Whither San Francisco Opera?

War Memorial Opera House

Home of San Francisco Opera

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

Sigh.

Two years ago, it looked as though San Francisco Opera was in good shape, following the tenure of David Gockley, who got the Wilsey Center built, brought various functions into the Veterans Building, dealt well with the unions, increased the endowment greatly, hauled in some huge donations, and staged a new Ring production, not to mention spectacular (and expensive) productions of Les Troyens, Don Carlo, Die Meistersinger, and Jenufa.

Today, well, there's a lot to be unhappy about. The issues must have some roots; maybe Gockley didn't work quite enough magic to sustain the accomplishments, maybe the company is way behind in figuring out how to get more subscribers and donations, maybe there's stuff going on that we don't know about (yet). But there's an awful lot of belt-tightening going on at the War Memorial Opera House.

Janos Gereben has published two articles in SFCV that you should read:

• Changes and Cutbacks at SF Opera Eliminate Some Top Positions
• Report on SFO's Annual Meeting

Do click through, but, briefly, the company laid off their Director of Communications, Jon Finck; their Director of Development (person who plans strategic fundraising, especially around large gifts), Andrew Morgan; didn't fill the publications editor vacancy created in December by the departure of Matthew Erickson; and eliminated several other positions. I believe that more layoffs are coming, as well; watch this space.

Some of these layoffs don't make a lot of sense to me. Moving Communications under Marketing is rather like having technical publications under sales: the goals of the groups are in conflict and it's best to keep them away from each other.

At the Annual Meeting, the company announced the development of a strategic plan, but the details that've come out so far are basically corporate-speak: there are now vision and mission statements. The planning process took some time, and the statements are something that could have been written in, oh, an hour? so I hope there is more substance to come.

Putting together everything in these two reports, plus things that aren't happening, here's what I see:

• No music director. I don't believe it's really "we are still at the dating stage", although I think more caution than went into hiring Luisotti is merited. I believe this is an easy way to save $450,000 to $600,000 or so a year. Yes, Luisotti made around $600,000 one year; it's right there in the 990s.
• No productions in the Wilsey Center. Again, $$$.
• Eight productions / year for the foreseeable future, again, money.
• The layoffs we've seen
• The layoffs that are probably coming
• Anticipated reduction in chorus size

And just this week, a friend received this letter from the company, over Matthew Shilvock's signature:

Thank you for your support as a subscriber to the 2019–20 Season. Knowing that you are a subscriber who attends OperaVision-supported performances in the Balcony of the Opera House, it is with great sadness that I share, while we will have OperaVision this June, we will cease this service going forward.

OperaVision is a unique service that we have offered at select performances for the last decade and that has been made possible by the in-house media suite and robotic camera system installed in 2007. The equipment is now long past its expected life cycle and is becoming inoperable. Sadly, each year, we experience increasing challenges with its stability.

The purpose of the media suite was to provide both audience enhancement in the Opera House, and to facilitate commercial projects such as DVDs, cinemacasts and PBS broadcasts. We released several successful projects over the last decade, but the marketplace for commercial opera releases is exponentially harder now than in 2007. Rebuilding the media suite would cost millions of dollars and, without the commercial possibilities that existed in 2007, it does not make sense for us to further invest our financial resources into this area at this time.

It is imperative to me and the Company that our work on stage remains at a world-class level of excellence, which is our priority as we look at how best to allocate our resources. This has been a very hard decision for me and for all of us in the Company, but it is a necessary change if we are to ensure a strong, vibrant future for opera in San Francisco.

As a subscriber with seats in the Balcony for OperaVision performances, you have pre-paid a surcharge ranging from $5–$9 which was embedded into your ticket price. Due to the cancellation of this service, you have overpaid service funds that total [a figure in the mid-two-figures]. For your convenience, we have placed this amount on account in our ticketing system. You have three available options to manage your funds:

[section about logistics deleted]

Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of San Francisco Opera. With great sightlines and unsurpassed acoustics, the Balcony will remain a thrilling place from which to experience great opera in the War Memorial Opera House.

Unpacking this a bit: Shilvock is right about the difficulty of producing and selling opera releases. Unless you've got an in-demand rarity or a truly legendary singer or something special that allows to sell a DVD, it's just hopeless. SFO had some dreams about doing Met-HD-style theater broadcasts, but this came to nothing; basically, the Met got there first, and with their enormous schedule, star singers we don't get in SF, and the variety of operas they present, they nailed the market down very well.  David Gockley admitted this had been a mistake.

Also behind this: it's not just the cost of replacing equipment, however much that might cost. It's the cost of paying the people who run the media suite, the cameras, and direct operas for OperaVision. They make a huge difference; the only opera I've seen from the balcony in the last few years was one of the four Elektra performances I took in, and I tell you, the direction was great and added a lot to the performance.

This apparent poverty is really not a good thing at any time, but it's especially bad with the company's 100th season approaching. I figured there would be something special about that season; maybe more of the top-rank stars we're seeing fewer and fewer of or not seeing at all*, maybe a commission, maybe the return of a few important operas that had their US premiere here or that haven't been performed in decades (yes, I'm thinking of Die Frau ohne Schatten, Dialogues of the Carmelites, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and more). Maybe every last penny being saved in going into the anniversary fund, but it's a mighty odd way to proceed.


* Anna Netrebko, Sonya Yoncheva, Peter Mattei, for example. The SFO regulars are Brian Mulligan, Ellie Dehn, Heidi Stober, all of whom, I like, but I'm not exactly sure of their international stature. Yeah, we're far away from Europe, but look back at the days when Leontyne Price, Leonie Rysanek, etc. were regulars. Also exemplary of this: it was widely rumored that Sonya Yoncheva would be Donna Elvira in the upcoming Ernani, but when the season was announced, it was Michelle Bradley. Was Yoncheva ever on board? Did she withdraw? Prove too expensive? We will never know.