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The inside story of San Diego Opera's demise
I'm a native San Diegan who has been gone for too many years. I saw my first opera in the old Russ Auditorium before the San Diego Opera was incorporated. My late parents were long time subscribers and supporters of the opera. The blunt fact is that opera is incredibly expensive to produce and the company manager either has to continually fund raise or reduce the audience's expectations. We had a similar struggle here in DC with the Washington Opera which was driven into the ground by Placido Domingo's mismanagement and had to be taken over by the Kennedy Center. The opera season was reduced in terms of productions and performances of each one. Even with this attendance was on a downward spiral. I gave up my season tickets several years ago because the same operas were being repeated and I didn't want to see them again. I agree with Mr. Bauder's assessment that 'grand' opera is on the decline and it's a pity. I see no real good solution. Opera nights at the symphony and concert opera are poor substitutes. We will have the Met in the theater performances and there will be enterprising small companies crop up from time to time to make a go of it. By my reading, Ian Campbell did a good job of running the San Diego company. Whether he was over paid or has some form of golden parachute is still to be determined. The company really needed a nice size opera theater but that's an expensive proposition (we went through the same thing here in Washington and even had property donated from a wealthy benefactor but it proved to be illusionary). I'm saddened to see the demise of the opera.— March 25, 2014 3:25 p.m.