Opinion: Opera Has An Access Problem
(Santa Fe, NM) - Opera is our favorite art form. We wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t true. However, three years of pandemic (and pandemic-light) brought opera industry failings into much sharper focus, including force majeured soloists, racial and gender disparities, YAP application fees, #MeToo and more. OI was also troubled by these issues, but committed to championing innovators, doing our best to also spotlight wrongs constructively in real-time.
As we enter our fourth year, we believe opera has an access problem.
THE WORK
Try to recall what the thought of going to an opera felt like before being a fan. Were you already interested in classical music? Classical voice? Did you have a preconceived notion of what it’d be like? The first opera I saw as an adult was Hans Werner Henze’s Das verratene Meer, a new piece, which made its US premiere at San Francisco Opera in November 1991. I’d been invited by Brian Asawa, an Adler Fellow at the time, who’d snagged a house seat for me (he was performing in this piece). Unfortunately, this was a terrible first opera for uninitiated me. Equipped with one Figaro for kids, the film DIVA and The Three Tenors on PBS, none of that helped me access this opera, enjoy it, stay awake or convert me to the art form. Opera became a nonstarter for 18 years, until the first five minutes of Natalie Dessay in Santa Fe’s Traviata changed that.
The rep is the rep. But is it sustainable or, more importantly, successful with ROI? La Bohème, Tosca, Rigoletto, Carmen and other warhorses draw audiences in major houses, especially with established stars. Unlike Das verratene Meer, these are the gateway, first operas everyone should see. But will works created by white European men decades or hundreds of years ago continue to succeed as profitable endeavors, while also drawing new audiences? Are we limited to a diet of classics? Of course not. Met Opera, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas, Santa Fe, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco have varying track records of commissioning and mounting new works by Black, Latino and Female composers. Problematic operas continue to be performed, but they’re no longer flying quite so easily under popular culture’s radar.
So, how does opera evolve, becoming a better, more broadly representative art form, banishing the optics of an elitist, costly industry with diminishing returns? A recent New York Times piece answered many of these questions.
Faced with only 40% sell through of it recent “Don Carlo,” along with a cash shortage and overall weak, post-pandemic ticket sales , Met Opera dipped into its endowment to the tune of $30MM. Per Javier C. Hernandez’s piece, this also “accelerate(d) (Met Opera’s) embrace of contemporary works, which, in a shift, have been outselling the classics.” Hernandez deftly covers how 2021’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” and 2022’s “The Hours” were sell out smashes, timely and contemporary new operas that will return to the Met Opera stage next season. Adding to financial concerns, major donors are less enthusiastic as a recession looms, but MO’s shift represents pure business mindset, our great American house - and its leadership - actively paving a way for profitable new works by diverse composers, no longer late to the party; major donors want to be on a winning team, this reset indicates they recognize what audiences are embracing / accessing, with ROI.
So why do Met Opera’s recent moves matter if other national companies have long been moving towards more diverse, original and accessible programming? Because as Met Opera goes, so goes the American opera industry. It was always best practice to launch these new works, but Met Opera has demonstrated that profit happens when a company becomes directly responsive to its audience - present and future. Seismic.
THE WORKPLACE
Looking under the hood of opera can be an interesting experience, good and bad. Given our corporate and business consulting experience inside and outside opera, as well as experiences shared with us by opera professionals, some companies, in our estimation, function more like private country clubs, not public facing businesses; attempting to professionally engage an art form or build a career inside this framework can be incredibly difficult and is perhaps only suited for the bravest, most innovative individuals who understand how to successfully navigate it. We stand by this analogy, but if you disagree, that’s ok. Even with a board of directors, appropriate leadership, divisions, etc., some companies feel like first cousins to top-down, 1950s Hollywood studio systems, not the mission-based, corporately responsible organizations with checks and balances they aspire or purport to be (hold that thought).
If there’s little to no diversity in a given company’s workforce - if a diverse field of applicants don’t feel welcomed or have fair access to or consideration for that company’s professional opportunities - it will be directly and often negatively reflected in that company’s work environment, values, world-view, concepts of team and mindset, and, of course, onstage work product. For example, Met Opera’s shift towards contemporary BiPOC and female composers and their work had a clear financial motivation, but it couldn’t have happened if conditions didn't exist for it to happen; it’s safe to say that Met Opera Chief Diversity Officer Marcia Sells has huge influence on Human Resources, as well as programming.
While researching this topic, we discovered a July 2022 Los Angeles Times account of what allegedly transpired at Long Beach Opera - “a cautionary tale of how diversity efforts can go awry.” It might be an example of some of the concepts we’ve mentioned, but Jessica Gelt’s account describes what appears to be an less than professional organization, with senior management allegedly failing to adhere to basic, ethical business best practices or tangible acts of sincerity or goodwill. Per the account, did Executive Director Jenny Rivera and Artistic Director James Darrah treat Black members of their leadership team as convenient diversity window dressing, simultaneously freezing them out of leadership? It’s compelling, but hard to know for sure since both leaders refused to offer direct comment, per same story, at the time of its publication. Sadly, their silence remains an open to interpretation response (attention LA-area crisis comms firms).
Opera Innovation hopes this situation will improve. But if this LAT reporting remains unchanged and is, in fact, accurate, LBO could seek high-level professional guidance on making the findings of their internal investigation known and/or push the button on a full organization reset. Unfortunately, the ‘no comment’ cone of silence tactic or having others vouch for leadership doesn’t instill present or future confidence; it could also sadly brand LBO as a de facto unsafe space for diverse candidates (and audiences), in one of North America’s most diverse regions.
THE EXPERIENCE
OI is huge on user and brand experience, online and in person. In this section, we’re speaking to the opera house experience. Since 2012, we’ve had access to Santa Fe Opera performances, artists, festivities and events through regular attendance, small “d” donor benefits, friends at the company, events where we’ve networked ourselves (dinners, galas, apprentice happenings), and small but incredible gifts, such as the pre-COVID ability to go backstage, post-performance, to meet apprentices and principle artists in the hallway outside the main dressing room door (now done outside the stage door, next to orchestra seating).
This access required effort. We sought out these experiences and wanted to learn more, do more and know more people in this business, at the house we consider the Davos-Sundance of Opera. But what about newcomers who may not have a working knowledge of or appreciation for the art form? How do companies meet those once in a while or first-time visitors halfway, creating a memorable user and brand experience that leads to greater interest, brand loyalty and potentially more? For example, if I’d had engagement with someone from SF Opera at Das verratene Meer in 1991, who knew that it was my first opera, that would’ve helped me better understand and appreciate the operatic experience. Would it have taken me 18 years to return?
There are finite opportunities to execute this kind of real-time CRM, to make that critical first impression. Failing to do so leaves goodwill, positive word of mouth and actual money on the table.
As members of the Santa Fe Opera Club, we know that being in this beautiful indoor/outdoor space adjacent to the theatre is truly one of the best ways to experience opera here, pre-performance and during intermission(s). If there was a lottery for first-time ticket buyers to access the club or as a thank you to regular subscribers who aren’t members, it’d be like a surprise upgrade on a flight. Going further, SFO board members could take more active roles, greeting small groups of new visitors, showing them around, and making them their focus; an amazing touchpoint that could make the first-time experience of opera less intimidating, more fun and definitely egalitarian and welcoming, all with potential ROI. Note: We personally know several SFO board members who already independently do this, but a structured program like the one described could make these welcoming efforts even more impactful.
It’s our opinion that every company must actively work to dispel elitist airs or structures that ultimately exclude or segregate in any way. This is one of the reasons we love Santa Fe Opera’s unique layout, where ladies in gowns, gents in jeans and everyone in between mix across the company’s public spaces. Opera cannot grow as an art form or as an industry if markets are limited to a select or chosen few. Opera is for everyone.
Therefore, it’s absolutely our pledge to make upcoming Opera Innovation digital and in-person events accessible to all, with no barriers to entry. We look forward to sharing more on this front very soon, welcoming all to join the conversation, to participate, collaborate and - you guessed it - innovate.