Los Angeles — when I was a tenor Russell Thomas When he performed at the Los Angeles Opera in 2017, the company’s general director, Plácido Domingo, asked him to come back to sing the title role in Verdi’s “Otello” someday. It was a notable invitation from Domingo, the lead Otello at the time who sang Otello in 1986. First performance of the Los Angeles Theater Company.
Six years later, Thomas is back in Los Angeles, starring in Otello. 6 performance runs It starts Saturday. However, Domingo initially considered singing his own counterpart in the role of operatic villain Iago, but resigned in 2019 at the age of 78 after allegations of sexually harassing multiple women throughout his career surfaced. and left.
In other words, as Los Angeles Opera charts its course in the post-Domingo era, the company’s end-of-season production, Otello, is both a look back at its foundations and a glimpse into its future. Since the pandemic, it faces similar challenges as other companies when it comes to recovering from declining viewership and revenue.
“It’s slow. Much slower than I would have liked.” Christopher Kelsch The company’s president and CEO said of the audience’s return: But he said attendance figures were in line with recent numbers at other opera houses around the country, a sign that the company was overcoming its recent setbacks. “Apart from audience attendance, by most standards the company is in much better shape than it has been in its 38-year history,” he said.
So far this season, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s 3,033-seat capacity has averaged 64 percent attendance, still short of the 83 percent the company recorded in 2018-19, but it was the first to reopen after closing. Since then there has been improvement. Two of his best-selling, sometimes sold-out, works reflect the company’s efforts to balance new works with classics. “Omar” Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ new opera is based on the autobiography of an enslaved Islamic scholar who won this week’s Pulitzer Prize for Music, including Mozart’s comedy The Marriage of Figaro.
Los Angeles Opera gave a record $74.1 million in donations during a season when New York’s Metropolitan Opera was forced to withdraw donations to make up for a drop in revenue, up from $28.8 million in 2012. Board Chairman Keith Leonard said it “contributed.” The company relied on pay cuts, several layoffs, a five-year $5 million endowment loan, and federal aid to survive the recession without losing money.
Domingo’s downfall stunned Los Angeles and its opera troupe, which had been closely associated with the Star Tenor, who had been singing in Los Angeles since the 1960s and had contributed to the founding of the troupe. An investigation by the Los Angeles Opera found his accusations of “improper conduct” toward women to be “credible,” but he also “requited compensation or He retaliated by refusing to be cast or appearing.” No evidence was found. Otherwise, hire her at the LA Opera. The company has promised to step up its anti-fraud measures when she leaves.
It’s difficult to say with certainty whether Domingo’s departure has had an impact on attendance numbers, given the coronavirus shutdown that followed shortly after. Over the years, his performances have attracted the largest audiences, and his image has been as integral to the company’s marketing as Gustavo Dudamel’s image is to the Los Angeles Philharmonic next door. “This is definitely a loss because he was such a great man in the world,” Kölsch said. But, he added, “a scientifically controlled experiment is not possible here.”
After Domingo left, the opera never held the position of general director. These responsibilities were taken over by Kölsch, which was already carrying out its day-to-day operations.
In an email interview, Domingo said that in his view the company continues to thrive, even after revealing his unfortunate departure from a position that was the pinnacle of his career.
“I have watched it grow and believe I have done my best to make it one of the leading opera houses in the United States and the world,” he said. added to It’s very diverse and focused on new productions that can attract new audiences, which I think is a great added value for everyone in Los Angeles. ”
With an operating budget of $44 million, Los Angeles Opera is the fifth largest company in the United States. One of the most adventurous mainstream opera houses in the country, despite its short lifespan (by opera standards) and modest lineup of six shows per season (compared to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 23 performances this season) is establishing itself as a Being edgy rather than stifling.
Even before Domingo retired, the company was aware of Domingo’s age, recognized that the organization shouldn’t be tied too closely to any one person, and planned for the future, making war horses and more modern. I was working on establishing an identity that combines various work.
have worked together for 10 years Beth Morrison ProjectPioneers of contemporary opera production, they collaborated on the world premiere. Ellen Reed‘s opera “Prism” premiered at the tiny Roy & Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in Los Angeles in 2018 and won a Pulitzer Prize. And in 2020, Eurydice by Matthew Aucoin, who was the opera’s artist-in-residence at the time, had its world premiere with Dorothy Chandler before moving to the Metropolitan Opera.
“LA Opera is doing very well,” said Mark A. Skolka, president of Opera America, a nonprofit service organization for opera companies. “Of all the major companies in the country, the company is the youngest and continues to find new audiences and new momentum as Los Angeles continues to build its cultural infrastructure. I am very optimistic about
This spring, we collaborated with the Beth Morrison Project to present two operas by Irish composer Emma O’Halloran in the 250-seat black box theater inside REDCAT.
One of them, a 2/70 piece called “Trade,” is an emotionally unstable hotel scene between an older married man and a younger male prostitute in working-class Dublin. It depicts the relationship of the rooms, a kind of story that is almost unheard of in history. Performed on the opera stage.
“When we started this relationship, most opera companies were not producing new productions,” Morrison said. “In terms of big companies, LA Opera was very ahead of its time in that respect. believes these things are necessary.”
Other big companies, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are now curating new productions in hopes of reaching new audiences.
Even if this recovers, it’s still temporary. Key questions about how viewer behavior has changed remain unanswered. James Conlon, who was scouted by Domingo and has been the opera’s musical director since 2006, said the opera “is working hard to win back its audience”.
“My own suspicion is that many competitions will be attended by people accustomed to using more television at home rather than in other venues,” he said.
This is especially problematic in Los Angeles, given that getting from downtown to the Music Center can be an exhausting adventure that takes many hours due to heavy evening traffic.
In the early days of the company’s founding, there was much talk about whether Los Angeles had an appetite for grand opera. “Until the early ’80s, the opinion I received from many of the music center’s leaders was that ‘LA is not the city of opera’, ‘LA can afford a great symphony or a great opera, but both ‘You can’t do it,'” Dong said. Franzen, original member of the Board of Opera.
But 38 years after that first night, that question seems to have been answered.
“Los Angeles is truly the city of opera, and I see the company’s growth and success as evidence of that,” said Skolka of Opera America.
Now the company’s current artist-in-resident, Thomas, is preparing to sing in his place Otello, the difficult role that inspired the company’s founding. He remembered that invitation from Domingo. Domingo had stopped singing the high tenor role, so he came up with the idea of joining him in the baritone role under Iago.
“He was very interested in me singing Otello and he and I did the show together,” Thomas said recently. “I wanted it to happen. I wanted to be on stage with one of the legendary singers of opera. That’s how things happen.”
