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LISTENERS' BOX
July 26, 2005
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Janos Gereben's “West Bay Opera Rift”, in the July 5 Music News, appeared while I was out of the country and unable to comment. I would like to respond.
My decision to resign as General Director of West Bay Opera may have seemed sudden, but in fact it was not. I had known ever since February, when the Board approved an ambitious three-opera season for 2005-06 without accepting a budget to support it, that we were heading for a collision sooner or later. Eventually, in early June, the Board voted to limit next season's budget to the size of last year's, while still insisting that the planned repertoire be produced. There were only two full productions last year; three operas were now to be mounted for the price of two. I felt that this couldn't be done without seriously compromising the artistic standards which the company has established, and that I had to resign.
WBO President Riva Bacon's statement that the company ended each year of my tenure with a deficit is untrue. 2003-04 ended with a surplus of about $30,000. I have no access to the year-end figures for 2004-05, but when I left in mid-June we were on track to end in the black for the second year in a row.
To Bacon's charge that I "continued to hire predominantly experienced singers" I happily plead guilty. I have never accepted the argument that the WBO mission requires hiring inexperienced ones. Yes, as Bacon says, I tripled what the company spends on singers' fees. When I took over, the top fee for the largest roles was $150 per performance (with nothing for rehearsal). Enough said.
Behind it all is a deep disagreement about what West Bay Opera ought to be. The mission statement says: first, produce opera productions of the highest quality; and second, provide for the professional growth of emerging artists. I have always understood that to mean that the productions are supposed to be as professional as they can be, and that the young singers we're helping are supposed to be the talented ones who really are “emerging artists”. The folks on the other side want WBO to be a community, volunteer-driven enterprise whose mission is to present “local singers” from San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. This is the division which has, as Gereben said, split the company down the middle.
_______________________David Sloss
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