While You Were Out

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Over the weekend:

- The General Director of Baltimore Opera has stepped down to spend more time with his son who is critically ill. The Company acknowledges "cash flow problems" and the season is "expected to proceed" which is some odd language that has us here at Aria Serious crossing our fingers, hoping we're just a wee bit paranoid.

- Washington National Opera has postponed the remainder of its Ring Cycle indefinitely, citing the economy as the culprit. All accounts from Los Angeles Opera is that their Ring is still moving ahead as scheduled.
Updated to add: WNO has a statement about this here as well as some hints about the upcoming season, which sounds great.

- The lovely Opera Tattler tells news at WNO postponing their Ring affects San Francsico Opera as SFO is a co-producer of the Ring. A postponement means SFO would have to pay for all of Götterdämmerung. Reports also say costs are being cut and the cinecasts might not continue.

- Edo de Waart, the conductor of Santa Fe Opera, has stepped down, citing family commitments and trouble adjusting to the high altitude of of Santa Fe.

- Speaking of conductors playing musical chairs, Maestro Muti walks out in a huff over a birthday celebration for the Prince of Wales after the Queen of England gets involved with the programming.

- Boston Lyric Opera has a new leader and for the first time, Esther Nelson shares her plans for the Company.

-- Edward

Comments

Anonymous said…
Please fact check your comments about Washington National Opera's Ring cycle--the company will indeed mount a FULL Siegfried in Spring 09, as planned. We will also mount concert performances of Gotterdammerung, thus completing the cycle we started a few seasons ago. In addition, we are offering a full season of opera (full details announced in January). It is true that the full cycle is postponed, in light of the recent national economic downturn and the enormous additional costs associated with mounting the full Ring.

A full statement with details on the postponement is available at http://www.dc-opera.org/ourseason/americanring.asp
November 10, 2008 at 2:07 PM
Anonymous said…
Anonymous,

Sounds like the facts are correct. It sounds a postponement to me.

Is San Diego Opera OK? You gotta admit, not the most cultured city in the world. Good luck. (Guess I should buy my ticket to Peter Grimes now.)
November 11, 2008 at 9:19 AM
San Diego Opera said…
OperaMan,

I think you can deduce that times are tough all over the world (just read the business section of any paper) but we are strong and make very sound decisions. The artistic quality you've come to expect is not going anywhere. Now about those Peter Grimes tickets -- you want one for you entire family, right?
November 11, 2008 at 11:32 AM
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