TRI-CITIES OPERA UNTAMED!!!

TRI-CITIES OPERA UNTAMED!!!

Written by:  Stephen M. Dell’Aversano – Special Guest Writer – 05/10/2016 via FB – Published by Wood News Agency, LLC @ 6:12PM ET

TCO has indeed struggled financially for the last several years, as have many arts organizations in this area. What is different, however, is that unlike many of those organizations who have a made a conscious decision to directly reach out to their audience for input in what they want to see, they instead have taken the approach that so many other opera companies have and gone the route of deciding for the audience what they themselves think will continue to make them culturally relevant to both their current aging audience and the newer audiences they must develop to survive. So far, this has been a recipe for disaster.

As someone with a history with TCO going back to my moving here in the early 1990s, I can say from firsthand knowledge this is not the first time TCO finds itself in this unenviable financial and artistic position. I have volunteered for the company, been its costume designer, helped build a rental business to help pay its bills, performed in numerous productions and served as the Vice Chair of its Board, so I understand the rewards and challenges of producing opera in our area, I agree with Dr. Bogdasarian that opera can still engage everyone. However, to do so in this rapidly changing society is to truly ENGAGE your audience.

In the past TCO has actually asked audience members what THEY wanted to see on stage through comment cards and surveys, and each and every time, those at the helm pretty much ignored those requests. Too expensive, not the right singers, too complex, and on and on. True enough, TCO would never be able to, for example, put on a full-blown version of AIDA, but what about a staged version with projections, contemporary sets/costumes and creative direction? Never even considered. Or how about a true American opera like THE BALLAD OF BABY DOE that could be done creatively and help build a newer audience. These are just two examples of operas that the audience HAS asked to see and not once have they been considered. Not once in my tenure with the company did SWEENEY TODD (an absolute favorite of mine, but for the record according to its creator, Stephen Sondheim, is NOT an opera but a show in the French Grand Guignol tradition of hyper naturalistic horror set to music) come up as an audience “must see.” The show was indeed interesting (Jenni Bank and the chorus being the most properly idiomatic and outstanding contributors to the show), but hearing the conversations from young and old alike in the lobby at intermission, afterwards, and in the week following the show, I do not believe TCO will see much of a bump in its audience as a result. Dr. Bogdasarian speaks about the importance of American opera, and yet much of that repertoire that would be new to local audiences and not be so far out of the mainstream is still virtually ignored.

Even more problematic is the change in venues planned for next season. Next year will see a season with not a single fully staged opera at The Forum—not one. Instead, they plan to do a single, costumed (but not staged) concert performance of LA TRAVIATA at The Forum and the remainder of the shows will be held at the newly refurbished, but still cramped Opera Center on Clinton Street. A similar cost-saving tactic was employed some years ago when performances were cut from 4 shows, then to 3 then to the current two, but always there have been major shows at The Forum. Never before in the company’s history have finances been so desperate that they have abandoned fully staged shows on a full stage. It is THOSE shows that bring the “grand” to the opera experience, and without that crucial component, TCO walks down a path from which it may simply not recover. The subscriber base continues to age out and dwindle, and I for one cannot see subscribers paying a premium price to see operas in a theatre space with two small bathrooms, inadequate parking in a sometimes dicey part of town and sitting on folding metal chairs.

The statement about honoring the legacy of Carmen and Peyton I also find rather disingenuous. Despite our differences (of which there were many), having known them and worked with them for many years, I can safely say that Carmen for one is quite simply rolling over in his grave at the direction his company is taking. For all his faults, Carmen KNEW his audience and while he may not always have listened to them, he at least knew what they were looking for and how to keep that synergy alive. Singers were groomed sometimes for years and integrated into the community so that individuals like Guido LeBron, Jake Gardner, Cynthia Clarey and others could fill houses long before they moved on to national and international acclaim not only because they were phenomenal singers, but because they were beloved by the community. We saw a bit of that excitement return with the much-delayed debut of Jenni Bank to the TCO stage, but it is perhaps too little too late. Relations between the Opera Program at SUNY Binghamton are still far from ideal, the Young Artists Program is a mere shell of what it was at its height, and the connection of TCO to the community, as a result, is in many ways non-existent.

So what does all this mean for the ultimate viability of TCO? I do not have the answers, but it is important to point out some of the challenges—both external and self-imposed—that lay ahead for the company. Younger audiences are essential, but they are also fickle and self-driven; arts organizations ignore them at their peril. They must however be balanced with the core audience that pays the bulk of subscriptions and ready cash—and that is the older audience. Perhaps a first step might be that instead of just programming their seasons in a vacuum, TCO take the opposite approach and truly ENGAGE the audience they wish to attract in the process. Presenting traditional operas in new ways can be one step. Truly challenge and Involve the audience in the experience instead of just “programming” at them. Only then will you capture their interest—and their financial support.

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