So how did San Francisco Opera, one of the biggest in America, work itself into a $7 million debt? “In 1999, with 93 performances and $24 million ticket income, we had an optimal year. Last year it was $22.4, the previous two years, $21.2 and $23.7 and for the current year we are projecting $21.5. There is Iraq, and the tourists are not coming. We’re trying to cut costs as responsibly and as carefully as possible. Every dollar. It would be phenomenal to end with zero deficit.”
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Union Files Complaint Against SF Opera
The American Guild of Musical Artists has filed an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the San Francisco Opera. In February the companay, which is having big money problems, announced it was cutting its annual Western Opera Theater tour because “the costs, scope and purpose of the Western Opera Theater tour were no longer in line with the Opera Center’s need for fiscal responsibility.” The union says that the company violated the National Labor Relations Act “by taking such action without prior notice to or bargaining with the union.”
How Do You Make The Arts Work On TV?
“There is a recognition that the arts, especially on BBC1, have been underserved. Accordingly, the holy grail for the BBC seems to be programmes that bring in a mass audience while simultaneously appealing to aficionados.” But how to accomplish it? “It means doing more and doing it bolder; it means resting tired formats, and indeed tired faces. Those involved in the live arts would attest to the fact that if you want to make an impact, if you want to transport and transform people, then you have to take real risks. And that’s what art is all about.”
Keepin’ It Real – A Good Time For Documentaries?
Traditionally, documentaries have been small business. But will Michael Moore’s success at the Oscars, turn things around? According to one theory, “the studios are making more and more popcorn, merchandisable films – package films with no core. But there’s an audience who want to see movies about the real world who only get the opportunity to do that when they see documentaries. In theory, then, this ought to be a golden moment for documentary makers in the US.”
Independent Streak? Mason’s New Face On The Royal Ballet
Monica Mason, the Royal Ballet’s new director, has a tough job, no matter how she does it. “A director has to juggle the old or ‘heritage’ repertoire with the new; maintain the 20th-century classics as well as the 19th-century ones; import foreign successes and support indigenous efforts; and of course share out space between Ashton and MacMillan. No matter how the portions are carved out, many people in many places will be seriously displeased. Mason looks likely to be the safe consolidator, the steadying hand after the squalls of the Stretton regime. After seeking to blow new air into the Royal Ballet by appointing Stretton, the ROH Board then did a frightened U-turn by scurrying back to the old guard with Mason.”
Broadway Box Office Steady During The War
During the 1991 Gulf War, business on Broadway faltered as people stayed home. That hasn’t happened so far with the Iraq war. Last week “business climbed primarily for musicals, with two of the most popular, ‘Hairspray’ and ‘The Lion King,’ selling out and grossing over $1 million each. There were sturdy ticket sales for such shows as ‘The Producers,’ ‘Mamma Mia!’ and ‘Chicago’. Although overall ticket sales were off from a year ago, $12.9 million compared to $14.2 million in 2002, there were more shows playing last year – 31 shows compared to 27 productions last week.”
Screen Play
The Royal Opera House will set up screens around the country this summer and broadcast performances out on the streets. “Productions by the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet will be beamed to outside screens in Sheffield, Liverpool, Gateshead, Belfast and London’s Canary Wharf. It is part of an initiative to reach people who would not normally watch ballet or opera.”
New York City To Cut City Cultural Spending?
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s preliminary 2004 budget calls for a cut of 17 percent from the proposed budget for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs. “The city’s Independent Budget Office – in its March analysis of the mayor’s preliminary budget – is comparing the proposed 2004 funding to the June 2002 financial plan, which had set the DCA budget at $123.4 million. The new budget would be $102.5 million.
A History Of Hollywood Activism (Or Lack Thereof)
Hollywood seems political (or at least some in Hollywood seem so). But Tinseltown has a long history of dancing around political controversy while trying to do business…
Detective Fiction By Day, Opera By Night
By day Donna Leon writes detective novels – 12 so far – and succesful thrillers at that. Successful enough, anyway, to fund her true passion, running a baroque opera company. By night she runs an opera company, largely funded from her life of crime. Not many of her readers know this, but it won’t surprise them. Opera seeps into her books – their plots, their atmosphere – like dripping blood. Each one comes prefaced by a few lines of Mozartian libretto – usually from Cosi fan tutte, which for some reason seems to lend itself to the mechanics of murder-mystery even though it’s an opera in which no one actually dies.”