San Diego’s State of the Arts: Classical music/opera

On the opening night of San Diego Opera’s 44^th season, general director/artistic director Ian Campbell gave a pre-performance speech that was nearly as dramatic as the evening’s production of “Tosca.” Grimly detailing the impact of the financial crisis on opera in general and his company in particular, Campbell said that “San Diego Opera has never been threatened in this way before.”

His remarks prompted gasps from some audience members, even a few groans. Who imagined that San Diego Opera could be in such a predicament?

This, after all, is one of the city’s leading cultural institutions, a paragon of fiscal responsibility and administrative stability that prides itself on being one of the nation’s top 10 opera companies and has long served as a role model to other performing arts organizations.

If San Diego Opera was worried, the situation must be really serious.

“Because of the way things are now in the whole of the opera field, it was important that our audience be made aware of our needs,” Campbell recently said of his speech in January.

But it’s not only opera that is feeling the pain. Classical music groups both large and small are tightening their belts so much that it hurts. Budget cuts, salary reductions and hiring freezes are as commonplace as the sound of an orchestra warming up before a performance.

The recession is “testing everybody in the arts community as they have never been tested before,” says Edward B. “Ward” Gill, executive director of the San Diego Symphony, the city’s oldest musical institution, which celebrates its centenary next year. “We are being forced to be the most creative we have ever been.”

That puts a positive spin on the crisis, and with good reason. Local organizations may be poorer. But in terms of artistry and variety, San Diego’s music scene has probably never been richer.

The San Diego Symphony offers everything from pops concerts and family-oriented programs to such substantial fare as a Mahler symphony cycle, conducted by music director Jahja Ling. San Diego Opera features high-quality productions starring internationally admired singers while Mainly Mozart’s orchestra boasts accomplished musicians from around the country, led by founding artistic director and conductor David Atherton.

The multi-faceted La Jolla Music Society presents jazz and dance in addition to classical and contemporary music. It’s responsible for SummerFest, the prestigious annual festival (scheduled this year for July 31-Aug. 23), along with programs that showcase such visiting virtuosos as cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who’s slated for a sold-out recital on May 17 at downtown’s Balboa Theatre.

Adding to the musical wealth are the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Lyric Opera San Diego, La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, San Diego Early Music Society, Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, Sushi’s “Fresh Sound Series” and more.

UCSD will open its long-awaited, $53 million music building on May 8-9. Named the Conrad Prebys Music Center in honor of the Point Loma developer, philanthropist and music lover, the state-of-the art facility was designed by Seattle’s LMN Architects and famed acoustician Cyril Harris. It includes a 400-seat concert hall, 150-seat lecture/recital hall, rehearsal rooms and offices.

“The sound (in the concert hall) is very warm and rich and alive across the tonal spectrum,” says Dirk Sutro, spokesperson for the university’s exceptionally innovative music department. “You really have the feeling of the music surrounding you so that you’re almost inside it.”

Whatever their ambitions, music institutions are all seeking to survive a tough economic climate. It’s harder to attract ticket buyers, who may be more concerned about paying their bills than hearing masterworks by Mozart or Puccini. It’s also more difficult to woo donors, some having watched a substantial portion of their investments disappear in the stock market meltdown.

For music groups, the bottom line has become a top priority and the fear of red ink, a day-to-day reality. As a result, cost cutting is rampant. Some of the changes are relatively modest, such as Mainly Mozart’s decision to eliminate the festival’s downtown banners this year.

“It breaks my heart — that’s the kind of thing that adds to the flavor of the festival,” says Mainly Mozart’s executive director, Nancy Laturno Bojanic. “But flavor can’t be the focus now. Our first commitment is to maintain artistic integrity.”

Ticket sales were down about 15% for Mainly Mozart’s latest Spotlight Series, which consisted of chamber music concerts presented in La Jolla, Rancho Santa Fe and Carlsbad between January and April. It’s too early to predict the popularity of Mainly Mozart’s second season at downtown’s Balboa Theatre, slated for June 6-20 with a lineup heavy on Tchaikovsky.

“We’re finding that people are still attending our concerts but they’re reducing the number of events they attend,” Bojanic says. “They’re trying to save money. They’re being much more strategic with their expenditures.”

Yet even sold-out houses can’t cover all the costs of performances. And because opera is the most labor-intensive and expensive of the performing arts, it has been hit particularly hard. Costa Mesa’s Opera Pacific has closed, Baltimore Opera is bankrupt and companies from New York to San Francisco are trimming costs and cancelling some productions.

San Diego Opera — which lost $1 million in contributions and $3.7 million in its endowment — will cut its productions from five to four for the next three seasons, a savings of approximately $1.5 million per season. (”Puccini’s Manon Lescaut” has been eliminated from the 2010 lineup and Jake Heggie’s new “Moby-Dick” will move from 2011 to 2012.)

“In this climate, ticket sales are unreliable through the country, even at the Met,” says Campbell, referring to New York’s mighty Metropolitan Opera. “We cannot close that gap readily.”

Still, there’s reason to be encouraged. Because of the generosity of opera patrons, the company’s 2009 Audience Challenge brought in a total of $251,000. And ticket sales are likely to be strong for Puccini’s beloved “Madama Butterfly,” which closes the season with a five-performance run starting May 9.

Given opera’s heavy financial burden, some have wondered whether hard-pressed companies should present concert performances, without sets and costumes.

“If there were any attempt to move in that direction, opera as opera no longer exists,” says Campbell. “That’s not what people want. They want to see sets and costumes.”

Leon Natker, general director of Lyric Opera San Diego, agrees.

“We tried a concert version about 20 years ago and our audience just hated it,” he recalls, referring to a production of Rudolf Friml’s “Rose Marie.” “The audience was up in arms, so at the last minute we added sets and costumes. People said, ‘we don’t want to see people stand around and sing. We want to see a show.’”

Though Lyric Opera’s current annual budget is only a tenth of San Diego Opera’s — $1.7 million compared to $17 million — the smaller company is also facing considerable financial pressure.

As one of only about a dozen U.S. opera companies to own its own venue, Lyric is responsible for the Birch North Park Theatre, the handsomely renovated building that helped inspire a community renaissance.

“We renegotiated the monstrous mortgage in November so that it’s better,” says Natker, adding that the monthly payment has gone from nearly $23,000 per month to $18,000, the majority of which is covered by rentals.

Though he’d like more revenue, he doesn’t believe in jacking up ticket prices for next season, which ranges from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” to Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”

“How are you going to introduce people to this art form if they can’t afford to see it?” Natker asks. “Affordability is part of our mission.”

The same could be said of such organizations as the La Jolla Music Society and San Diego Chamber Orchestra.

“Ticket sales are fabulous — they’re going through the roof,” says Christopher Beach, president and artistic director of the Music Society. Though the organization pared $250,000 from the budget, it has been celebrating its 40^th season with an enticing variety of special events. “I’m certain that the joy our performances bring to people is something we need more than ever today.”

A wide range of ticket prices is also available at the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, headed by conductor/artistic director Jung-Ho Pak and executive director Tyler Richards Hewes.

“What Jung-Ho is doing is taking this beautiful music and putting a new spin on it,” Hewes says of Pak, who’s now in his third season leading the 32-member orchestra. “He believes we can get a fantastic product while keeping a keen eye on the bottom line.”

No local music organization has proven its resilience more than the San Diego Symphony, which survived a near-fatal financial crisis and two-year shutdown in the 1990s. Its comeback — one of the most remarkable in the history of U.S. performing arts organizations — was made possible by determined musicians and supporters. The most generous are benefactors Joan and Irwin Jacobs, whose epic, $120 million pledge, made in 2002, includes endowment funds, money to help with operating expenses and a $50 million bequest.

Yet running a major symphony orchestra remains costly, with special projects putting an extra strain on the budget. Now in question, due to funding issues, are the orchestra’s first Asian tour, in 2011, and its debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall, which highly respected music director Jahja Ling would lead in 2012.

“The main focus is that we make great music here in San Diego,” Gill explains.

Corporate contributions to the institution have declined by $300,000, to about $1.1 million. Overall donations have dipped approximately 10%. And the endowment is down 25%, to $36 million.

Though the orchestra still plans to mount a major endowment campaign, with a goal of about $90 million, Gill says that now is “not the time” to make public appeals for massive fundraising.

The good news is that the San Diego Symphony’s CD devoted to music of contemporary composer Bright Sheng was recorded in January and will be released later this year on the Telarc label. And the orchestra has high hopes for the box office appeal of this year’s Summer Pops series as well as for its 2009-2010 season, which includes a Beethoven Festival starring the celebrated pianist Yefim Bronfman in all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos.

“We’re all struggling but you know what? We’ll get through this and be the stronger for it,” Gill says with an optimism that’s as fundamental as a C Major chord. “When you get through the extremely tough times, it makes the good times even better.”

Valerie Scher is the SDNN Arts & Entertainment editor.

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