Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
The end of the 2013-14 season was a turbulent time for the San Diego Opera (SDO); its ex-General Director, Ian Campbell, declared that the city could no longer support his vision of grand opera and as a result, the organization should be shuttered. An influential faction with the SDO board decided to go along with the plan but things went sour for Campbell’s plan and the SDO is alive and well …
On 5/20/2014, Opera America (OA) published a statement about the San Diego Opera and related issues as they apply to the opera field. The statement acknowledges the difficulties opera organizations have been experiencing since the economic downturn but unlike similar efforts (remember Red Alert?) it conveys a meaningful upbeat message that doesn’t fall prey to self-deceiving, Pollyannaish nonsense. For instance, OA doesn’t mince words when it comes to difficulties: But instead …
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 …
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 …