Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Opera struggles at The Met, Chautauqua,and Philadelphia
Renata Scotto, 1967. (2023, August 17). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renata_Scotto
It's been a rough summer for opera. For starters, Opera News, a publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, has announced that its operations will be folded into the British publication Opera magazine starting in December. Opera News started in 1936 and had a circulation of about 43,000. It generally focused on covering opera in the U.S. the Metropolitan Opera specifically.
The event that sparked the end of Opera News was, indeed, the end of the Metropolitan Opera Guild itself. The Guild was established in 1935 with the aim of supporting the Met during the financial downturn known as The Great Depression. Guild membership started at $85 per year and included a subscription to Opera News.
The Met is currently having financial problems after COVID and has found itself competing with the Guild for support from the same people. The Guild will compensate its 20 or so employees before laying them off. The hope is that the Met will hire some of them.
The Opera Chautauqua Company has been producing full-scale opera performances since 1927. They have announced that after 2024 those productions will be stripped down to a workshop format. The number of singers in the young artist program will be reduced from 24 to eight. The company sighted a lack of ticket sales as the primary financial obstacle.
Opera Philadelphia is reducing its $11 million budget by $1.5 million and pushing some productions out to future seasons. David Devan is stepping down from his roles as the general director and president, he has held these positions since 2011.
WHYY.org reports, “Devan has been the executive director for 12 years. In that time, he turned Opera Philadelphia into an industry leader by seeking out contemporary works, nurturing new composers with commissions and residencies, and aggressively pivoting to digital productions during the height of the pandemic.”
I am predicting that Opera Philadelphia will continue to reduce its budget and will be an empty husk within the next five years. If Opera Philadphia’s business model is so robust, why is it reducing its budget, firing staff, and losing its general director?
Let me make this absolutely clear. There is no way to sustain an opera company that seeks out contemporary works. I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about opera companies becoming museums because they aren’t producing new operas.
What’s wrong with museums? Museums play a vital role in the survival of culture.
I will save the rant that is building in my heart for a future article because, on August 16, Renata Scotto died. Scotto debuted at La Scala in 1953. She continued to sing on the world stage for another 50 years. She is the Butterfly on my favorite recording of Giacomo Puccini’s *Madama Butterfly*. Scotto died in her hometown of Savona, Italy. She was 89.
Video:
Renata Scotto: Madama Butterfly
Here's something you might be interested in.
Opera struggles at The Met, Chautauqua,and Philadelphia
Opera struggles at The Met, Chautauqua,and Philadelphia
Renata Scotto, 1967. (2023, August 17). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renata_Scotto
It's been a rough summer for opera. For starters, Opera News, a publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, has announced that its operations will be folded into the British publication Opera magazine starting in December. Opera News started in 1936 and had a circulation of about 43,000. It generally focused on covering opera in the U.S. the Metropolitan Opera specifically.
The event that sparked the end of Opera News was, indeed, the end of the Metropolitan Opera Guild itself. The Guild was established in 1935 with the aim of supporting the Met during the financial downturn known as The Great Depression. Guild membership started at $85 per year and included a subscription to Opera News.
The Met is currently having financial problems after COVID and has found itself competing with the Guild for support from the same people. The Guild will compensate its 20 or so employees before laying them off. The hope is that the Met will hire some of them.
The Opera Chautauqua Company has been producing full-scale opera performances since 1927. They have announced that after 2024 those productions will be stripped down to a workshop format. The number of singers in the young artist program will be reduced from 24 to eight. The company sighted a lack of ticket sales as the primary financial obstacle.
Opera Philadelphia is reducing its $11 million budget by $1.5 million and pushing some productions out to future seasons. David Devan is stepping down from his roles as the general director and president, he has held these positions since 2011.
WHYY.org reports, “Devan has been the executive director for 12 years. In that time, he turned Opera Philadelphia into an industry leader by seeking out contemporary works, nurturing new composers with commissions and residencies, and aggressively pivoting to digital productions during the height of the pandemic.”
I am predicting that Opera Philadelphia will continue to reduce its budget and will be an empty husk within the next five years. If Opera Philadphia’s business model is so robust, why is it reducing its budget, firing staff, and losing its general director?
Let me make this absolutely clear. There is no way to sustain an opera company that seeks out contemporary works. I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about opera companies becoming museums because they aren’t producing new operas.
What’s wrong with museums? Museums play a vital role in the survival of culture.
I will save the rant that is building in my heart for a future article because, on August 16, Renata Scotto died. Scotto debuted at La Scala in 1953. She continued to sing on the world stage for another 50 years. She is the Butterfly on my favorite recording of Giacomo Puccini’s *Madama Butterfly*. Scotto died in her hometown of Savona, Italy. She was 89.
Video:
Renata Scotto: Madama Butterfly