New Orleans Opera refuses to sing the blues over tough economy by Ted Mahne
As the New Orleans Opera Association prepares for its upcoming season, in which a concert of Verdi's Requiem Mass will replace the usual fourth full-scale opera production, the company assures patrons that the move does not signal an impending death knell for the company.
"It is an economic issue," said Robert Lyall, general director of the New Orleans Opera. "However, it also is an artistic decision."
Originally, "at the height of optimism," the new season was to include new productions of "Aida" and "Porgy and Bess," two operas demanding massive productions to stage successfully.
"Meanwhile, across the country, companies saw a real slowdown in ticket sales," Lyall said. "Contributions also have slowed."
While ticket sales have remained steady and strong in New Orleans, Lyall noted that the fiscal crystal ball was still cloudy, with significant state funding for all the arts placed on the chopping block by the governor earlier in the year.
"When faced with having to make financial cuts, I've always been in favor of tightening screws at every corner," Lyall said, rather than entirely slashing a particular program or merely shortening the season altogether.
The decision was made to present Verdi's Requiem instead of a fully staged opera.
"We could've gone with a smaller chamber opera that audiences would find too esoteric," Lyall said, or staged an inexpensive production such as "Hansel and Gretel" and gotten away with calling it a "family opera."
"But we still wanted to do something grand. The Requiem, in fact, has been called one of Verdi's greatest operas, it is so theatrical and dramatic," Lyall said.
Because the company will be saving significantly on production costs, it is able to bring in singers for the concert that the New Orleans Opera otherwise couldn't afford for a full-blown production and the required weeks of rehearsal time.
"Our principal singers for the Requiem are in demand by opera companies all over the world," Lyall said. The massive work demands a massive chorus. "We will have more than 200 voices in the chorus, including our own New Orleans Opera Chorus." Supplementing those ranks will be the New Orleans Vocal Arts Chorale and choirs from both Loyola and Tulane universities.
The alteration to the traditional season also is as much about the company's long-term future as it is the immediate season.
"I'm a risk-taker, but a prudent one," Lyall said. Indeed, having shepherded the company through its recovery and vibrant comeback after Hurricane Katrina, Lyall laughed at the notion that a national recession could do them in.
"This is the best accommodation for us now," he said. It is because of the company's prudent fiscal management that "we're now in the position to ensure that the artistic decisions remain the driving force."
One such decision was shifting from the previously scheduled "Aida," also by Verdi, to Puccini's "Tosca," which will open the season.
"We landed happily on our feet" through the schedule changes, Lyall said, noting for example that although the principal singers for "Tosca" originally were contracted for "Aida," the vocal types and ranges for each opera match up well, and the members of the cast include both operas in their various repertoires.
In addition, ticket sales and renewals for the season already are off to a strong start, at a time when the New Orleans Opera Association and all arts organizations are still measuring the depth of the performing arts audience.
"When we returned this spring to the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, I didn't know if the audience would be there or not," Lyall said. Planning two large-scale but ever-popular operas -- "Carmen" and "La Traviata" -- worked. All performances sold out.
"I knew where they were on those nights," Lyall said.
http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/07/new_orleans_opera_refuses_to_s.html
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