Despite a national recession that has forced many opera companies to close their doors, New England’s largest opera company, The Boston Lyric Opera, is seeing financial success, even adding a fourth production to its 2009-2010 season.
In a press release dated April 16, 2009, the BLO explained its new strategy to cut set costs and expand the creative medium of stage design. Although sets are usually used for only one production, BLO decided to take the set from a different production and reuse it for the performance of ‘Don Giovanni.’
‘We probably spent a third of what it would have cost to build the show anew,’ BLO’s Director of Production Dan Duro said.
Mia Howard, spokeswoman for the BLO, attributed much of the company’s success in cutting costs to the sacrifices of staff members.
‘All staff members took a salary cut, donors stepped up with support despite having sustained hits to their personal portfolios and artists accepted reduced fees because they recognized the current economy would not support traditional contract levels,’ Howard said in a press release.
Howard explained that no programming cuts have been made to the 2009-2010 season, especially given the expansion of a fourth opera.
‘BLO ended Fiscal Year 2009 with a balanced budget of $6.4 million including a surplus of $208,220,’ Howard said. ‘The surplus offsets a $160,712 shortfall the Company ended with the year before. The surplus is reduced by $158,558 in investment losses on endowment, which is required to be repaid to the endowment from future returns.’
The BLO has also attempted to encourage student attendance with a discount of 50 percent on normal ticket prices for those attending college in Boston.
Patricia Kiernan Johnson, spokeswoman for OPERA AMERICA, said that virtually every opera company tries to make an effort in order to make tickets accessible to the community.
‘Some companies do discounted standing room tickets, student discounts with ID, promotions on Facebook and Twitter,’ Johnson said.
At the BLO, approximately 10 percent of single ticket sales are student discounts, Howard said in an email.
Because of the recession, many opera houses in the U.S. were forced to close down permanently.
‘In the last 14 months or so, four long-established opera companies closed their doors. In my book, this counts as a large cut,’ Johnson said. ‘Opera companies, like other organizations and people, have seen their endowments decrease in this economy.’
According to a New York Times article published Jan. 15 2009, New York City’s Metropolitan Opera’s endowment ‘dropped by a third, to a point where it cannot be drawn from; donations are down by $10 million this season.’
However, Jennifer Cooper, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Opera, argued that despite claims that the Met had lost endowment and gift money, this sum had actually increased in 2009.
‘There are 26 productions being shown at the Met this season, which is about average,’ Cooper said.
The Metropolitan Opera is not the only opera watching its budget. Representatives from the Washington National Opera and Opera Las Vegas both said they were watching budgets closely.
The WNO has made cuts, but the recession is not the main factor behind the cuts, WNO Spokeswoman Michelle Pendoley said.
‘Like almost all theater and opera companies in the U.S., we saw some softness as a result of the recession, but again, it was not the driving force in the changes that we’ve made. Those changes are mostly driven by our business model,’ Pendoley said.
Pendoley said she has seen a gradual uptick in WNO’s endowments.
‘We are cautiously optimistic that we’ll balance the budget in the current fiscal year as well. The endowment is strong, and though it declined modestly in 2008-09, it’s back up now, at approximately $32 million,’ Pendoley said.
At Opera Las Vegas, despite a decrease in endowments and gifts, normal programming continues, Hal West, spokesman for OLV said.
Despite things being ‘very tight economically for 2010,’ no cuts have been made ‘thus far,’ West said.
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