Opera Overhaul
The recently dormant Chicago Opera Theater announced last week that it had finished paying off more than $500,000 in debts and is about to start fund-raising efforts in hopes of mounting a season as early as spring 1994. Getting rid of that much debt would be big news for any company, but Chicago Opera Theater did it exceptionally fast: when the troubled company abruptly canceled its season last spring for financial reasons after producing only one of its scheduled operas, it expressed hopes of being back with a full season by 1995. Last week’s announcement, therefore, put the company a full year ahead of schedule, and while COT officials didn’t offer an explanation of how they made such a quick recovery, sources familiar with the company link recent developments to two entities: Chamber Opera of Chicago and its chief financial supporter, philanthropist Barre Seid.
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Though he avoids the spotlight, Seid (who did not return a phone call to his house) has generously contributed to the Civic Orchestra and various other Chicago arts organizations. But his favorite beneficiary, sources say, has been Chamber Opera of Chicago. “He loves opera,” notes one source. For a decade the company has produced as many as three modestly staged operas a year at the Ruth Page Auditorium and has shown itself to be a well-managed company that pays employees and vendors and delivers what it promises–not always the practice at the old Chicago Opera Theater.
Meanwhile the COT board has taken artistic director Alan Stone out of commission. Stone, one of the company’s founders, remained involved in the organization’s decision-making process through the last several turbulent years despite severe health problems. He has been renamed artistic director emeritus, and will have no managerial authority in the restructured company, says Dadas. Stone was out of town when COT made its announcement.
