Opera struggles at The Met, Chautauqua,and Philadelphia

It's been a rough summer for opera. For starters, Opera News, a publication of the Metropolitan Opera Guild, has announced that its operations will be folded into the British publication Opera magazine starting in December. Opera News started in 1936 and had a circulation of about 43,000. It generally focused on covering opera in the U.S. the Metropolitan Opera specifically.

The event that sparked the end of Opera News was, indeed, the end of the Metropolitan Opera Guild itself. The Guild was established in 1935 with the aim of supporting the Met during the financial downturn known as The Great Depression. Guild membership started at $85 per year and included a subscription to Opera News.

The Met is currently having financial problems after COVID and has found itself competing with the Guild for support from the same people. The Guild will compensate its 20 or so employees before laying them off. The hope is that the Met will hire some of them.

The Opera Chautauqua Company has been producing full-scale opera performances since 1927. They have announced that after 2024 those productions will be stripped down to a workshop format. The number of singers in the young artist program will be reduced from 24 to eight. The company sighted a lack of ticket sales as the primary financial obstacle.

Opera Philadelphia is reducing its $11 million budget by $1.5 million and pushing some productions out to future seasons. David Devan is stepping down from his roles as the general director and president, he has held these positions since 2011.

WHYY.org reports, “Devan has been the executive director for 12 years. In that time, he turned Opera Philadelphia into an industry leader by seeking out contemporary works, nurturing new composers with commissions and residencies, and aggressively pivoting to digital productions during the height of the pandemic.”

I am predicting that Opera Philadelphia will continue to reduce its budget and will be an empty husk within the next five years. If Opera Philadphia’s business model is so robust, why is it reducing its budget, firing staff, and losing its general director?

Let me make this absolutely clear. There is no way to sustain an opera company that seeks out contemporary works. I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about opera companies becoming museums because they aren’t producing new operas. 

What’s wrong with museums? Museums play a vital role in the survival of culture. 

I will save the rant that is building in my heart for a future article because, on August 16, Renata Scotto died. Scotto debuted at La Scala in 1953. She continued to sing on the world stage for another 50 years. She is the Butterfly on my favorite recording of Giacomo Puccini’s *Madama Butterfly*. Scotto died in her hometown of Savona, Italy. She was 89.