Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Update: 1:08pm CT: The San Diego Opera has announced that they will stay open for business and they have posted details for the 20115 season which includes productions of La Boheme, Don Giovanni, Nixon In China, and a 50th Anniversary Celebration Concert. Today marks the self-imposed deadline for the San Diego Opera (SDO) to reach its fundraising goal in order to determine whether or not the organization will carry out a …
Arguably, the orchestra field’s two nastiest labor disputes at larger budget orchestras since the economic downturn have been the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra; and now that the latter has seemingly tied up the last of the most prominent loose ends, it will be interesting to juxtapose how each organization manages to cope with post dispute activity. Although these organizations represent some of the worst in labor disputes, it …
The San Diego Opera (SDO) is one step closer to defusing the self-destruct mechanism triggered by its recently departed executive board members and General and Artistic Director and CEO Ian Campbell. In a 4/25/2014 press statement, the SDO announced that Campbell and Ann Spira Campbell, SDO Deputy General Director (and Ian Campbell’s ex-wife), have been placed on paid leave and that SDO Executive Director Keith Fisher has been moved into the …
Following last week’s board meeting at the San Diego Opera (SDO), several key board members responsible for the initial decision to shut down the company resigned, including SDO Board President Karen Cohn. This doesn’t come as an unexpected surprise but the real curiosity here is the retention of the company’s general and artistic director, Ian Campbell; a figure many believe is the source of this quake. The remaining board members announced …
The 4/15/2014 edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune published an article by Pam Kragen that examines recent developments at the San Diego Opera (SDO). Of particular interest is news of a new voice in the discussion that may be just what the situation needs to embrace a new plan capable of keeping the company going. Worth noting is the introduction of Opera America (OA), the national service organization for opera, into …