San Diego Opera stops operations on April 13th.
Spokespeople have blamed "ticket sales and fundraising", "labor intensive" staging, "An aging and dying patron base", "The reality that the children of opera-goers are not becoming opera-goers themselves", and "The reality that it took nearly 290 people to stage top-quality productions". To no one's surprise, they left out FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT. Whenever an arts organization dies, there is always a deluge of articles blaming the people patronizing the organization instead of the people running it, and I for one am sick of the lies.
Chairwoman of the board Karen Cohn said “After 28 consecutive years of balanced budgets, it was clear that we could not continue,’’ - because when you're doing well, it's time to close down. “In spite of excellent financial management, the Opera faced increasingly higher ticket-sale and fund-raising hurdles.” - because excellent financial management causes companies to shut down. Remember, it's not the people spending the company's money that caused the company to close, it's YOU, the “aging and dying patron base” or the uncultured youth that won't support the arts, depending on which of her quotes you read. If you have “excellent financial management”, you don't say that “the company’s finances were eroding to the point where its only viable course was to cease operations” and then shut down the company with “a 33-1 vote”.
“Given the size of its budget, the opera had to raise a significant amount of money annually as tickets covered only a third of its $15 million budget”. Yes, a real life company that's been going for 75 years relies on donations for 2/3 of it's budget. This is what we call an unsustainable business model, and it amazes me they didn't close sooner. “Iris Lynn Strauss, who has been on the board for 23 years and with her husband, Matthew Strauss, contributed $500,000 toward the 2013 season.” Immediately after this paragraph, they say this: “With its patrons apparently on the brink of what opera staff have characterized as “donor exhaustion,” its biggest benefactors were unwilling to invest the $10 million that Campbell said is needed to keep the company going.”
Oh no shit. You're telling me all the people that donate a half mil a year are tired of it? In literally ADJACENT paragraphs in the Union-Tribune San Diego, we have “The opera’s board, and at times (the CEO) himself from the Civic Theatre stage, pointed with pride to years of balanced budgets, even during the recession” and “As part of the nearly $10 million they had to raise each year, they had spent down, at the rate of $1 million a year, a $10 million bequest made by Joan Kroc in 2003”. So when a single donor straight-up gave you your entire fundraising goal for the whole year, you still couldn't make it work.
What is this money paying for? Well, “The opera lists 117 employees on its roster”, and to no one's surprise, CEO Ian Campbell's salary is the highest in the company at $508,021, or 5% of the money they have to raise every year, if you want to look at it that way. “San Diego Opera’s recent “A Masked Ball” utilized a total of 268 people, including ... 92 singers, actors and dancers on stage” Wait wait wait... so for one production you had to more than DOUBLE your staff? Wait... 92 singers? I'm confused, “Un ballo in maschera” has 10 roles and I am currently in an IU production of “Traviata” with a chorus of 38, meaning it can be done with 48 people, but you require nearly DOUBLE that amount? It's numbers like this that pass by unquestioned in these articles, that really start to add up after 30 years of doing 5 shows a year.
We've already seen that this company bizarrely earns only a third of its income through sales, about $5 million. And yet “The production budget for “A Masked Ball” was $2.4 million.” Let's look at this in manufacturing terms. They use ½ of their sales to manufacture 1/5 of their product, and rely on other people for the rest. This is what's known as an unsustainable business model. For this season, they tried to raise more money by jacking up tickets “to $280 on opening night for each of the four productions that comprised the 2014 season”. Does that seem like an expensive ticket? Well guess what, in order to BREAK EVEN at their $15 million operating budget, they would have had to sell out every single seat of every single performance at a cost of $240 a seat. What was that term I used again? Something about unsustainable?
In the San Diego reader: “Ian Campbell, general and artistic director, said, "We saw we faced an insurmuntable (sic) financial hurdle going forward", and does not say what that is. When you don't tell someone something, it's because you don't want them to know, usually because it's embarrassing. Campbell said this of his own fundraising efforts: “For over 30 years, I was on the board and the advisory board of San Diego Opera, and I was a donor. Every time I gave a speech, the group would give $200 to the opera. I raised from $5000 on the low side to $12,500 on the high side over the years.” First of all, if you give a financial estimate that could be off by as much as 250%, you shouldn't be allowed to handle money. Second, this means that over 30 years Campbell did 1 to 2 fundraising press events a year which is pathetic. I would work a little harder than that to peddle my wares to anyone who would listen, in the interest of keeping my $508,021 salary.
Their final show, the Verdi Requiem, features 4 of the most famous classical singers in the world. “Well it has to, otherwise we won't sell any tickets!” You know what? This may come as a shock to you, but you don't have to sell as many tickets if you don't spend as much money. I go drinking on weekends with people that could sing it just as well at a tenth of the cost. “Opera is the pinnacle of the performing arts and it is the most challenging, the most glorious thing you can do on stage,” said Christopher Beach, president and artistic director of the La Jolla Music Society. You know what, Christopher? No it fucking isn't. Ian Campbell and his Board don't get to take the role of Avenging Cultural Angel by playing up the value of opera as self-evident, as something inherently deserving of support because ART and FEELINGS and MAGIC, especially when dozens of people's real-life jobs are on the line. A business has to produce, it has to be cost-effective, and it has to fill a need. It's time for these people to face the music and to learn what their “aging and dying patron base” already knows: you can't spend more than you make.
One person painted the Mona Lisa using homemade brushes and homemade paint.
