The Price of Doing It All?

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The Washington Post ran an analysis this morning on Washington National Opera's growth and the hands-off leadership of the incredibly busy Maestro Domingo who is General Director of that Company, Los Angeles Opera, a conductor, a singer, an occasional voice actor and more... This analysis comes after National Opera announced a scaled down 5-opera season with a season budget reduced by roughly $5 million.

The one thing that struck me as odd was this statement in the article, which you can read in its entirety here:

WNO officials are no doubt relieved that they canceled the "Ring" when they look at the Los Angeles Opera, which went ahead with its own "Ring" plans and in December had to get an emergency $14 million bailout from Los Angeles County.

And for some reason it didn't dawn on me until now - two "Rings" from two different Companies, run by the same person. Wouldn't it have made more sense to do one "Ring" and divide the costs between Companies?

Of course, we here at Aria Serious aren't financial whizzes or Artistic Planners. We just love opera because it makes us feel warm inside...

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