with the performer. If a company only wants to bring high priced “stars” to perform, the audience might want to see them but can’t afford the ticket price necessary. If high quality art is presented with local actors, patrons will want to go to see people they know. And this can lead to long term success.
This is EXACTLY what’s needed – community-building, dialog, diversifying the audience by bringing vibrant ways of thinking/seeing/feeling. Thank you for this… as I’m watching from the sidelines in San Diego.
If they, being the Board of Directors, don’t get a grip, then the Board of Directors should sell #SanDiegoOpera to the folk in these pictures for $1 and let them move on without the high priced Campbells’ and their watered down beer. The folk in these pictures are doing a far better job, for sure!
http://instagram.com/sandiegoopera
Christine’s punch line ” If the executives don’t want to play the game any more, they should take their marbles and go home. If the board members don’t want to play any more, they should recruit successors and resign.” is dead on! Isn’t it strange that precisely that sentiment swirled around Minneapolis not too long ago. Osmo — “PLEASE come back”. We’ve been MOA supporters for a long time!
Thank you Bill and Viswa for this great post! The points that Viswa has outlined are precisely some of the points that supporters of San Diego Opera are working to communicate to their board leadership. If your readers would like to support the efforts to Save San Diego Opera, please sign the petition to the board at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/827/516/648/save-san-diego-opera/ and connect with supporters on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/savesandiegoopera or on Twitter @savesdopera.
I’ve signed the petition!Thanks for posting that. A leadership change – to a more creative leadership with a vision for really connecting the company to the community – would be a great opportunity given the resources they already have!
Regarding Mr. Subarraman’s programming … “My inaugural season was a conversation on Revolution and Freedom, and because of that, our works were able to range from Fidelio to Hair to In the Heights to Henze’s El Cimarron to Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox with a Les Miserables thrown in for the holidays” … It’s so refreshing to see someone thinking of opera as theater, and remembering why we do this in the first place. So often forgotten. Thank you!
Saving opera in San Diego and saving the San Diego Opera are 2 different questions. The key question here is whether the San Diego Opera, in its existing form, can be transformed into something that can survive. “Grand Opera” is dying a painful and ugly death in the United States. Even the big dogs (Chicago Lyric, the Met and SFO) are deeply concerned about their futures. The San Diego Opera as it is currently constituted can not survive. Mr. Subarraman is running a $3 million company and perhaps San Diego can support something similar or perhaps somewhat larger. Can you successfully turn a $15-16 million company into a $3-6 million company? Would it be easier to start a new company (more nimble, lower costs, no existing over head, more options and perhaps more radical in its approach) than trying to transform SDO? Due to the existing contracts that SDO has with the city for the Civic ($750,000 a year), its current employees (including 40 full time staffers), signed contracts for future singers, directors, conductors, 7 different unions, and other costs it would be impossible to shrink the company without bankruptcy. I think there is still a chance that SDO will end in bankruptcy even if it does close due to potential litigation. Whether or not SDO even survives bankruptcy is an open question. Most of the existing resources SDO has are people and I’m not convinced it would be able to afford any of them if it goes bankrupt. SDO does not have a large endowment and few resources that converted be into cash to pay creditors. Additionally, who is going to finance a bankrupt SDO? Even if it emerges from bankruptcy, (how many donors will be excited to feed it then) it will be hobbled. Is that preferable? Probably the biggest mistake SDO made is that it didn’t start transforming itself in 2009 by shedding employees, contracts, and the Civic theater. My guess is they didn’t have the stomach for it back then. Essentially, SDO is up a creek.
I agree that saving opera in San Diego and saving San Diego opera may be different questions, but as someone who started an opera company from scratch in Houston, I can say that I’d much rather the opportunity to wind a company down from a $15M budget to something smaller and more manageable for the city than to start a company from scratch. I absolutely agree that they are in a tough position, but if you one looks at Dallas Opera as an example, it IS possible to shrink a company to a more manageable size. It’s not pleasant, but it seems smarter to conserve the resources that are already in existence and try to shrink than it would be to start completely from scratch.
I can see situations where it would make sense to shrink a company rather than dissolve it. Additionally, you also know what you are talking about, but I’m not convinced that SDO is an ideal candidate. SDO has some real problems: small/non-existent endowment, no reserve fund, shrinking donor base, sharp fall in ticket sales, no additional revenue streams, assets that can be converted to cash, contracts with seven different unions, high facility costs, a large full-time staff, LACK of an angel donor, and commitments to produce 16 performances of 4 different operas next year. SDO did balance its budgets over the years, but it did so without the help of endowment. Additionally, the last few years it depended on it reserve fund to stay alive.
Additionally, SDO is in a real pickle when it comes to cash flow. Cash flow is key. The only way SDO can generate cash flow is to sell tickets and solicit donations even though it’s obvious to management that it will run out of money during the season. It can not depend on its endowment for any cash before ticket sales and donations come in. Can SDO sell tickets and solicit donations for a full season in good faith knowing that they face bankruptcy and a shortened season? Their budget for next year is $15 million and “optimistically” they can produce $10 million in revenue. I think that they will be hard pressed to produce that much. SDO will end up in bankruptcy once its cash flow dries up.
If you cut costs by eliminating any of the operas you will also automatically cut potential ticket sales. Donors and ticket buyers already are aware that the company is in a extremely precarious financial position. This would also be true if SDO ended up declaring bankruptcy in the middle of the season, but that harsh reality would have been simply delayed for half a year. Anyone running SDO would be forced during bankruptcy to renegotiate all of the union contracts, drastically slash full time staff, force reductions in salary or fire any executives who have high salaries and potentially move the opera to a cheaper hall (SD has been unwilling to renegotiate the Civic rental). Of course, moving out of the Civic means that the SDO’s tickets sales will be reduced. Civic has 2800 seats – all of the other houses in town are much smaller. These cuts in costs will have to be dramatic and brutal. These cuts could also effect SDO’s ability to raise money and sell tickets for the next year. There is a very good chance SDO ends up in a death spiral. Essentially, I’m not convinced that SDO could successfully emerge from bankruptcy. The SD Symphony only came back to life after it was revived with a $120 million gift.
I both love opera and SDO, but the days of trying to perform grand opera in a 2800 seat halls are probably over. I am also under no illusion that some of SDO’s problems were self-inflected, but the post-2008 financial crisis world has been especially cruel. Additionally, their is a serious problem with the age of grand opera patrons. This is obvious during intermission when you look the audience. It is not surprising that opera companies are in big trouble nationally. Opera companies are going to have to reinvent themselves and I’m also not convinced that tradition grand operas will be able to be able to fundamentally alter their business model or practices. It’s hard to turn Microsoft into a start up.
Honestly, I would love to hear realistic, concrete suggestions (not petitions, appeals or bumper stickers) on how you reinvent SDO and help it survive. I haven’t heard any meaningful ones to this point from any of the stories I have read about SDO’s demise. Basically, it has all been pie in the sky nonsense. Saying “I want to save SDO” is meaningless if it isn’t accompanied by actual plans on how to do so. Seriously, what would you do to help save SDO? Mr. Subbaraman are probably as qualified as anybody to answer this question. I love SDO and I really would like to hear some good ideas.
There is no question that it is hard to turn Microsoft into a start up. I’ll be honest – while I have a ton of ideas, I’d love to see the actual finances of the company. It’s easy to have ideas from afar, but without knowing their budgets, cash flows, and commitments, it’s tough.
What I can say is that I would probably start by looking at their budgets to get a sense of what assets are available. I think the next step is to start changing the mix of singers – there are some incredible young singers who would be great on stage and at less cost. I would also start looking at the season offerings and the demographics of the city. I’d probably cut a large production and look at smaller productions of chamber operas that could be targeted to the various groups in the city to start building community awareness, etc. I don’t think grand opera is dying. I think we’ve done a piss poor job of markucation. (That intersection of marketing and education that we need to start pushing in order to both inform and educate a younger and more diverse audience.) We also need to take some risks. The honest truth is that there are better experts than me all around this country. I think shrinking San Diego Opera and connecting it to the community can be done – and faster than you think!
Thank you for some good ideas. I love the term “markucation.” It’s beginning to sound like SDO essentially drained the cash swamp over the past 3 years. I wonder if they didn’t doom this company in 2009 when they failed to react swiftly and strongly enough to the financial crisis. While they eliminated one opera, they didn’t do a good job controlling their other costs or make any real effort to change their direction. I love the idea of bringing in young singers, but their unwillingness to abandon the massive Civic theater undoubtably restricted their options. They might have been better off scaling back their ambitions.
ABSOLUTELY! Talk about a mirror image of the Minnesota situation – including the 2009 debacle (which the board smoothly skidded over – might it have been because of the snow and ice that made it easy to skid?). Things are a little more promising now – the CEO has resigned as well as eight board members who have picked up their marbles and headed back to the farm. And OSMO guest conducted a fantastic pair Sibelius symphonies last Friday! Ah, these Finns have got it together!
I say “assets that can be converted to cash,” but I meant assets that cannot easily be converted into cash. Sorry about the error.
A post-script to my last post is that it sounds like that the senior team at SDO were asleep at the financial wheel since 2009. If some of the problems with the senior team are confirmed, then it sounds like the board (regardless of whether or not SDO will survive) needs to force the company into bankruptcy.
Questions for the Board of Directors: What are all the assets? What are all the liabilities? These being: human assets; material assets; property; audience; donors; and financial. But them in two columns and tally them up. A good place to start, and, better late than not at all.
In my reply it should read “Put them in two columns…..” Sorry for the typo….
To be perfectly honest: 1) Great, great article. Thanks for sharing what many are thinking. 2) I’m still troubled by many of the subsequent comments here and elsewhere that ask “what can be done?” but are still stuck within the confines of what has been – I call it the Establishment. Folks, that’s why we’re in so much trouble in the first place! Hiring nothing but megastars only satisfies those who grew up with them. As those followers (and stars) pass on, you need to replace them (like VS is doing). Common sense, really. And then people still put up silly objections like “declining ticket sales” Of course they are! They’re going to decline anyway as the world moves on and the arts in the USA continue to be marginalized, but has anyone asked why THAT’S happening here and not quite as much elsewhere in the world (indeed, Western arts activity in the Far East is INcreasing!)? Deal with that, in a similar way that Skylight is doing (try news things and market the heck out of them), and you’ll find plenty of people who want to share in what you’re doing. The Establishment has come to Expect too much Entitlement, IMHO, and complete mindsets need to shift. Dramatically.
“What can be done” questions matter. In fact, at this point, they are the only questions that matter. It is becoming increasingly clear that Ian Campbell burned through the Joan Kroc reserve fund ($11 million) in 4 years and didn’t plan for the future. Instead of converting to the reserve fund to an endowment, cutting costs and creating new reserve streams he continued to spend money like the world didn’t change after 2009. Foolish. What do you do after the wolf has cleaned out the hen house? That’s a legitimate question and for the employees of SDO it is the most important one. As far as I can tell, the board needs to file for bankruptcy protection. That at least preserves the chance for SDO to reemerge later, but whether or not there will be any meat left on the bones is a critical question. As I stated in a earlier post there are 2 distinct questions: how to save SDO and how to save opera in San Diego.
Viswa Subarraman is doing great work here in Milwaukee. (I recently attended Hydrogen Jukebox) His forward thinking approach is going to achieve many positive results. I have rarely attended the Skylight Opera in the past, but I am now looking ahead to future performances.