A Ray of Light on Broad Street

Donations, Truncations Ensure Survival for Philadelphia Orchestra

A new day is dawning for the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Photo of the Kimmel Center from its Tumblr page.

Things are looking up for the Philadelphia Orchestra. The organization announced yesterday that they have been successful raising funds for next season, and may be on the road out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

According to a report in The New York Times, the orchestra has raised $27.5 million in pledges and support for next season, as well as wooing some new major corporate donors. $16.3 million of the money was raised in the form of "challenge grants", which must be met by the end of the year. The orchestra's goal is to plump the endowment by $100 million in the next 5 years, and raise $60 million for artistic purposes.

The Philadelphia Orchestra board rocked the music industry in April when it announced that the venerable organization had elected to file Chapter 11 in the face of mounting debt. Philadelphia is one of the "Big Five" orchestras, an elite quintet considered the best orchestras in this country. (The others are the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.)

The crisis in Philadelphia was caused by a number of factors. In 2001, the orchestra moved from the small Academy of Music to the larger, more expensive Verizon Hall, (part of the Kimmell Center) down the street. Add in the economic collapse of 2008, which caused a drop in subscriptions and donations, the twin elixirs that keep an orchestra afloat. Finally, the collapse of the classical recording industry stripped the orchestra of a valuable revenue stream.

The Orchestra has also faced a crisis of leadership. The last music director, Christoph Eschenbach left on a bad note. The orchestra has been in the custody of chief conductor Charles Dutoit for the last few years. A new music director, the energetic French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin, is tabbed to take over the ensemble starting in 2012.

Mr. Nézet-Séguin will inherit a somewhat different organization. The 2011-2012 concert schedule has been slashed by 15%, with the cuts affecting the number of performances in a week. International touring has been cancelled for the foreseaable future. However, the orchestra will maintain its successful summer series at SPAC, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Changes to the company's traditional programming and schedule will include concerts featuring film music, complete operas in a concert setting, and occasional forays back to the cozy, nostalgic confines of the Academy. The Philadelphia board also announced a renewed interest in pops programming, even as the orchestra struggles to renegotiate its contract with faded '60s pop star Peter Nero.

The Salzburg Switcheroo

There's a new sheriff in Salzburg. And a new orchestra too.

Christan Thielemann

Starting in 2013, the Festival will be anchored by the Dresden Staatskapelle and its new music director, Christian Thielemann. Mr. Thielemann will also take the post of Festival music director, and will divide his time between Salzburg, Dresden, and other international commitments. He replaces Sir Simon Rattle.

According to a report in today's New York Times, the switch came because of a contract dispute between the Berlin players and the Salzburg Festival. The Berliners decided to take up a residency at Baden-Baden. But Dresden's orchestra is a world-class ensemble. Although they are not as well known outside of Germany, they are considered one of the great German ensembles, with a tone and timbre of their very own.

This is the second major Festival appointment for Mr. Thielemann, a Berlin-born maestro whose best performances recall the conducting of Wilhelm Furtwängler. His other conducting jobs have included the Munich Philharmonic and the Deutsches Oper Berlin. In 2008, Mr. Thielemann accepted the post of artistic advisor at the Bayreuth Festival, dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner. He has conducted and recorded a number of Wagner operas at Bayreuth, including a complete Ring.

Since its founding by Herbert von Karajan in 1967, the Salzburg Easter Festival (planned as a companion piece to the summer Salzburg Festival, has been the springtime home of the Berlin Philharmonic. The Festival offers a week of concert and operas in the Austrian city that was the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and is one of the most important international festivals.

Anna Netrebko Cancels Japan Jaunt

Diva withdraws from Met tour, citing Chernobyl concerns.

She'll take her candle and go home. Anna Netrebko in a publicity photo for Anna Bolena.
Photo © 2011 The Metropolitan Opera.

The Metropolitan Opera is on its way to Japan, but Anna Netrebko is not.

The Russian diva, scheduled to sing Mimi in the company's touring production of La bohéme has announced her 11th-hour withdrawal from the tour. The decision was announced last night in a New York Times article by Daniel J. Wakin. The article included the following statement from the Met press office: "Ms. Netrebko changed her mind having lived through the tragedy of Chernobyl." You can read the full article here.

The decision of Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb to carry on the Japan tour despite the danger of leaked radiation from the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima has been an unpopular one at the world's most famous opera company. The company arrived in Japan last night.

Ms. Netrebko is the fifth major artist to cancel on the Met's ill-starred tour of the Orient. So far, casualties include tenors Jonas Kaufman and Joseph Calleja, who both cited concerns about radiation leakage from the damaged nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Olga Borodina cancelled, citing a need to rest her voice. Conductor James Levine, who is taking a five-month sabbatical for health reasons.


But the soprano, whose face adorns the Met's current marketing campaign and season ticket drive, is currently the biggest star at the Met. The diva is scheduled to open the season with a new production of Donizetti's Anna Bolena, a Metropolitan Opera premiere. In March, she will sing the title role in a new staging of Manon. Both performances will be included in the Met's schedule of Live in HD broadcasts for next year.

The Met's tour includes presentations of La bohéme, Lucia di Lammermoor and the company's new staging of Don Carlo. The cancellations have required some role shuffling. Barbara Frittoli, scheduled to sing Elisabeth in Don Carlo, will switch over to Bohéme. Russian soprano Marina Poplavskaya, who created the role of Elisabeth in this production, will step in to sing the role. She cancelled a Moscow concert appearance to join the Met in Japan.

The touring company includes 350 Met stage hands, extras, and musicians. The roster of and an impressive roster of singers: Mariusz Kwiecen, John Relyea, Rene Pape, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Diana Damrau. Tenors Marcelo Álvarez and Rolando Villazon, returning after a lengthy hiatus due to voice problems, will add firepower to the three productions. Met principal guest conductor Fabio Luisi will take James Levine's place on the podium. Gianandrea Noseda will also conduct.

The Met's two-week tour will conclude on June 14 with a concert in Tokyo. The program of that concert is listed as "TBA."

Curiouser and Curiouser

Labor Injunctions May Kibosh City Opera Exit Plan

"I can't fix the budget, Alice. I'm just a flamingo."
Illustration from Alice in Wonderland by John Tenniel.

"He sent them word I had not gone
(We know it to be true):
If she should push the matter on,
What would become of you?"
--Lewis Carroll

Just when you thought things couldn't get any weirder for the once-proud New York City Opera, an announcement today has the opera company falling further down a metaphorical rabbit hole of their own making.

Today, the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) which is the musician's union for opera, dance and concert musicians (in other words: the union of the New York City Opera's singers, choristers, and production staff) filed unfair labor practices against City Opera.

The charges accuse the opera company of bargaining with the artists in bad faith as the deadline to renew their contract came and went. City Opera is coming off a disastrous 2010-2011 season which saw the once proud company presenting obscure operas (A Quiet Place, Intermezzo, Séance on a Wet Afternoon) to 40% capacity houses.

Opera Strikes Out

How the City Opera mirrors the New York Mets

In 1999, the Mets added black to their classic logo,
with mixed (that is, ugly) results.
Image ™the New York Mets Baseball Club
and Major League Baseball.

Growing up in New York, my childhood was defined by two New York organizations: the New York City Opera and the New York Mets. As I write this, both organizations face disaster.

The City Opera is homeless, having announced a move out of the former New York State Theater. The opera company has frittered its endowment in recent years. The Mets, with the third-highest payroll in baseball for the last three seasons, are operating with an annual deficit of $70 million.

And they say there's no parallel between opera and sports.

According to team owner Fred Wilpon (in a recent Sports Illustrated article) $21 million of the club's $142 million dollar payroll is spent on former Mets players signed to long-term contracts, including the much-loathed Bobby Bonilla and pitcher Bret Saberhagen. In 2007 the City Opera board hired Belgian impresario Gerard Mortier as its new general manager to replace the outgoing Paul Kellogg. Mr. Mortier never produced an opera in New York City, but was paid handsomely for his trouble.

His replacement, George Steel (who arrived in New York after a whole 3 and a half months of running the Dallas Opera) made a huge mistake to start his administration. Desperate for money, he ceded the company's rights to use the State Theater in September and October to the New York City Ballet. This created a truncated schedule of five operas: two in the fall and three in the spring. This decision stripped City Opera of its eminence as the company, losing its leadoff spot and delaying the start of the fall cultural calendar in New York. (Formerly, the City Opera opened the Tuesday after Labor Day, three weeks before the Metropolitan Opera next door.)

In 2009, the City Opera
made the same mistake.
Image © New York City Opera.

Mr. Steel chose to experiment on his rapidly shrinking audience, presenting operas that few people came to see in 2011. (I saw them, but as the writer of this blog, that's sort of my job.) Bad marketing, ugly poster art, and a tin ear for what New York audiences want combined to create a perfect disaster of a season, capped by the bomb that was Stephen Schwartz' first opera, Séance on a Wet Afternoon.

The Mets also have trouble at the box office. Their spiffy new ballpark, CitiField, is a hi-tech, plush ghost town, with yawning sections of over-priced green seats that are just begging to be tarped off for the sake of the television cameras.

But that's nothing compared to the Mets' biggest problem. Although the team has a secure (if empty) home at CitiField, the Wilpons and co-owner Saul Katz are being sued by Irving H. Picard, a victim of Wall Street fraud-meister Bernie Madoff. Mr. Picard wants $700 million to recoup losses from Mr. Madoff, who is currently jailed for operating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme disguised as an investment fund. The Madoff fingerprints have appeared on the Mets finances, including the monies paid out the Mets' ballplayers. The Wilpons, desperate for cash to meet their $142 million payroll, are willing to sell as much as 49% of the team to parties unknown.


Since becoming Major League Baseball's first expansion team in 1962, the Mets have labored in the shadow of the cross-town New York Yankees and their 27 world championships. Since their founding in 1947, the City Opera has lived in the shadow of their former neighbors at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera. But while the Metropolitan Opera has a 2011-2012 season scheduled, the NYCO has no season announcement yet. No money is coming in from ticket sales or subscriptions to operas that may not exist at a venue that remains unannounced. Nobody wants to make the donations that are the lifeblood of performing arts in this country.

Currently, both organizations face the abyss. City Opera is down to just $5 million of what was once an eight-figure endowment fund. Seeking to save on an annual rent of $4.5 million, the company has moved out of Lincoln Center, destination unknown. As of this writing, no operas scheduled yet for next year, although general manager George Steel has promised that a slate of "five operas" is coming soon. Whoopee. As for the Mets? Well, I'm going to baseball in the Bronx this year.

Wherever They May Roam

Ten Possible Locations for the New York City Opera

The Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, currently moored by Riker's Island.

Friday evening's announcement by City Opera general manager George Steel that the company would depart Lincoln Center caused huge waves in the opera community. Mr. Steel stated that the company would be moving to a new performance space, producing two large opera productions and three small-scale works. But where they're going is anyone's guess. Here are some helpful Superconductor suggestions.

1) Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center
Where is it? Better known as the Riker's Island Prison Barge
Pros: Mobile venue, enabling the company to perform in all five boroughs. Modest seating capacity for opera. Easy to house singers and choristers if needed. Guaranteed audience.
Cons: There's already a floating opera house in Bregenz, Austria. Captive audience may not like opera.

2) New York City Center
Where is it? The recently renovated former home of the City Opera from 1947 until its move to Lincoln Center is on West 55th St. Still used for ballet and theater performances.
Pros: They say you can't go home again.
Cons: It's like moving back in with your parents.

A computer rendering of the Barclays Center, under construction in downtown Brooklyn. © SHoP Architects.

3) Barclays Center
Where is it? The new basketball arena being built on what's left of downtown Brooklyn.
Pros: Good access to subway, LIRR.
Cons: Angry Brooklynites. No parking. But they should have thought of this before building the arena, no?

4) Best Buy Theater
Where is it? Subterranean concert venue in Times Square.
Pros: Nice acoustics, lounge ambience, escalators, nearby dining.
Cons: Snarky articles in certain newspapers about opera becoming an "underground" art form.

5) Brooklyn Academy of Music: Howard Gilman Opera House
Where is it? 30 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn.
Pros: Classic opera house where Enrico Caruso sang his last performance.
Cons: Too logical a choice.

An aerial view of the Owls Head treatment plant.

6) Owls' Head Wastewater Treatment Plant
Where is it? On the waterfront in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Pros: Spacious, wide waterfront location. Park nearby. Spectacular views of Staten Island and New Jersey. Convenient to the Belt Parkway.
Cons: Should speak for themselves.

7) The Beacon Theatre
Where is it? 2124 Broadway on the Upper West Side.
Pros: Good acoustics and old-fashioned theater ambiance.
Cons: Cirque de Soleil's Banana Shpeel is a tough act to follow. Plus there's a risk of performances of La bohéme being picketed by angry Allman Brothers fans.

8) Walter A. Damrosch Park
Where is it? 63rd St. and Amsterdam Avenue
Pros: Short commute as it's next to the former New York State Theater.
Cons: Located (quite literally) in the shadow of the Met. And didn't they say they were leaving Lincoln Center?

9) Crif Dogs
Where is it? 113 St. Marks Place
Pros: Good on-site cuisine. Small space, ideal for intimate operas. Has its own speak-easy (complete with hidden entrance) for board meetings and public functions.
Cons: It smells like hot dogs.

The American Dreams Meadowlands,
or what it would look like if it had opened as the Xanadu Mall.

10) American Dream Meadowlands (formerly "Xanadu Mall.")
Where is it? Unfinished boondoggle of a sports and entertainment complex located in the Meadowlands next to the new football stadium.
Pros: Large, flexible venue. Caters to opera fans who like to tailgate before the performance. Easy to add a gift shop. Has its own ski slope for future revivals of Intermezzo.
Cons: It's in frickin' New Jersey! And it's not opening until 2013.

Once Fabulous, Now Bankrupt

The Philadelphia Orchestra Board Files Chapter 11

Poster art for the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Image © Milton Glaser.

The big (if awful) news in music this weekend was the announcement that the Philadelphia Orchestra's board has elected to file Chapter 11 and begin bankruptcy proceedings. This decision follows a week of concerts where musicians lobbied against the decision, even staging a "play-in" impromptu concert in protest.

Philadelphia is one of the premium American orchestras, a member of the elite cadre known informally as the "Big Five." (The others are the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.) It rose to fame thanks to a series of great music directors (including Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti) and a distinct "Philadelphia Sound", a rounded, warm tone that permeates their performances.

This announcement comes hard on the heels of the decision by the Pew Charitable Trusts to not participate in the band's fiscal reorganization. Pew has long been a major fiscal contributor to the orchestra.

The orchestra is the first major American orchestra to engage in such a filing. The board's decision comes despite the band having a $140 million endowment. Orchestra personnel are worried that the filing may negate their pensions, and cause the best players in the ensemble to seek positions with other orchestras. Also, the board has announced a new fundraising effort in addition to the restructuring process.

The economic collapse of 2008 and the end of steady recording contracts with the classical music industry have combined to make this a difficult time for classical music. Unlike their European counterparts, American orchestras are almost entirely dependent on donations and subscriptions for their continued survival.

The decision does not affect the orchestra's imminent concert schedule, which includes a May 3 appearance at Carnegie Hall.