carmen c kruse civic impact - american operas future bachelor thesis m 28250
TRANSCRIPT
Macromedia,
University of Applied Sciences
BACHELOR THESIS
Final paper for the obtainment of the Bachelor of Arts Degree
Civic Impact - American opera’s future
Redefining opera’s value, product and market for opera compa-
nies' long-term sustainability
In the study program
Music and Media Management
First Examiner:
Prof. Dr. Alyosh Agarwal
Submitted by:
First name, surname: Carmen C Kruse
Student ID-Number: M-28250
Study program: Media & Music Management
Place, date: Munich, June 20, 2015
Key terms and key words
- Civic Impact
- Community Engagement
- Sustainability
- Civic Footprint
- Audience Development
- American opera companies
- Opera
- Future of opera
Abstract
Recent trends in demographics and the increased speed of socioeconomic and cultural
background change have put opera companies across the United States in a position in
which their classical business model is no longer sustainable. They are noticing declin-
ing audiences and diminishing revenues from earned and contributed income, at a time
where their production costs are remaining steady or rising. Additionally they are find-
ing themselves having to justify their existence due to an image problem and perception
issues that cause a huge majority of Americans to believe that they are irrelevant to their
and contemporary live. Whilst the operatic art form is more vibrant than ever opera
companies are faced with the question of long-term sustainability. How can opera com-
panies tackle these issues? Opera America suggests Civic Impact as a means to build
strong reciprocal relationships with their communities that benefit and practice seems to
prove them right with some companies thriving and celebrating successes despite these
challenges. So, what is Civic Impact, how can it e created and how does it affect opera
companies’ long-term sustainability?
In order to find answers to these questions, this thesis facilitates a literature review and
eleven in-depths expert interviews with American opera companies and Opera America.
On the basis of those it analyzes current practices, summarizes current trends, develops
a typology model of approaches to implementation, creates a model of the Civic Impact
creation process and proposes a new framework for Civic Impact accompanied by key
elements to Civic Impact success. On the base of its findings it hypothesizes that Civic
Impact increases opera companies long-term sustainability through creating meaningful,
continues and authentic engagement through participation in the lives of their individu-
als, communities, and cities. By redefining opera’s value, products and markets it be-
comes relevant to contemporary live and a valued member in its community.
Management Summary
Opernhäuser in Amerika haben in den letzten zwölf Jahren viele Veränderungen in
ihrem Umfeld beoachtet, die das Arbeiten mit ihrem jetzigen Business Model
erschweren. Sie sind mit zurückgehenden Zuschauerzahlen und finanziellen Mitteln
durch den Kartenverkauf und zurückgehende private Spenden konfrontiert und haben
zudem mit einem tief verwurzelten Imageproblem zu kämpfen, da sie vom größten Teil
der Bevölkerung als irrelevant für das eigene und zeitgenössische Leben
wahrgenommen warden. Der Trend ist eindeutig, so wie es bis jetzt war geht es nicht
weiter. Zeitgleich geht es der amerikanischen Kunstform Oper besser als je zuvor mit
vielen Nachwuchskünstlern und mehr neuen Kommissionen und Uraufführungen als in
ihrer Geschichte. Dennoch profitieren Opernhäuser noch nicht davon und sind auf der
Suche nach Lösungen. Opera America, die nationale Dienstleistungsorganisation,
schlägt Civic Impact als Lösung vor und weist auf einige Opernhäuser, die trotz
schwierigen Zeiten Erfolge feiern. Doch was ist Civic Impact und was ist seine
Bedeutung für das langfristige Überleben von amerikanischen Opernhäusern?
Damit beschäftigt sich diese Bachelorarbeit, indem sie zuerst einen Blick auf die
Ursachen und dadurch hervorgehobenen Probleme und einen Blick auf die
Lösungvorschläge aus der Literatur wirft, WolfBrown’s Theorie des Civic Impact und
Doug Borwick’s Theorie von Community Engagement. Um Civic Impact auch in der
Praxis zu untersuchen hat diese Bachelorarbeit elf qualitative Experteninterviews mit
erfolgreichen amerikanischen Opernhäusern und Opera America, und eine
Literaturrecherche zum Thema Civic Impact herangezogen. Auf Basis dieser wird
zuerst der Begriff Civic Impact und seine Bedeutung für den amerikanischen
Opernmarkt untersucht und in einem zweiten Schritt aktuelle Trends zu Civic Impact
untersucht. Hierbei erstellt diese These eine Typologisierung der Civic Impsct
Implementierungsansätze und einen Überblick über den Prozess der Arbeit. Zuletzt
wurden Theorie und Praxis verglichen und ein neuer Bezugsrahmen und fünf
entscheidene Faktoren in der Arbeit mit Civic Impact aufgestellt. Diese Bachelorarbeit
stellt auf Basis der Ergebnisse, die Hypothese auf, dass Opernhäuser, um langfristig
erfolgreich sein zu können, den Wert der Kunstform, die Produkte und Märkte neu
definieren und zunehmend realizieren, dass sie eine Relationship Wirtschaft sind.
Opernhäuser schaffen tiefe Verbindungen mit ihren Communities mit Hilfe von
regelmäßiger und wertvoller Beteiligung am zivilen Leben, die für neue Relevanz und
Wertschätzung innerhalb der Bevölkerung sorgt und damit das langfristige Überleben
unterstützt.
Table of Contents
Key terms and key words ......................................................................................... I
Abstract ...................................................................................................................... II
List of Figures .......................................................................................................... III
List of Tables ............................................................................................................ III
1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 1
2. Opera in America ........................................................................................... 2
2.1. Recent trends in the field .......................................................................................... 2
2.2. Effects on traditional opera companies and their business model ........................ 4
2.3. The Sustainability Question ...................................................................................... 4
3. Introduction to Research ............................................................................... 5
3.1. Current Developments in Opera Research ............................................................. 5
3.1.1. Civic Impact ........................................................................................................... 5
3.1.2. Audience Development vs. Community Engagement ........................................ 7
3.2. Research of this Bachelor thesis ............................................................................... 9
3.2.1. Research Questions ............................................................................................... 9
3.2.2. Research methods .................................................................................................. 9
3.2.2.1. Literature review ................................................................................................... 9
3.2.2.2. Expert interviews ................................................................................................ 10
3.2.3. Research analysis ................................................................................................ 12
4. Civic Impact of American Opera companies ............................................. 12
4.1. Civic Impact - the term ........................................................................................... 12
4.2. Use in the field .......................................................................................................... 12
4.3. Reasons, motivations & goals for Civic Impact .................................................... 13
4.4. Effects on the business model ................................................................................. 14
4.5. Elements of successful Civic Impact ...................................................................... 17
4.6. Civic Impact’s meaning to American opera companies ....................................... 19
5. Creating Civic Impact .................................................................................. 20
5.1. Approaches to Civic Impact at American Opera companies .............................. 20
5.1.1. Holistic Approach ................................................................................................ 21
5.1.2. Artistic Approach ................................................................................................ 21
5.1.3. Linked Approach ................................................................................................ 22
5.1.4. Reflective Approach ............................................................................................ 23
5.1.5. Separated Approach ........................................................................................... 23
5.1.6. Traditional Approach ......................................................................................... 24
5.1.7. Separate division or full integration .................................................................. 25
5.2. Strategies .................................................................................................................. 26
5.3. Trends in creating Civic Impact ............................................................................. 27
5.3.1. New approaches to overall work ........................................................................ 28
5.3.2. New approaches to main stage productions ...................................................... 28
5.3.3. Creating new work .............................................................................................. 29
5.3.4. Creating site-specific work ................................................................................. 30
5.3.5. Trends in Outreach and Accessibility ............................................................... 30
5.3.6. Trends in Education programs .......................................................................... 31
5.3.7. Trends in Adult programs .................................................................................. 32
5.3.8. Collaborating with other community and arts organizations ......................... 32
5.3.9. Creating opportunities ........................................................................................ 33
5.3.10. Partaking in civic life .......................................................................................... 34
5.4. Process & Key questions ......................................................................................... 34
5.5. Best practices ........................................................................................................... 36
5.5.1. Song of Houston, HGOco, Houston Grand Opera ........................................... 37
5.5.2. An American Dream, Seattle Opera ................................................................... 38
5.5.3. 30 Days of Opera, Opera Memphis .................................................................... 40
5.6. Challenges & potential pitfalls ............................................................................... 41
5.6.1. Building trust from new communities ............................................................... 41
5.6.2. Measuring Civic Impact ..................................................................................... 42
5.7. Civic Impact & its trends in the U.S. ..................................................................... 47
6. Reflections: Civic Impact in theory and practice ...................................... 48
6.1. Civic Impact in theory and practice ........................................................... 48
6.2. New framework suggestion .......................................................................... 49
6.3. Key Elements of Civic Impact success ........................................................ 51
6.4. Benefits of Civic Impact ............................................................................... 52
7. Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................. 53
8. Reference ....................................................................................................... 56
8.1. Literature References ................................................................................... 56
8.2. Interview References .................................................................................... 59
9. Appendix ....................................................................................................... 60
9.1. Summary Slides ............................................................................................ 60
9.2. Interview Questions ...................................................................................... 76
9.3. Interview Transcripts ................................................................................... 77
9.3.1. Chicago Opera Theater ................................................................................... 77
9.3.2. Opera Memphis ............................................................................................... 82
9.3.3. Long Beach Opera ......................................................................................... 105
9.3.4. San Diego Opera ........................................................................................... 121
9.3.5. Opera America .............................................................................................. 134
9.3.6. Opera Philadelphia ....................................................................................... 145
9.3.7. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis ........................................................................ 155
9.3.8. San Francisco Opera ..................................................................................... 166
9.3.9. Houston Grand Opera ................................................................................... 179
9.3.10. Seattle Opera ................................................................................................. 187
9.3.11. Lyric Opera of Chicago ................................................................................. 199
9.4. Video Reference Transcripts ..................................................................... 212
9.4.1. Part 1: Marc A. Scorca............................................................................... 212
9.4.2. Part 2: David Devan ................................................................................... 221
List of Figures
Figures Page
1 Owning the Opera Ecology 6
2 Typology of Civic Impact approaches in the American opera field 20
3 Process & Key questions of Civic Impact creation 35
4 Opera Memphis’ 30 Days of Opera in Action at a Playground 40
5 Heat map of geographical location of attendees 43
7 Spectrum of Engagement 45
7 Levels of Measurement for Engagement and Experience Measurements 46
8 New framework for Civic Impact 50
9 Key Elements of Civic Impact success 51
10 Benefits of Civic Impact 52
List of Tables
Tables Page
1 List of Interviewees for this Bachelor thesis 10
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1. Introduction
Simply conducting business as usual is no longer sustainable. – Marc A. Scorca, Presi-
dent of Opera America (Sjostrom, 2014)
Recent trends in demographics and the increased speed of socioeconomic and cultural
background change have put opera companies across the United States in a position in
which their classical business model is no longer sustainable. They are noticing declin-
ing audiences and diminishing revenues from earned and contributed income, at a time
where their production costs are remaining steady or rising. Additionally they are find-
ing themselves having to justify their existence due to an image problem and perception
issues that cause a huge majority of Americans to believe that they are irrelevant to their
and contemporary live (Boyer, 2015, 217-218).
At the same time, opera in America is artistically thriving. More works than ever before
are commissioned and produced, a large generation of new singers and artists are enter-
ing the field and free performances attract up to 30,000 people regularly; interest in the
operatic arts is increasing (Scorca, 2014b).
Still, this artistic vibrancy has little effect on opera companies with a classical business
model and the question of long-term sustainability remains. How can opera companies
tackle these issues? Opera America suggests Civic Impact as a means to build strong
reciprocal relationships with their communities that benefit both (Kiernan Johnson,
2015). And practice seems to prove them right with some companies thriving and cele-
brating successes despite these challenges. So, what is Civic Impact? How can opera
companies create it and how does it affect the way they work? Will it help sustain opera
companies in the long-term?
This thesis sets out to answer these questions. It summarizes recent trends in the Ameri-
can opera field and their effect on the business model and arrives at the question of
long-term sustainability. It then takes a closer look at current opera research, specifical-
ly WolfBrown’s Civic Impact approach and Doug Borwick’s Community Engagement
theory. A main research for this thesis are eleven, in-depth qualitative expert interviews
with individuals in charge of Civic Impact at successful American opera companies and
Opera America, the national service organization of American opera companies, who
introduced the term Civic Impact to the field. On the basis of these and an accompany-
ing literature review, that has also been the source of Civic Impact success stories and
expert choice, this thesis looks first at the Civic Impact term and its meaning to Ameri-
can opera companies before exploring the ways in which Civic Impact is created. To
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illustrate this better, this thesis develops a model of different implementation approach-
es and outlines the key process of Civic Impact creation. Afterwards the thesis reflects
on Civic Impact in theory and practice and suggests a new framework for Civic Impact
and five key elements of Civic Impact success. Finally, it looks at the benefits Civic
Impact creates for communities and their cities, the art form and opera companies be-
fore concluding with a final look at Civic Impacts meaning for American opera compa-
nies and their long-term sustainability.
2. Opera in America
Opera started in America as an import from Europe at the end of the 18th century. It
was introduced by travelling opera singers who visited and presented the work of con-
temporary Europe. For a large part of the 19th and 20th century touring was the main
way to experience opera. The first opera companies were founded at the end of the 19th
century, starting in 1883 with The Metropolitan Opera in New York and thriving after
the end of the Second World War. High time of the current opera model was in the
1960ies and 70ies where the number of opera companies increased from 35 to 109
(Borwick, 2012, p. 19; Agid & Tarondeau, 2010, pp. 41-43).
2.1. Recent trends in the field
The opera field has seen many trends in the past years that have affected them greatly;
the following major trends can be noticed.
Finances
Apart from the financial crisis and recessions since 2000 and 2008, opera companies’
production cost has steadily risen. Since it is a labor driven industry, opera companies
have faced a productivity lag, being unable to improve the economic productivity of
creating and producing operatic work (Borwick, 2012, p. 22). Additional, the cost of
producing opera has gone up “roughly two to two and a half times the cost of living”
(Scorca, 2014b).
Box-office sales and subscriptions are declining since the 1970ies; it only contributes to
thirty percent of overall income, down from forty percent in 2004 and fifty percent in
the 1990ies (Kaiser, 2014, p. 22). This puts pressure on philanthropy that is noticing
changes in generational attitudes towards giving, especially a great demand for account-
ability and tangible results from contributions (Borwick, 2012, p. 23). Opera companies
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are also facing increased competition for the philanthropic dollar through other non-
profits (Scorca, 2014b).
Audiences
Paid audience attendance has decreased for main stage tickets by 24 percent in the last
ten years. Audiences are changing their behavior, are buying tickets much later in the
sales cycle and are returning less frequently (9.4.2.). Opera companies are competing in
an increasingly competitive environment due to rapidly changing entertainment options,
outlets and patterns (Kaiser, 2014, p. 44; Seidman, 2015). They find themselves com-
peting for time and the entertainment dollar whilst societal changes are causing the
middle class to reevaluate their entertainment choices (Silverman, 2014). They are
spending more money on student loans, mortgages and essential services and fear the
uncertainty of economy and unemployment, continues Marc Scorca (9.4.1.) from Opera
America. America is also facing demographical changes that are moving European cul-
ture even further away from contemporary life (Borwick, 2012, p. 21).
Diminished support network
Opera companies have noticed an exponentially more fragmented media landscape with
less arts media coverage and reviews. Classical radio stations have suffered greatly and
the recording industry who has been a valuable partner in the past is diminishing
(Buzacott, 2015).
Additionally opera companies are noticing decreased arts education and less integration
of their arts in popular culture along with a perception shift (Kaiser, 2014, p. 50;
Tolmer, 2014). Marc Scorca concludes: “Opera companies’ support system has become
more fragile, contributing to the fragility of opera companies themselves” (9.4.1.).
Artistic vibrancy
Artistically the American opera field is more vibrant than ever. More young artists are
entering the market, more new works are produced than ever before and more compa-
nies participate in the trend as commissioners and co-commissioners. Between 2000 and
2011 369 operas premiered in North America with great American composers like
Gregory Spears, Nico Muhly, Philip Glass or Ricky Ian Gordan creating their place in
American repertoire (Cunniffee, 2014; Tolmer, 2014).
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2.2. Effects on traditional opera companies and their business
model
The classical business model of American opera companies draws its funding from tick-
et sales and private funding, donations and sponsorship and therefore relies heavily on
wealthy patrons who support the company’s artistic vision and existence (Franco,
2014). This is largely affected by the recent developments. For one, box office sales and
contributions are diminishing while a shift in attitude of the next generation of donors
no longer sees the arts as something of their interest and need of support. The global
economic crisis has also caused diminishing audiences and shrinking endowments. Am-
plified by the shifts in demographics that cause opera companies’ main stage product of
mainly European 18th and 19th century opera to become less relevant to contemporary
life and culture (Borwick, 2012, p. 17).
These developments have caused some opera companies like the Baltimore and Con-
necticut Opera as well as Opera Pacific and New York City Opera to close its doors.
Other companies have seen cuts and cancellations of their season and opera companies
like Cleveland Opera and Indianapolis Opera are on hiatus (Headlee, 2013; O’Sullivan,
2010; Scorca, 2014b).
2.3. The Sustainability Question
Looking at recent trends, the changing environment these created for traditional opera
companies and their repercussions on the classic opera business model, opera compa-
nies can no longer continue on their path. The social, political and economic conditions
out of which opera companies grew no longer exist and the market of their traditional
business model and products seems saturated. However, the art form is vital and new
talent is on the rise. Still opera companies are facing a sustainability dilemma regarding
audiences, philanthropy, relevance and over-all financial security and are actively look-
ing for ways to change their situation. Doug Borwick (2012) proposes:
Any industry that demands growth of its consumer base for survival at a time when it is
faced with what appears to be a saturated market must undergo fundamental reevaluation
of itself. The arts are not a product delivery industry. They are a personal relationship in-
dustry. Those whose heart and soul is their art must remember what it is that drew them
to the profession. It had something to do with the effect that the arts had upon them as in-
dividuals and the connections it allowed them to make with others. If a means must be
found to grow in order to survive, that growth can only take place by re-imagining what it
is artists and arts organizations can do and for whom they do it (p.25).
5
Opera America agrees and calls for innovation and an increased focus on Civic Impact.
As Marc A. Scorca, President of Opera America puts it: “Opera companies must in-
crease their Civic Impact in order to win attention in a competitive marketplace, under-
pin philanthropy, and build attendance” (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2015, p. 20).
And companies like Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago who thrive in
these challenging times seem to prove him right (Teachout, 2014). But what is Civic
Impact? Is it a solution to opera companies challenges and can it effectively counteract
recent developments and ensure opera companies’ long-term sustainability?
A closer look at the current state of opera research shall give further insights.
3. Introduction to Research
As part of the research conducted in this thesis, an overview of the literature and re-
search on Civic Impact of American opera companies was made and is documented
here.
3.1. Current Developments in Opera Research
Opera Research is currently approaching civic or community impact in two ways:
WolfBrown (2014) suggests that opera companies need to take stewardship of the larger
ecosystem of opera to ensure their success. For them, Civic Impact is the bridge be-
tween Artistic Vibrancy and Increased Participation and Support that enables companies
to “own the Opera Ecology” and strive in the future. Doug Borwick on the other hand
proposes a bigger shift for companies in his book Building Communities, not Audiences,
which redefines their role in civic life as serving communities and ensures their long-
term survival. The following two theories are outlined in this section.
3.1.1. Civic Impact
Alan Brown from WolfBrown (2014) describes Civic Impact as the missing link be-
tween Artistic Vibrancy and Increased Participation and Public Support that will ensure
companies survival by taking ownership and stewardship of the Opera Ecology:
6
Figure 1 Owning the Opera Ecology (WolfBrown, 2014)
Artistic Vibrancy
Inspired by the Australia Council for the Arts WolfBrown (2014) identified six elements
of artistic vibrancy that are incremental for opera companies’ long-term success and
basis to owning the opera ecology: (a) Clarity of intent and commitment to risk-taking,
(b) Excellence in curating and a capacity to innovate, (c) A full pipeline of creative pro-
gramming ideas, (d) Technical proficiency, skill and artistry, (e) Capacity to engage
audiences and (f) Critical feedback and commitment to continuous improvement.
WolfBrown suggests that knowing who their audience is and who they “must serve to
succeed” (2014) ensures working towards success. To reach excellence in curating and
a capacity to innovate opera companies need to reevaluate how healthy their creative
process is. Questions that should be answered are: What are the inputs? Who can sug-
gest ideas for programs? What process is used for vetting program ideas? What settings
and formats will engage your community? Do you have the right artistic voices at the
table? They further suggest that opera companies need to have a full pipeline of new
artistic ideas in order to be able to innovate and ensure an opera companies’ vibrancy,
which will also draw in new philanthropic support. The basis of any success is excel-
lence in technical proficiency, skill and artistry. Opera companies need to be trained for
and capable of engaging audiences through knowing their work and finding entry points
to it. Lastly, they need to be able to take and evaluate critical feedback and commit to
continuous improvement.
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Civic Impact
He defines four key elements of Civic Impact: (a) programs that address constituents
beyond the existing audience, (b) a strong network of partners, (c) diagnostic capacity
and (d) community relevance. With programs that address constituents beyond the exist-
ing audience, he sees a new theoretical framework for preference discovery going hand
in hand. Preference discovery can be divided in four categories according to Alan
Brown: self-guided, often aided by the use of technology, such as YouTube; socially-
based through recommendations from friends, family, sales agents, or artists; curated
through programming by arts organizations; and media-based discovery which usually
happens through seeing or hearing new styles or unfamiliar music on television or in the
radio.
A strong network of partners ensures a companies’ success and can help them with their
diagnostic capacity. Another questions opera companies need to be able to answer to
ensure diagnostic capability is: What is your strategy for understanding what your
community needs from you? And lastly, opera company’s need to achieve community
relevance. WolfBrown suggests answering the following questions: What does it mean
to be embedded in a community? And how would you know if you succeeded?
3.1.2. Audience Development vs. Community Engagement
The major tool to grow arts audiences in the past has been Audience Development.
Some researchers like Doug Borwick in his book Building Communities, not audiences
make a clear distinction between Audience Development and Community Engagement
and underline the latter as “the future of the Arts” (2012a) and the only way opera and
arts organization can be sustainable in the long term.
Audience Development
Audience Development is a more conservative approach, in comparison to Community
Engagement, with a clear understanding of outcomes, in which organizational goals,
priorities and identity are unchanged. It is solely focused on the art, which is absolutely
central to everything they do. It serves as the entry point, is the key commodity and its
goal is to reach and develop new audiences for the art form. Audience Development
repackages the art and through that new packaging strives to reach new audiences who
in turn remain passive audiences who come to the arts because of the art.
In practicing it opera companies and more specifically its education, marketing and de-
velopment department look at the barriers that keep people from coming to the arts and
8
put their efforts into breaking them down. In doing that, they focus on increasing the
number of people entering the opera house and reached with their art form. It is there-
fore a short-term marketing strategy that builds and broadens the current audiences and
can increase support while the overall relationship with the community remains the
same. Opera companies who practice Audience Development approach it with an inter-
nal focus and ask: How can the community serve us and our needs? (Borwick, 2012b).
Community Engagement
Community Engagement on the contrary realizes that “the arts are not a product deliv-
ery industry. They are a personal relationship industry” (Borwick, 2012a, p. 25). Doug
Borwick argues further:
“Those whose heart and soul is their art must remember what it is that drew them to the
profession. It had something to do with the effect that the arts had upon them as individuals
and the connections it allowed them to make with others.”
Arts organizations must “re-imagining what it is artists and arts organizations can do
and for whom they do it,” he continues. Arts and therefore opera organizations must not
engage an “undifferentiated “audience” but a collection of individuals in community
with them” (p. 25).
Due to those realizations the key commodity of Community Engagement are relation-
ships; art serves the community. Relationships are the entry point and art selection and
programming are the next step that follows those relationships. The goal of Community
Engagement is to build trust and loyalty through improving the community. Based on
the input and needs of the community art is repackaged, reconceived or newly-created
(Borwick, 2012c).
Externally-focused Community Engagement argues Borwick (2012b) is therefore long-
term strategy organizational development to build “community ownership, participation,
relationships, and support” for the opera company, which will lead to increase support
and company success when approached sincere. Community Engagements involves all
stakeholders of the company and can start a fundamental transformation of the compa-
ny’s goals, priorities and identity. Outcomes can exceed expectations and impact all
parts of the company in the long-term.
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3.2. Research of this Bachelor thesis
In order to understand Civic Impact and its meaning for current practice in the United
States better this research conducted eleven in-depths, qualitative interviews over two
months with opera companies in the United States - all of them involved in some form
of successful Civic Impact. Their definition, methods, strategies and experiences with
Civic Impact are discussed in this bachelor thesis and paired with a literature review
into the field and topic.
3.2.1. Research Questions
The main research question of this thesis is: “What does Civic Impact mean to Ameri-
can Opera companies and how does it relate to their long-term sustainability?” In order
to answer this question fully and take this research deeper the following accompanying
research questions were developed:
- What is Civic Impact? What are its core elements?
- How is Civic Impact created?
- What definition, approaches, strategies and methods exist? How do they differ?
- How does Civic Impact relate to the traditional activities of an opera company?
- What it Civic Impacts role within an opera company?
These questions ensure the proper answering of the core research question.
3.2.2. Research methods
In order to answer these central research questions, this bachelor thesis facilitated a lit-
erature review as well as qualitative expert interviews.
3.2.2.1. Literature review
To get a first introduction into the State of the field and the definition of “Civic Impact”
of American opera companies, this thesis has strived to review all articles written about
opera in the United States from 2013 to 2015. This has been done through using Opera
Alerts with the key word “opera” and the region “United States”, by following several
newspaper sites on Scoop.it and Pinterest Folders, i.e. Merola Opera’s Opera News
folder as well as reading major newspapers in the US. Additionally, Opera News, Opera
Magazine and the Opera America Magazine’s publication were read as well as anything
else related to the term “opera” and “Civic Impact” and the keywords “civic engage-
ment” and “civic footprint”. The literature review has been the main resource for the
State of the field examination as well as to create a list of companies who seem to be
successful with their Civic Impact work.
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3.2.2.2. Expert interviews
In order to take a closer look at successful American opera companies and ultimately
successful Civic Impact, this thesis has chosen to use the qualitative research method
Expert Interviews. Experts for this thesis are people in charge of Civic Impact work at
opera companies and in the field, who have been successful. Success in this case is de-
fined by media mention, Opera America mention or the acquisition of major grants from
philanthropists for the purpose of Civic Impact.
After the research into the matter, this list of companies who seemed to be successful
with their Civic Impact work was created:
Chicago Opera Theater, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Long Beach Opera, Los
Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Memphis, Opera Philadelphia, Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis, San Diego Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, and
Washington National Opera. Additionally, it was found that talking to Opera America,
who has introduced the term Civic Impact to the field in 2013 and has since held two
conferences on that topic, seemed reasonable.
Due to timing and responds issues, I was unable to reach and interview people from
Dallas Opera, Los Angeles Opera and Washington National Opera. This thesis has
sought to speak to the person most impacted by and knowledgeable about a company’s
understanding of their definition of Civic Impact. Most of the times these people ended
up being General Directors, Directors of Education and Community Engagement and
Directors of Marketing. A list of interviewees can be seen in table 1.
Company Position Name
Chicago Opera Theater Education & Outreach Manager Linden Christ
Houston Grand Opera HGOco Programs Director Brittany Duncan
Long Beach Opera Education Coordinator Kevin St. Clair
Lyric Opera Chicago Lyric Unlimited Manager Alejandra Boyer
Opera America Director of Marketing & Communications Patricia Kiernan Johnson
Opera Memphis General Director Ned Canty
Opera Philadelphia Vice President, Community Programming Michael Bolton
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Director of Marketing & Public Relations Joe Gfaller
San Diego Opera Director of Education & Community Engagement Nicolas Reveles
San Francisco Opera Associate General Director Matthew Shilvock
Seattle Opera Director of Education & Community Engagement Barbara Lynne Jamison
Table 1: List of Interviewees for this Bachelor thesis (own illustration, 2015)
11
In order to answer the main research questions, this thesis has developed a semi-
structured question catalogue. The first questions tried to establish the company’s un-
derstanding of Civic Impact and their means and methods of creating it.
1. What is XXOpera's definition of Civic Impact?
2. How does XXOpera create Civic Impact?
In addition, interviewees were presented a definition and asked for their standpoint on
it. The definition of Civic Impact by Zachary Woolfe (2015, p. 6) from the Spring 2015
issue of Opera America Magazine was introduced as followed:
I have a definition and would love to hear your standpoint on it. Zachary Woolfe defines
Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion of opera companies mission
to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community” ( 9.2.).
The definition was added to further deepen the understanding of the interviewees and
their company’s definition of Civic Impact.
After this first part, experts were asked to reflect on what motivated them taking their
Civic Impact paths and their experiences with it:
3. What initiated XXOpera's focus on Civic Impact?
4. What were/are challenges?
5. What would you name as positive, what would you name as negative sides to XXOpera's
Civic Impact work?
6. What are your lessons learned?
Then they were asked about the core parts of Civic Impact and how it relates to a com-
pany’s financial survival and long-term sustainability:
7. What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact?
8. Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards XXOpera's bottom line? If yes, why?
9. Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards XXOpera’s long-term sustainability?
If yes, in which regard?
And lastly experts were asked to reflect on the importance of Civic Impact and strate-
gies to implement it in an environment that has not yet been focused on it:
10. If you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, would you
strive to create it and how?
To make sure nothing was left unsaid, experts were asked the following question:
11. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Eleven in-depth expert interviews were conducted via Skype from June 18, 2015, to
July 9, 2015. Interviewees received the question catalogue in advanced. Transcripts can
be found in the appendix under 8.1.
12
3.2.3. Research analysis
After the interviews were conducted, all of them were transcribed and can be found in
the appendix under 9.2.2. In order to arrive at the following statements and conclusions
to Civic Impact, a summarizing content analysis according to Mayring was conducted.
Each interview was filtered through separately for the main messages of each expert. In
a second step these messages were compared, grouped and filtered and combined with
the research from the literature review to build the foundation of the following results
and reflections on Civic Impact. Additionally, to create a typology of opera companies’
approaches towards implementation of Civic Impact a typology analysis after Kluge
was applied (6.1).
4. Civic Impact of American Opera companies
This section of the thesis looks at Civic Impact and its meaning in the American Opera
field, its intention is to create a better understanding of the term and its effect before
looking at creating Civic Impact in section 5.
4.1. Civic Impact - the term
Civic Impact in its most basic definition describes the impact an opera company has on
its individuals, community, and city. It stands for the role an opera company and with it
the art form has in its community or communities’ lives.
4.2. Use in the field
The term Civic Impact originates from Opera America, who introduced it to the field
after a strategic planning meeting in 2013, as Opera America’s “next area of impact”
(Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 8-9), “that would be as significant and field changing as that
emphasis on North American repertoire” (10-11).
Opera America started looking at Civic Impact as the more holistic view of Audience
Development that is “genuine, […] rooted in the community and […] reciprocal” (17)
and offers benefits for companies, the art form and communities (20-21).
A closer look at Civic Impact and the art form’s as well as opera company’s value and
role in the community comes at a time where opera companies are facing numerous
obstacles and end up at a point where they come to realize that things need to change:
I am […] working in an art form, which has seen declining audiences for a decade and
which ninety-nine percent of Americans assume they will not like […] and unless we can
breakdown these preconceived notions […] the art form does not have a future. […]. –
Ned Canty (2015, 357-361).
13
Another push for the importance of opera companies’ Civic Impact on the community
was the San Diego Opera crisis in early 2014 and their near demise in their forty-ninth
year of existence (Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 190-192). Against all expectations and previ-
ous experiences, the opera’s announcement to close and subsequent fight by staff was
greeted with a massive outpour of community support, which lead over the course of
two months to the saving of the company, among others through a three week 2.4 mil-
lion crowd fundraising initiative (Ford, 2014). Nic Reveles (2015), Director of Educa-
tion and Community Engagement, describes this community responds as a big surprise:
And the community said: “Yeah, absolutely. Don't shut down San Diego Opera because
San Diego Opera has a Civic Impact. They are important to the community.” I am going:
“Oh, oh, wait a minute. I have never heard that. I have never heard that actually actively
from the community. That is so cool! Of course, we have a Civic Impact! Of course, we
have an impact on the community” (218-223).
This community interest and effort led to a “big shift” (16) in the companies’ approach
to its “role in the community and participating in it” (14-15).
Motivated by this success, other opera companies and the field continued to rethink
their place in and offer to the lives of their community on their own and together at con-
ferences.
4.3. Reasons, motivations & goals for Civic Impact
Things need to change and they need to change in ways that are substantial and honest
and sincere. The entire Industry is undergoing kind of ground-up examination of what is
it that we do and why do we do it. – Ned Canty (2015, 361-363)
Opera companies are finding themselves reevaluating their purpose and role. They are
confronted with a number of issues, summarized under 1.1. that require them to rethink
their business model and the service they offer. They find that creating Civic Impact
helps regaining relevance and dealing with those issues:
On the most basic level, creating Civic Impact means creating accessibility of the art
form to all and breaking down barriers (Boyer, 2015, 87-88; Gfaller, 2015, 119-121).
Opera companies have identified the following barriers: price, time, location, language
and transport (Boyer, 2015, 370-378; Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 172-177; Shilvock, 2015,
274-275). Additionally they find their art form to have a perception issue and to be en-
cumbered with stereotypes such as being elitist and non-relevant to contemporary life
(Boyer, 2015, 219-221; Canty, 2015, 580; Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 172-177). This and
other changes in behavior and socioeconomic trends have kept their audiences and cus-
14
tomers from growing, which became an integral reason for companies to turn towards
Civic Impact and rethink their business model and definition of opera (Canty, 2015,
370-372).
Opera companies are therefore extending their reach and trying to create reciprocal,
authentic relationships with their communities through authentic and sustained engage-
ment that bond them closer together. Their goal is to regain relevance by becoming part
of the city and conversation and participating in it through collaboration and dialogue
with the community using the unique tools of the art form.
4.4. Effects on the business model
In order to achieve Civic Impact opera companies are reexamining key parts of their
business model. Opera companies come to redefine the value of the art form, their prod-
ucts or valuable opera experiences, their audiences and markets. With it their definitions
of success and mission and vision statements change.
Redefining opera’s value
Opera companies are rethinking the value an opera performance and the art form has. A
shift can be noted from being pure entertainment through the power of performance on
the main stage to creating a unique environment through storytelling or setting words to
music that can connect with an individual in a direct way and can affect them deeply
(Boyer, 2015, 160-161; Reveles, 2015, 147-148; Shilvock, 2015, 341-353).
Ned Canty (2015) of Opera Memphis adds that opera provides audiences with the abil-
ity to create empathy by enabling “people who are used to discussing the hard, cold
facts of something, [to] find themselves instead living through somebody else’s experi-
ence. So by short-circuiting somebody’s logic circuit and going straight to their emo-
tional core, it allows them to […] think about it differently and talk about it differently”
(96-100). By enabling people to approach issues differently, empowering them to see
things in a different light and through that understanding their lives better, opera has the
tool to create an atmosphere for civic dialogue and becomes a civic good (Gfaller, 2015,
257). And through these tools opera has “a place in the transformation of society […]
and the transformation of people's attitudes and to broaden people's understanding of
contemporary lives and socioeconomic issues and problems” (Reveles, 2015, 33-35).
Additionally opera can use its knowledge of collaboration between multiple disciplines
to bring individuals, communities and their city together (Canty, 2015, 156-167). Mi-
15
chael Bolton (2015) underlines that this “communal experience creates an instant com-
munity” (92).
Opera’s value therefore is more than being entertaining it offers individuals, communi-
ties and cities tools and a place for understanding and dialogue (Reveles, 2015, 142-
143).
Redefining audiences (customers & markets)
After reevaluating their core value and value proposition opera companies find them-
selves adjusting their target markets to not only include the people who know and love
the art form but to everyone to whom its experience can be meaningful, their “entire
community” (Canty, 2015, 141), which for some companies means more than just their
city; it embraces their entire region (10-11; St. Clair, 2015, 11). This also means ex-
panding their “definition of “audience” to include all those reached through our full
range of activities” (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2015, p. 5).
Redefining opera & experiences (product)
This thesis finds that opera companies after reflecting on the value of the art form and
their customers and markets are revisiting their understanding of their product. They are
expanding it to all the ways in which the art form can be meaningful and in that, shift
from the puristic view of purely main stage productions and performances to a broader
range of operatic experiences that now equally have relevance, value and meaning
(Reveles, 2015, 263-265). With it they adapt to the realization that due to different and
varied demands on people and their time (Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 176-177), different
experiences can be better fitted to some and as meaningful and valuable:
“The goal is to make sure that we create this full spectrum of experiences from the little
tiny snacks to full meals, to make sure […] we are not […] neglecting every other possi-
ble experience that might have value and that might meet their needs far better than a
three our performance where they need to get a babysitter [or] do […] other things that
might not suite them” (Canty, 2015, 255-261).
Opera companies have come to realize that opera’s value and transformative power in
any possible operatic experience might not only be created by the venue or quality of
performance but by the “exiting explosion”(Reveles, 2015, 145) that happens when it
connects with an individual (145-154). This leads opera companies to conclude that an
operatic experience “might be even more transformative if they just happen to hit the
right person at the right time” (Canty, 2015, 432-433).
16
Redefining success
”The definition of success was […] sold out shows and by that definition of success we
would have been reaching about 8,000 people a year in Metropolitan statistical area of 1.2
million. Reaching 8,000 people in an area that size that is failure, that is not success. –
Ned Canty (310-314).
All these realizations and subsequent changes of key aspects of an opera company’s
business plan lead to a redefinition of success. Companies are no longer just successful
when they have sold out their main stage season. They now add diversity of products
and experiences, including “community inspired, community embracing” (Bolton, 2015,
293-294) works, that are reaching as many people as possible in their city (297-298;
Canty, 2015, 310-314), creating transformative experiences in their audiences and
community (Boyer, 2015, 351-352; Reveles, 2015, 341-347; Shilvock, 2015, 415-416),
and creating opportunities such as a “job shadowing program for Teens” (Bolton, 2015,
296). Opera companies’ definition of success becomes multi-layered and complex fo-
cusing not only on the company’s financial standpoint but its impact on the lives of the
individuals, community and city.
Adapting mission & vision statements
Finally opera companies are reevaluating their mission and vision statements to reflect
these new insights into their work. San Diego Opera in light of their recent history has
restated their mission statement to include all these changes: “The mission of San Diego
Opera is to deliver exceptional vocal performances and exciting, accessible programs to
diverse audiences, focusing on Community Engagement and the transformative power
of live performance” (San Diego Opera, 2015).
It shall be noted that through it all, other core elements and values such as presenting
the highest possible quality and artistic excellence remain unchanged and central to
companies’ work and statements (Boyer, 2015, 70; Duncan, 2015, 22; Gfaller, 2015,
275). This can be seen in Houston Grand Opera’s (n.d.) values, which includes in addi-
tion to relevance and affordability:
Excellence must be exemplified by every facet of our artistic and musical output and ad-
ministration. It is only with an uncompromising commitment to excellence that we are
able to create world-class performances, offer unparalleled training of young artists and
arts administrators, and impact our community.
17
Noticeable changes in company structures
All these changes to an opera companies’ business model and vision and mission state-
ments have been followed by practical changes such as changing the titles of formerly
Education Programs Coordinator or Director of Education to Director of Education and
Community Engagement, which can now be found at almost every opera company that
is part of Opera America (St. Clair, 2015, 236-238). Some opera companies have gone
even further and founded their own division for Civic Impact work and programs, like
Lyric Unlimited for Lyric Opera of Chicago and HGOco of Houston Grand Opera
(Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 118).
4.5. Elements of successful Civic Impact
In order to set the stage for Civic Impact, companies have come to realize the following
elements of successful Civic Impact.
Cultural Understanding of communities and city
In order to build “authentic relationships” (Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 65) with their com-
munity and create “meaningful programming” (Bolton, 2015, 205-206) a company
needs to understand their environment, communities and cities.
Listening & Reflecting
We don’t know how to make our work relevant if we are not listening and exploring what
our community needs or where they are and who they are. – Barbara Lynne Jamison (2015,
217-219).
The best way to gain a better understanding of communities and a city is through dia-
logue and listening without expecting to know the answer. All interviewees underlined
the importance of listening and trying to understand and reflect “to the best of your abil-
ity” (Duncan, 2015, 180-181).
Partnerships & Collaboration
Partnerships and collaboration with different organizations within a community is an-
other source of better understanding of their unique culture. Apart from that, they pro-
vide an opera company with trustworthiness within their community and enable access
to them: “If you build it they may not come but if you build it with the right partners,
they will” (Bolton, 2015, 196-197).
18
Internal Alignment & Up-Down, Left-Right Buy-In
The reason we are doing the work is for this broader philosophical civic good reason rather
than doing the work because we want to sell tickets […] or we happen to have a singer of
this background […] people [need to] get the big picture view and it has to happen from the
bottom and from the top-down. – Joe Gfaller (2015, 254-260).
Another core element of an opera company’s success with Civic Impact is having inter-
nal alignment and up-down, left-right buy-in from everybody in the institution, includ-
ing staff, board, and stakeholders and empowering them to partake in the mission and
vision (Canty, 2015, 655-665; Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 307-309), which takes a strong
leader or leadership who ensures and encourages positive communication and focus on
the topic of Civic Impact (Christ, 2015, 160-120). Everyone involved in a company
needs to understand that Civic Impact is “as important as anything else you do” (Canty,
2015, 660-661).
Sincerity of Approach
What we are doing is not about leading people into main stage shows, we are not about
selling tickets for Tosca or La Boheme, it is about connecting people in an authentic way
and it is not a marketing tool. – Brittany Duncan, HGOco (2015, 223-225)
This research finds that along with internal alignment and buy-in, sincerity of approach
is a key factor to successful Civic Impact. Civic Impact has to be approached as build-
ing relationships in an authentic way and connecting people with and through the art
form to give them value rather than purely reaching out to them to get them to the opera
house (Duncan, 2015, 223-227). Civic dialogue and interest need to be approached sin-
cerely in order to create and co-create works and achieve Civic Impact (Canty, 2015,
649-652). Opera companies have to demonstrate continued commitment (668).
Continued relationships and engagement
Civic Impact is not a program that starts and ends, it requires continued focus, steward-
ship and follow-through (Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 299-302). Part of the sincerity of ap-
proach is providing individuals, communities and the city with “sustainable experiences
[…] of the same quality and provide the same consistent benefit” (Gfaller, 2015, 250-
253) and continuing to reach out and care about them.
19
Access to creative talent or Young Artists Program
These continued relationships require continued engagement with the arts. It is therefore
vital to opera company’s Civic Impact success to have access to creative talent, staff
and artists from either a company’s own Young Artist Program (Christ, 2015, 149-150;
St. Clair, 2015, 259-271) or “vibrant [… local] artist[s] involved in all facets of the
company – from chorus, orchestra, educational touring, technical and production and
administrative areas of the company” (Bernhard & Borwick, 2012, p. 247).
4.6. Civic Impact’s meaning to American opera companies
Pursuing Civic Impact, making sure that everything you do is about everybody you serve,
that is how you succeed and that is how you continue to survive and that is how you make
sure that opera lasts for six-centuries, for seven, and not just four. – Ned Canty, Opera
Memphis (2015, 383-386)
The focus and interest on Civic Impact in the American opera field has been the result
of a reexamination of the companies’ purpose and identity in responds to a number of
recent trends in perception, society and economy that made it impossible to continue the
status quo. It moves from something you have to do to something that is central to all
departments for almost all companies (Bolton, 2015, 261-262). It can be described as a
graduate evolution from Audience Development tools starting more than thirty years
ago in classrooms to the Community Engagement of today (Gfaller, 2015, 306-315).
It led to a big transformation of key aspects of the business model. It shows a new un-
derstanding about who the audiences for opera are from the people who know and love
it to everyone in a company’s region. Opera becomes a tool for creating social or civic
good and as such can improve a community’s life by sharing its unique qualities such as
being able to create empathy and understanding, collaboration and community building.
All companies agree that Civic Impact needs buy-in from all departments, the board and
constituents. It is driven by good communication, especially listening and reflection,
and collaboration and partnerships. It also requires sustained engagement with the
communities.
In creating Civic Impact, opera companies are creating reciprocal, authentic relation-
ships with their communities through authentic and sustained engagement that bond
them closer together. Their goal is to regain relevance by becoming part of the city and
conversation and participating in it through collaboration and dialogue with the com-
munity using the unique tools of the art form (Jamison, 2015, 160-164).
20
Companies however create Civic Impact in very different ways and an overview of their
approaches and strategies shall be made in the following section.
5. Creating Civic Impact
This section of the thesis takes a closer look at the developments, strategies and models
of implementation of Civic Impact within opera companies of the American field as
well as overall trends in creating and measuring Civic Impact, followed by their process
and a few best practice examples.
5.1. Approaches to Civic Impact at American Opera companies
Opera companies differ in their approach to Civic Impact. Whereas Civic Impact is the
new found “baking soda” (Canty, 2015, 761-764) for everything some companies do,
for others it is an expansion of their work and an evolution of their previous Education
and Outreach work and for others it has always been at their core. In addition, some
companies have created separate divisions for their Civic Impact work. Their definition
and models can be differentiated in approach to the latter, their core motivation, and
three types of application in relation to the company’s mission.
Figure 2 Typology of Civic Impact approaches in the American opera field (own illustra-
tion, 2015)
21
5.1.1. Holistic Approach
Companies who have a holistic approach towards Civic Impact, see it at “the core of
everything [they] do” (Canty, 2015, 566). Ned Canty describes it as the “baking soda”
(762) to everything and reason for continuing to exist, so separating it out makes little
sense to them (761-764). Opera companies with a holistic approach towards Civic Im-
pact believe that their work makes their community “a richer, stronger, better place”
(Gfaller, 2015, 58) and so serving the needs of their community through the specific
tools of opera becomes central (Canty, 2015, 92-104). These tools are, besides telling
stories through music, creating empathy and understanding and building communities
(96-102; Gfaller, 2015, 83-88). Opera companies with a holistic approach use these
tools and the art form to create an environment in which they can have the most impact
and create relationships between the community, the art form and artists (83-88).
They feel it is their responsibility to provide opera to everyone who needs it (Canty,
2015, 23-25), so not only the people who are their audiences already and know and love
the art form (69-71) but to offer experiences for everyone that eliminate “the precon-
ceived notions or preconceived negative stereotypes for what opera might be based on
what people may have gotten through third hand experiences or through other forms of
popular culture or the lack of direct experience”(Gfaller, 2015, 74-77). This means pre-
senting opera in every possible form (Canty, 2015, 255-261; Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis, 2015, p. 18) and can mean making “sure that opera is a part of every relevant
cultural event [..] in every way that we possibly can throughout the year” (Canty, 2015,
300-302).
Civic Impact creation is not the responsibility of a single department, but “is the work
that is done by all in service to our community ultimately” (Gfaller, 2015, 58-60).
Examples of opera companies who are implementing Civic Impact with a holistic and
approach to Civic Impact are Opera Memphis and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Their
core question is: What moves our community and how can we be a part of it?
5.1.2. Artistic Approach
Companies with an artistic approach towards Civic Impact create Civic Impact through
their works on stage and off. They believe it is their responsibility to create work that is
relevant to the community and standard repertoire such as Tosca and Madama Butterfly
is not necessarily doing that: “A piece that is over a hundred years old […] is not neces-
sarily in a position to address […] contemporary issues, related to the socioeconomic
problems that face our community today” (St. Clair, 2015, 32-37).
22
None of what they do is purely “art for art’s sake” (153), points Kevin St. Clair out.
Their work is “mission-driven” (155) and therefore “meaningful and relevant […] be-
yond just the value of the art itself” (312-313). “It reaches into people’s lives in a very
real and immediate way” (314-315) and gives their communities and their audiences a
reason to come and attaches “a sense of importance and relevance” (155-156) to their
productions. Having this relevance and importance in their communities’ lives is the
reason for their existence (Christ, 2015, 121-123; St. Clair, 2015, 344-346).
Like companies with a holistic approach, it is impossible for them to separate opera and
Civic Impact, “it is just as much a part of the company as opera is,” states Linden Christ
(2015, 134-135) from Chicago Opera Theater.
They strive to provide programming to be aware, attend, enjoy and discuss the themes
and art form (12-13) and reflect that in the environments they choose to engage their
audiences in ( St. Clair, 2015, 196-199).
Civic Impact is created through their work and finding meaningful and relevant connec-
tions for everyone and through that ultimately created by everyone who works at the
company (324-326).
Examples of opera companies with an artistic approach to Civic Impact are Long Beach
Opera and Chicago Opera Theater. Their core question is: How can our work help the
community deal with their lives?
5.1.3. Linked Approach
Opera companies with a linked approach to Civic Impact believe that the “arts are actu-
ally making a change in people’s lives” (Jamison, 2015, 5-6) and serving their commu-
nity with their “boundless power and beauty” (Houston Grand Opera, n.d.) is central to
their mission. They create various programs and initiatives that promote “observation,
participation and creation of art” (Bernhard & Borwick, 2012, p. 237) in and with the
community and present these works on their main stage as well as at various locations
that are relevant to the community.
They use opera’s specific tool of storytelling and take it out into the community to cre-
ate new works that are relevant to them and reflects them such as HGO’s Songs of Hou-
ston or Seattle Opera’s An American Dream. They are deeply invested in their commu-
nity and collaborate with other organizations for the benefit of the community (Jamison,
2015, 92-101).
Whilst they are also deeply invested in making a difference in peoples’ lives with their
main stage season, it is not their main motivation for creating the work. For instance, in
23
the case of Houston Grand Opera, it does not fall into the responsibility of the Civic
Impact creating, community to company connecting subunit. (Bernhard & Borwick,
2012, p. 235) Main stage productions however are linked through themes, collabora-
tions and partnerships with the community. These give them room to find their story
within classic production ( Jamison, 2015, 103-108).
Civic Impact is created either by its own division or the Education and Community En-
gagement department, but it remains a key part to the company’s mission and might
move towards a holistic approach in the future. (Duncan, 2015, 204-209) Examples are
as mentioned Houston Grand Opera and Seattle Opera. Their core question is: What are
our community needs and how can we serve them?
5.1.4. Reflective Approach
Companies with a reflective approach to Civic Impact, reflect the city in everything they
do. Their mantra is “to be of the city rather than above the city” (Bolton, 2015, 7). For
them “art will always come first” (31) but through aligning their art with what makes
the city unique, they create their impacts.
By being reflective of their city, they are being reflective of their community, which
leads to their goal of “bringing culture to everyone in the community” (49). By reflect-
ing their city in their art, they participate and engage with the community and enrich
those special characteristics as a “good artistic citizen” (64). Since their communities
are diverse, they diversify their programs and products often in partnership with other
community organizations (9.4.2., 88-105, 165-179). They create Civic Impact on the
main stage and outside through activities in the communities. Another important charac-
teristic of opera companies with a reflective approach to Civic Impact is that they are
“developing that repertoire, because sometimes it is not there” (Bolton, 2015, 282-283).
For them the “civic footprint is as important as our product footprint” (9.4.2., 73).
Their way of creating Civic Impact through reflecting the city in their activities is “ab-
solutely embraced by every department in the company” (Bolton, 2015, 262).
An example for a company with a reflective approach is Opera Philadelphia. Their key
question is: Who is our city and how can we reflect that in everything that we do?
5.1.5. Separated Approach
Companies with a separated approach to Civic Impact believe in the “life-changing,
transformational, revelatory power of great art and opera” (Lyric Opera of Chicago,
n.d.) and exist “to provide a broad, deep, and relevant cultural service to the Chicago
24
region and the nation” as well as “advance the development of the art form.” It is the
goal of the company to be “one of the leading North American opera companies with a
very diverse audience” (Boyer, 2015, 191-193) that is relevant to those audiences.
They separate their Civic Impact products out from their main stage season and pro-
gramming that will present “world-class opera, with a balanced repertoire that encom-
passes core classics, lesser-known masterpieces, and new works” (Lyric Opera Chicago,
n.d.). It is with additional programming that “goes beyond [the] main stage and is inclu-
sive of [their] community” (Boyer, 2015, 4-5) that they create “a diverse, innovative,
wide-ranging program of Community Engagement and education activities that reaches
the widest possible public” (Lyric Opera of Chicago, n.d.). So companies with a sepa-
rated approach to Civic Impact see its activities in the community as an add-on to their
core mission, which remains producing great art on stage (Boyer, 2015, 337-342). They
are sincere in “build[ing] lasting relationships” (241) with their community and doing it
through creating “new, more in-depths Community Engagement programs, […] new
artistic productions that are aimed to be much more community focused” (40/41). They
see the core of opera as being “storytelling through song” (169) and when they perform
and create work for the community they are “sharing stories that are relevant that re-
move that barrier of time, location, language and make it really something that people
will easily know, […] grasp and understand, and then […] allow them to experience
[…] that […] story through song” (160-171). With these works and activities they strive
to “really be a part of the fabric of the city, to be engaged in what is going on with our
communities around us” (118-121) and interact with their communities in meaningful
ways around topics that are of interest and value to them (111-114). Due to their nature
of approaching Civic Impact as an add-on to their main product, Civic Impact is created
by a separate department of the company, in which “everybody in the company [has] a
piece in this Civic Impact work that we are doing” (65-66). Their core question is: What
are barriers in the community and how can we remove them? (369-371).
5.1.6. Traditional Approach
Core to the opera companies with a traditional approach to Civic Impact are their art
form and their partaking in the development of the field and they see Civic Impact ac-
tivities as “a necessary expansion over the last forty years for an opera company”
(Shilvock, 2015, 30-31) outside the opera house.
Their motivation ranges from “developing pride within the city, pride for the city, pride
for the opera company and the arts, through generating audiences of the future or differ-
25
ent audiences” (4-6). Their goal in their Civic Impact activities is to become part of the
“spectrum of entertainment” of its citizens. And they approach the arts as “an incredibly
profound prism through which one can understand and therefore maybe have a deeper
appreciation and understanding and maybe reconciliation of social issues” (18-20).
Civic Impact for them is a means to achieve a “sense of presence and belonging in the
community” (3) that can “reinforce opera and [the company] as a valid means of cultur-
al expression” (237). It also demonstrates that the art form “can have impact in people’s
lives and in how they view the city and how they themselves use art to enjoy life, to
understand life, to come together as communities” (239-241) and that helps the art form
and opera company to participate in the life “of a city and [… its] individuals” (241-
242) and “become part of the vibrant fabric” (242-243) of the city.
Some of their most successful programs include live transmissions from the opera house
into a baseball stadium reaching an average of 27,000 people, thereby slowly building a
sense of awareness and pride within their community (40-49).
An example for companies with a traditional approach is San Francisco Opera. The core
question of these companies is: How can I take what is on the stage and use it to create
awareness, pride and excitement in the community and become part of the cultural fab-
ric of our city?
5.1.7. Separate division or full integration
Regardless of the approach to Civic Impact, this thesis finds that opera companies im-
plement Civic Impact in three different ways: As part of everything the company does,
through the Education & Community Outreach department or as in the case of Lyric
Unlimited and HGOco through a separate division and brand.
Whilst the first two options make Civic Impact initiatives as much a part of their brand
as everything else the company does in the view of the public, opening a new division
and giving it a different name creates a different perception (Bernhard & Borwick,
2012, p. 234; Gfaller, 2015, 141-144) that can offer some advantages: It helps overcome
preconceived notions associated with the brand and art form (Boyer, 2015, 45-48) and
makes “audiences, supporters, and community ask who we are, what we do, and why
we are here” (Bernhard & Borwick, 2012, p. 234). Moreover, it creates curiosity and
interest and also leaves behind assumptions usually made surrounding Education and
Outreach work and the association of being a marketing tool to “engage audiences […]
to become ticket buyers, subscribers, patrons, trustees, or donors” (p. 235). Additional-
ly, it helps to rebrand a company and its Civic Impact work as something of value to the
26
community, in HGOco’s case as “a cultural resource for the city of Houston” (p. 235).
Also from a practical perspective having a separate “principal subunit [to the] one [that]
produce[s] the company’s subscription series” (p. 235) helps giving it the resources and
“staff that can support this program in a way that you cannot have the entire company
devote all their time to” (Boyer, 2015, 35-36). Additionally “it gives it an appropriate
prominence” (Duncan, 2015, 208) within and outside the company.
However, giving it a different name, separating it out from the main brand opens the
opportunity for it to be perceived as “a corollary side program” (Gfaller, 2015, 144).
And even though all divisions of a company collaborate and are “behind this move-
ment” (Boyer, 2015, 67) this thesis wonders if it might create the perception within the
company to just be “that sort of work” (Gfaller, 2015, 142) instead of being at the heart
of everything the company does, including products on their main stage.
5.2. Strategies
After taking a closer look at the different models of implementation, and each compa-
ny’s individual strategies, this thesis comes to the conclusion that the following major
strategies are currently used to create and implement Civic Impact. It shall be noted that
they are found to be applied combined or on their own and in individual ways by each
company after a careful examination of their city, community and needs.
Differentiation Strategy
Opera companies are using differentiation strategy to create value through “sustainable
uniqueness” (Harrison & St. John, 2014, p. 95) by pursuing high quality and product
innovation. This strategy relies on strong brand-building and sustained focus.
Focus Strategy
Opera companies can be found applying the focus strategy in two different ways.
In terms of work and, therefore, the products they offer, they may pursue focus strategy
to focus only on works that reflect their community and respond to their contemporary
community needs like Long Beach Opera, who seem to exclude standard repertoire
from their stages. Other companies like Seattle, Houston, Memphis or Philadelphia find
their community needs reflected in a broader approach to repertoire that includes works
like Nabucco, Boheme and The Magic Flute. Their strategy on repertoire is much
27
broader but continues to focus on being able to enrich their individuals’, communities’
and city’s lives (Canty, 2015, 144-159; Jamison, 2015, 103-108).
The second way this thesis sees opera companies pursue focus strategy is by diversify-
ing their product lines to move away from being attractive to the few opera loving con-
sumers and to reach a broad consumer market; their entire city (Bernhard & Borwick,
2012, p. 235; Canty, 2015, 69-71).
Internal Growth Strategies
Opera companies are pursuing market development, product development and/or verti-
cal integration to grow and be sustainable and create Civic Impact.
Through their new approach to the value of opera and to target customers, shown under
4.3., opera companies have identified new market segments for their existing product.
These, looking at it through the Civic Impact lens, are of meaning and value to their
greater community. Consequently, opera companies are applying the strategy of market
development.
By diversifying their product lines to fit the individual needs of community members
and customers, opera companies are using the strategy of product development.
Opera companies also apply the strategy of vertical integration through producing new
works that meet their customers’ needs and move backward on the industry supply
chain. Additionally, companies like San Francisco Opera can be found moving forward
on the industry supply chain by installing their own media centers and producing their
own recordings and media offerings (Shilvock, 2015, 140 & 252).
External Growth Strategies
Some opera companies facilitate alliances strategy by forming alliances with other art
organizations to create new products, such as Opera Philadelphia with the Philadelphia
Orchestra by developing and producing semi-staged work together (9.4.2., 102-107) or
their Composer in Residence program with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music Theater
Group (169-173).
5.3. Trends in creating Civic Impact
Civic Impact can be created in a number of ways. After looking at its developments in
the American opera field the following main trends could be identified.
28
5.3.1. New approaches to overall work
Two trends in approaches to overall work can be noticed: A shift in purpose and context
of opera.
Shift in Purpose
Opera companies are moving towards reflecting their communities in their work and
using opera’s unique tools as discussed in 4.3. to create an environment, which facili-
tates understanding and discourse about themes that move the community. Their works
echo topics that are relevant to their lives and “co-create[s] conversations that need to be
held” (Canty, 2015, 94) in collaboration with community partners. At the same time
these companies use opera to build communities by showcasing the “ninety-nine per-
cent of us that are the same” (116-117) in a “society that is constantly pointing out how
different we all are” (114-15).
Seeing opera in the greater context of art
Many opera companies are moving away from the elitist attitudes that some companies
had for a long time. They are gradually realizing that as an arts organization it is their
responsibility to “be understanding and open and participating and countering all of the
other arts organizations in the city to engage the community and change it” (Reveles,
2015, 16-22). This is a development that is trending in most companies who realize that
one of the most powerful effects of opera is its transformative power. The transforma-
tive experience that is unleashed when humans connect to a work of art and can be
caused by all art from the visual arts and poetry to literature and the performing arts.
5.3.2. New approaches to main stage productions
A look at the field finds three trends in approaches towards main stage productions:
Civic programming, diversifying venues and programming, and leaving the opera
house.
Civic Programming
Opera companies such as Opera Memphis, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Long
Beach Opera consider community needs and relevant themes in their selection of main
stage productions. They offer works from the classic and contemporary repertoire that
are relevant to the lives of their city, communities and individuals. Key to presenting
these works are entry points and connections to relevant themes within these groups. It
29
is their vision with every production to create an environment for civic engagement and
civic discussion and extend their reach from the opera stage by offering additional re-
sources through talk-backs, events and other forms of knowledge exchange that enable
individuals to emphasize, participate in dialogue and understand their communities,
lives and challenges better (Canty, 2015, 73-102; Gfaller, 2015, 132-135; St. Clair,
2015, 305-309).
Diversifying venues and programming
Companies like Opera Philadelphia and San Francisco Opera also add additional venues
to their main stage season. By presenting their work in different sized venues, they are
able to brand each product line in a distinct manner. Furthermore, it allows them to cre-
ate environments that are suited for diverse programming that responds and appeals to
different parts of their community (9.4.2., 90-92; Shilvock, 2015, 95-105).
Some opera companies like Lyric Opera Chicago, Long Beach Opera and Opera Phila-
delphia also diversify their programming by presenting concert-like performances of
works or musical theatre (St. Clair, 2015, 157-161).
Leaving the opera house
Other companies like Lyric Opera of Chicago take their main stage productions such as
the Mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina from their opera stage into their com-
munities and manage to reach diverse audiences through it (Boyer, 2015).
5.3.3. Creating new work
The American opera movement is at an artistic high, more operas than ever are created
(Scorca, 2014b). In light of Civic Impact, a shift from creating new opera for art’s sake
and to push the art form further to creating art that reflects the community and is co-
created with them can be noted. Created processes are changed, as can be seen in great
detail in the best practice examples. Many companies commission and co-create new
repertoire that reflect their communities and cities or central theme in their lives. New
opera is produced for school, community and main stage productions and to be observed
or participated in.
New works become a major vehicle for creating relevance in communities and creating
authentic, continued relationships and through that Civic Impact, as can be seen with
HGOco’s Songs of Houston, a series of works around the stories that reflect the unique
fabric of the city (Bernhard & Borwick, 2012; Duncan, 2015).
30
5.3.4. Creating site-specific work
Another noticeable trend is towards site-specific productions to diversify opera compa-
nies’ operatic offerings, as well as emphasize the artistic work and reflect communities
and themes.
Long Beach Opera performs most of their opera’s in venues and spaces that create
worlds that match their opera’s themes, which focus on specific topics that are relevant
to their communities. Their new opera Fallujah for example about America’s longest
serving prisoner will be performed at a military facility and their satire about the media
driven culture The News will be presented in a television studio (St. Clair, 2015, 215).
Opera Philadelphia started an initiative called Opera in the City in which the company
partners, with a community partner, to present one work each season (Opera Philadelph-
ia, 2013). And Lyric Unlimited created their new children’s opera Second Nature about
sustainability and environment, which it presents in the Chicago Zoo (Lyric Unlimited,
2015).
5.3.5. Trends in Outreach and Accessibility
Opera companies engaging in Outreach and Accessibility are motivated by removal of
barriers. They perform events for free in venues and spaces that are relevant to the civic
life, the following three trends can be identified.
Transmissions from the main stage
Opera companies like San Francisco Opera and Opera Philadelphia are transmitting
their live performances from the opera house main stage into the local stadium or mall.
Consequently, they manage to engage and move up to 32,000 people with one event.
San Francisco Opera also transmits their opera on local public television with an aver-
age audience of about 30,000 people (Shilvock, 2015, 45-51).
Free concerts in important civic venues
San Francisco Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, among others celebrate the beginning
of their season with a huge concert of the on-stage repertoire in parks central to the
community (Boyer, 2015, 84-87).
Other companies offer free opera performances throughout the city, mostly through fa-
cilitating their Young Artists Programs to reach a wider audience (Reveles, 2015, 53-
56). Other companies like Opera Philadelphia present concerts with their main stage
31
artists in community locations to create sustained engagement with specific communi-
ties (Bolton, 2015, 104-109).
Operatic experiences in unexpected venues
Opera companies like Chicago Opera Theater present operatic experiences like Beers &
Baritones at a local bar to eliminate stereotypes (Christ, 2015, 30-32).
5.3.6. Trends in Education programs
Shift in philosophy
Opera companies have for a long time worked in the field of Education to generate fu-
ture audiences. However, in light of Civic Impact, a shift can be noticed in not only
sharing the art form and generating understanding and appreciation for it in youth, but
“using opera as the means to help people understand their lives better” (Reveles, 2015,
109-110) and profit from its transformative power. Selling tickets and growing future
audiences is no longer central, it is sharing and using the power of the art form to impact
the lives of others.
Opera Residencies
Almost all interviewed companies have a school residency programs in which they in-
troduce children to opera, through writing and creating an opera with them. An example
is San Francisco Opera’s A.R.I.A. program, arts resources in action, that creates opera
with classrooms by providing them with knowledge and resources for about forty weeks
a year (Shilvock, 2015, 61-76).
Touring performances
Almost all opera companies offer touring performances for schools. Trends in this field
go towards presenting opera that is reflective of the school systems’ needs and adapted
to the curriculum. For example The Playground King from Opera Memphis that con-
cerns problem solving and confronting bullying. Additionally, Seattle Opera’s Our
Earth, an opera trilogy that reflects the endangered species of the Pacific Northwest,
tells the story of the salmon. Opera companies increasingly focus on commissioning
music that can be easily learned so that students can participate in an operatic experi-
ence and their families can come see them perform (Jamison, 2015, 31-40).
After-school programs, Saturday programs & opera camps
32
Some opera companies are providing youth regular opportunities to co-create and bond
through operand participate in the arts, for example Opera Philadelphia’s Teen Voices of
the City Ensemble or Seattle Opera’s Youth Opera Chorus that meets weekly (23).
5.3.7. Trends in Adult programs
Trends in adult programs of opera companies move towards engaging communities and
building bridges not only to broaden and develop understanding of the work but enrich
their lives through co-creation, experiencing and witnessing art.
Co-creating Art
Opera companies like Seattle Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis provide their
communities with the opportunity to participate in communal operatic experiences by
creating community choirs. Opera Theatre for example brings together members of the
community to learn a few pieces of classic choral repertoire and perform it at a central
civic in their Spring Sing! event (Gfaller, 2015, 122-128). These events employ their art
form to build relationships with their communities and introduce the transformative
power of the arts to the community.
Moving past promoting the company
Opera companies such as Chicago Opera Theater offer groups like Opera Underground,
which encourage people with different interests and age groups to experience opera to-
gether, the understanding that opera is a social experience. They invite them to events
from different opera companies and diverse operatic experiences, promoting the art
form, not only the opera company (Christ, 2015, 49-59).
Curating arts experiences beyond the opera house
Opera companies like Opera Memphis offer their audiences curated art experiences
based on preference suggestions that encourage them to continuing to explore their in-
terest. They give them orientation in the field of opera and suggest other connected art
experiences in the city (Canty. 2015, 283-300).
5.3.8. Collaborating with other community and arts organizations
Opera companies are increasingly collaborating with other community and arts organi-
zations. Thereby gaining a better cultural understanding of their community, as well as
33
access and trustworthiness, and partners to co-creating new works with. Furthermore,
through collaboration opera companies increase the reach of their operatic environment
and create diverse experiences around their civic programming. Opera companies facili-
tate their art form that “in its core is about bringing together multiple disciplines and
about […] collaboration across art forms […] to knit together an entire city in the great-
est extent possible” (156-159).
5.3.9. Creating opportunities
Some opera companies respond to their city’s and communities’ unique needs by creat-
ing initiatives and programs that provide opportunities directed to those needs.
Opera Philadelphia for example responded to the developments in Philadelphia’s school
system where only “66 percent [of Philadelphia youth] graduate within six years of be-
ginning high school rather than in four years” and “only half of them are only going to
attend college and only an even smaller percent of them actually complete college” by
creating a Workplace Readiness program that gives Philadelphia youth an “awareness
of good, high paying jobs in the arts for which you don’t need a college degree” (Bol-
ton, 2015, 32-43). Opera Philadelphia also responded to the need of declining music
education in schools by offering The Teen Voices of the City Ensemble, an All-City
choir, to every student in Chicago who is interested (85-94).
Other opera companies like Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Chicago Opera Theater
offer Artists-in-Training programs that provide high school students in their communi-
ties with knowledge and training in the arts as well as scholarships opportunities for
future singers thus allowing some students to “be the first people in their family to at-
tend college” (Gfaller, 2015, 107-108). Chicago Opera Theater through the City of Chi-
cago pays high school students who are performing and working in their afterschool
teen programs (Christ, 2015, 33-36).
Opera companies have found that engaging with the arts “through a communal experi-
ence creates an instant community” (Bolton, 2015, 92) and “helps [others] to carry them
through some of the perhaps rocks of their high school education” (Gfaller, 2015, 109-
110). Additionally by “serving the community in that way we inspire people to recog-
nize that people just like them could be the next generation of our artists,” adds Joe
Gfaller (110-112) from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
34
5.3.10. Partaking in civic life
Opera companies are partaking more and more in the lives of their communities and
leaving the opera house to become a valued member of the community and to create
sustained engagement aside from their main stage season throughout the year.
Participating in community themes
Opera companies like San Francisco Opera or Opera Theatre of Saint Louis are partak-
ing in civic life by organizing and co-creating artistic expressions around themes that
move their community. Opera Theatre for example co-created a #WithNormandy con-
cert in response to events in Ferguson and throughout St. Louis (Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis, 2015, p.15). Furthermore, San Francisco Opera presented an Interfaith Concert
commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks (Shilvock, 2015, 369-373).
Being part of every relevant cultural event throughout the year
Opera companies like Opera Memphis are expanding their mission to become a part of
the vibrant fabric that is their city by collaborating and finding connection between their
art form and every relevant cultural event in their city. Ned Canty (2015) explains:
It means […] if our colleagues at the Shakespeare Academy are doing The Tempest. to
find a way to go and do some songs either from one of the operatic versions of The
Tempest or from some of the settings. If our colleagues at the ballet are doing The Mid-
summer Nights Dream, it means trying to connect some of the operatic treatments of that.
It means if our colleagues at one of the museums are doing […] a show about video-
games, we find someone to sing the operatic scene from Final Fantasy 6 (293-304).
Participating in community events and festival
Opera companies are starting to participate in other community events such as the A
LOT Arts Showcase in Long Beach or The Carlsbad Music Festival where they co-
create work with other arts organizations, build bonds with the communities and other
community organizations (St. Clair, 2015, 240-246).
5.4. Process & Key questions
Opera companies are using the following process to create meaningful and relevant
products for their individuals, communities and city, resulting in Civic Impact.
35
Figure 3: Process & Key questions of Civic Impact creation (own illustration, 2015)
1. Developing a better Cultural Understanding
In order to produce Civic Impact, opera companies need to become more aware of their
communities and fellow citizens. So when creating Civic Impact through activities and
programming, they start by asking the following key questions:
What is my city/my community/my environment about? What are key values? What
makes us unique? What are themes we are struggling with? What are our needs? How
can our opera company as an art organization become part of that? How can we use our
art form and tools to benefit our community?
The tools they use to get these questions answered are conversations and dialogue with
all stakeholders, including patrons, staff, board and volunteers, as well as seeking con-
versations with community leaders and other community organizations. In addition,
governmental organizations like the Mayor’s Office can be a good source.
Some companies like Opera Philadelphia have founded a Community Engagement
Committee consistent of “about 25 percent […] board members, the other 75 percent is
made up of leaders within community reflective of every race and gender and every-
thing else in between in the community” (Bolton, 2015, 69-71), that is a further resource
for opera companies. It also provides the latter with connections into the community.
36
2. Relationship building
The next step of creating Civic Impact is building relationships with the community and
asking them: What are you all about? What are your themes and struggles? And in a
second step of the process figuring out how one can collaborate and use opera’s tools to
benefit them. Again this is done in conversations and dialogue with communities, com-
munity leaders, community arts organization, other community organizations and gov-
ernmental organizations.
3. Collaboration & Programming
The third step and only after having developed a better understanding of the community
and having built relationships between the company and the community, opera compa-
nies can start to think about programming. Important factors are collaboration, listening
and reflecting on what has been said. Partnerships can be forged to create a work to-
gether or to create a number of programs that build and offer additional resources to the
community who attend them, increasing the value of both. Key questions in developing
programming and collaboration are: These are our ideas, what do you think? What are
your suggestions?
4. Feedback Circle
And the last, equally important, step is opening up and guarding a channel for direct
feedback. It is integral to never stop listening to ensure value for, collaboration with and
alignment with the community and their needs. The key question is: What are your
thoughts? A good way to ensure this Feedback Circle is through partnerships and sus-
tained engagement with the community.
5.5. Best practices
The Field of opera in America offers a number of examples of successful Civic Impact,
from Opera Philadelphia’s We shall not be moved (Kiernan Johnson, 2015, 70-83), Se-
attle Opera’s Our Earth (Jamison, 2015, 48-71), or San Francisco Opera’s Opera in the
ballpark that engages and reaches around 27,000 people per event (Shilvock, 2015, 41-
49 & 207-233). The following examples give an overview of three programs by opera
companies that have understood their community and reflected this understanding in
their work.
37
5.5.1. Song of Houston, HGOco, Houston Grand Opera
Houston was in many ways a quintessential American city, a product of immigration that
had never ceased welcoming immigrants. – Sandra Bernhard & Doug Borwick (2012, p.
236)
And as such had diverse communities with many stories to tell. Houston Grand Opera
therefore founded HGOco in 2007, a principal subunit that connects the company to its
community through collaboration with the main goal to be a cultural resource for the
city. Their operatic approach to this unique feature of their city was Song of Houston, an
“ongoing initiative to create and share work based on stories that define the unique
character of [the] city and its diverse cultures” (p. 239).
Since its beginning in 2007, Song of Houston has used opera’s specific skill of “creating
individual stories with universal themes” to present works on the stage that directly re-
flect the way that people live in Houston (Duncan, 2015, 8-9).
Process
Hearing stories, reflecting them back in music and then providing an opportunity for a
community to come together around that creative work. – Brittany Duncan (43-44)
Through collaboration with different community organizations HGOco sets out to write
a work, opera, festival or songbook that reflects a specific community of Houston, from
the community of NASA employees, different groups of immigrants to veterans. Pro-
jects can take multiple years.
The first step is collecting people’s stories through storytelling and writing workshops,
initial research, interview sessions and follow-up calls. The next step is the libretto
workshop to which everyone is invited back and their feedback, reactions and questions
are listened to. This is followed by the music workshop that again has the community
come back together and reconnect over the work of art. Performances take place
throughout the process in different venues central to the city’s and communities’ lives,
from veterans’ homes, community centers, schools, libraries, outdoor squares to partner
organizations’ auditoriums. All performance are followed by talk-back sessions to close
the loop and let the community connect with the art and artists over their themes.
Brittany Duncan concludes: “It is an interesting cycle in terms of listening and then cre-
ating something and then listening again and it is just sort of constantly ongoing, it is
always good to have that final check-in after the performance” (72-75).
38
Benefits
Song of Houston is one of the best ways that Houston Grand Opera can remain connect-
ed in an authentic way with their communities, says Duncan (124). It has initiated a
change in perception of Houston Grand Opera as a relevant, cultural resource that
speaks to everyone by telling the stories of who they are. It has created a tangible good
for the city and as such is a service to the community, which is a significant generator of
its own funds. Its work has been supported by funds and foundations that would not
have funded other, traditional activities of the opera house. Additionally, it offers many
other opportunities in collaboration with different composers and organizations. It also
enables Houston Grand Opera to “explore different subjects and to really sort of push
the art form in terms of process, of feedback and interviews, […] that will hopefully
become more mainstream over time” (126-129).
As an important face of Houston Grand Opera HGOco and their Song of Houston initia-
tive a sense of awareness, connection and belonging with the community has been cre-
ated. “People feel like HGO is a place where they belong, where their stories can be told
and that the opera is a really important part of Houston, something that is contemporary
and relevant” (133-135).
HGOco has between 2007 and 2012 reached over 700,000 people through community
collaborations and education programs and partnered with over 90 organizations, like
National Geographic, the Asian Society or NASA (Bernhard & Borwick, 2012, p. 240).
Houston Grand Opera has also noticed a small direct impact on ticket sales and has en-
gaged people in the operatic art that would have otherwise not seen it as relevant.
It is a success because its work is rooted in a true desire to be part of the community. The
secret is to show up, keep showing up, shut up, and listen… and never leave. Through
this approach Houston Grand Opera is now a member of the community, a partner in
making Houston a better place to live. – Sandra Bernhard & Doug Borwick (p. 242)
5.5.2. An American Dream, Seattle Opera
Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are home to many diverse communities from different
cultural backgrounds. When Seattle Opera creates new work it is their intention to
source them from the community and source them from things that are important to
their community.
39
Process
So, when Seattle Opera created their newest work An American Dream, they knew they
wanted it to be about the community and something that mattered to them but did not
yet know what it was going to be (Seattle Opera, 2015a). So they posed the question: „If
you had to leave your home, what is the one thing that you value, that you would not
want to leave behind? What would you take with you? And what is the story of that?”
and worked with other community organizations to engage the community:
One of them being a film festival […] and they created video moments of these people tell-
ing their stories and sharing the stories of their belongings. We called this the Belonging(s)
Project and created a video quilt of these stories. – Barabara Lynne Jamison (2015, 93-96)
And from that video quilt the librettist chose two stories:
A story about a Japanese doll that a Japanese girl couldn’t take to concentration camp with
her and there was a story about a letter a woman has received from her Jewish parents in
Germany - or not from them, but about them. (134-138)
Librettist Jessica Murphy Moo conducted additional interviews with both women and
created a new story that intertwined their stories. Through telling the story of two fami-
lies that are exiled in different ways during the Second World War, Seattle Opera gives
the community an opportunity to “address [these central issue that is still deeply rooted
in their lives] as a community” (81).
They are also working with Asian American organizations in the Pacific Northwest to
enable them to tell their stories and have civic dialogue around a topic and
To help people who are not privy to this – mostly white Americans and not Asian Ameri-
cans, realize that the propensity for this still exists when fear and government takes control
and we have to be careful about this. We are also sharing stories of exiles from around the
world that are still happening now (100-104).
Other partners include the Holocaust Center for Humanity, Bainbridge Island Historical
Museum, Densho, Japanese American Citizens League-Seattle, Museum of History &
Industry (MOHAI), Wing Luke Museum of the Asia Pacific Experience and the Japa-
nese American National Museum (Opera News Desk, 2015). Previous to the perfor-
mances Seattle Opera offers pre-show activities including documentaries, presentations
with people who lived in our region during WWII, and historical exhibits and after the
performances of the work audiences can participate in a post performance audience and
artist discussion (Seattle Opera, 2015b).
40
Benefits
Through collaboration with other arts organizations in creating new work and listening
and reflecting what moves their community, Seattle Opera takes part in the civic life of
their communities and gives them the opportunity to face and deal with themes that are
relevant to them. Additionally they engage people who they have not reached before
and are creating a level of excitement:
We are just getting started with this but the community is embracing it very deeply. The
community is very excited about this work. There are people who have never been to the
opera, who are really eager to see this work.- Barbara Lynne Jamison (2015, 361-364)
5.5.3. 30 Days of Opera, Opera Memphis
Figure 4: Opera Memphis’ 30 Days of Opera in Action at a Playground (Sparks, 2014)
Memphis has a phrase, it is „Grit and grind” and it means “the intrinsic spirit of strug-
gling to beat whatever’s stacked against you. persistence in the face of any obstacles”
(PeterColin, 2013). It is something that is deeply stamped into the fabric of the city and
among others the slogan of their basketball team The Grizzlies (Cerrito, 2013).
And Opera Memphis in order to prove to the city that they care and mean every part of
their mission to serving the community found the operatic counterpart: A whole months,
30 days of operatic experiences spread all over the city:
We wanted to show the city we meant it. We wanted to show them we were serious. By do-
ing it every day for 30 days, for whatever reason that is just profoundly psychologically
41
different from doing it for a week or two weeks, that sounds like a vacation. 30 days, a
month, it shows people that you mean it and that you are trying. – Ned Canty (2015, 418-
422).
Their method is creating a months of diverse operatic experiences spread all over town
in the belief that “people participating in an operatic event […] in its essential nature
makes their lives better and makes the city better”(194-196).
They collaborate with different cultural institutions to become part of the fabric of the
city and enrich its cultural life through reaching people where they live and work, at
central venues in the city, on street corners or playgrounds. Examples for these free op-
eratic experiences produced during the months of September are:
- Performing Rossini’s Cat Duets at the Dog Park,
- A performance at the Levitt Shell,
- a film at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art,
- a serenade for commuters at Sam Cooper Boulevard and East Parkway,
- a performance during the Central Gardens Home Tour
- and performances at the Germantown Festival and the Cooper-Young Festival
(Canty, 2015, 448) (Sparks, 2014).
Benefits
It’s good for the opera and good for the city. – Jon W. Sparks
Opera Memphis deepens their relationship with the city and community through collab-
oration with different community organizations and creates continued engagement
through presenting 30 Days of Opera every year in September. Through creating unex-
pected experiences, they give Memphians something to be proud of and fight the stereo-
types usually connected with opera. Through collaborating with different art forms and
other institutions they create products that are of value for the community and reflect the
city.
5.6. Challenges & potential pitfalls
Opera companies face a number of challenges and potential pitfalls when implementing
and creating Civic Impact. The following section discusses the two core challenges and
where possible introduces solutions.
5.6.1. Building trust from new communities
A challenge of opera companies trying to create authentic dialogue with their communi-
ties is building trust, especially when these communities only know opera through
“third hand experiences or other forms of popular culture or the lack of direct experi-
42
ence” (Gfaller, 2015, 75-77). Another potential pitfall in building trust lies in the per-
ception that opera companies only reach out when it is in their interest (Bernhard &
Borwick, 2012, p. 247):
No one wants to feel that they are being essentialized or being tendered to where we […]
are going to talk to you [because] we are doing a project that deals with [a certain com-
munity] and that is the first time that we were speaking to any people from [said] com-
munity […], they would assume that we would just reaching out to them because we had
one show and we wanted to sell them some tickets and we weren’t going to talk to them
again until we did something else that we thought we needed them to buy tickets to. – Joe
Gfaller, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (2015, 233-241).
Joe Gfaller (2015) finds that these challenge can be carefully approached by “applying a
higher level of intentionality” (189) and building relationships between the company
and brand first through dialogue and listening and in a second step through collabora-
tion, letting the programming and products deepen the relationships (244-247). Another
successful way of creating trust with unknown communities is looking for partnerships
with other organizations that are deeply rooted in said community. It will help engage
people and through the partner company’s “stamp of approval” (Shilvock, 2015, 371)
install “trustworthiness” (Bolton, 2015, 214) in an opera companies efforts and initia-
tives.
5.6.2. Measuring Civic Impact
Since opera companies’ definition of success becomes multilayered and complex as
illustrated in 4.4, measuring Civic Impact is a challenge for most opera companies. As
non-profits who rely mostly on contributed income, it is crucial to use their resources in
the most impactful and meaningful way (Shilvock, 2015, 168-177).
Measuring Civic Impact is a challenge due to its holistic nature and the fact that a lot of
the impacts might not lead to immediate measurable or traceable action (Canty, 2015,
218-223); as well as the difficulty of measuring the transformative effect of art factor
(Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2015, p. 25). Some companies choose to react to these
with partnerships with research facilities like universities to “articulate qualitative and
quantitative measures of impact in challenging areas such as the benefits of artistic ex-
periences to the individual, and the benefits of strengthening social bonds to our com-
munity’s social fabric” (p. 20).
In addition, opera companies’ Civic Impact work does not only reach the immediate
targeted person like a child in an opera school program but also has a “halo effect”
(Jamison, 2015, 2) and reaches for example family, friends and communities as well. It
43
spans a web of consecutive impacts, which might create further impacts, that makes it
increasingly hard to track and measure.
However, opera companies have found ways to start documenting or at least collecting
data of their Civic Impact, which can in turn be measured and compared. Their data
points, tools and methods are introduced in the following section.
Quantitative Measurements
Opera companies can collect and compare data like number of participants, number of
people engaged with the company, number of people reached and served within a re-
gion, number of programs and number of partnerships in order to evaluate their Civic
Impact developments and success. Another important factor to measure opera compa-
nies’ success in creating sustained engagement is the number of continued or returning
participants. In Addition, companies look at demographics of their reached audiences
and compare it with the demographics of their city in order to evaluate their level of
reflecting the city. Another development to measure the reach and accessibility of the
art form is taking a look at the geographic locations of audiences and the number of
people reached from different areas. It can help companies evaluate different programs
and their success as a company. Some companies like The Dallas Opera chose to heat
map them, which results in maps like the one that can be seen in figure 5.
Figure 5: Heat map of geographical location of attendees to Dallas Opera’s annual simul-
casts from 2012-2014 (Cerny, 2014)
44
Other qualitative Measurements
Besides these, quantitative numeric measurements, opera companies attempt to measure
and evaluate their programs through a wide range of other qualitative measurements.
Breadth and Depths
Companies like Seattle Opera and Houston Grand Opera measure their Civic Impact
programs by looking at the breadth and depths of their programming, which leads to
Civic Impact in different levels of intensity. The challenge with it lies in the balance
between “reaching as many people […] as we can on an annual basis […] and having a
[…] sustained engagement with as many people as we can, which takes a lot of time and
organization” (Duncan, 2015, 144-147).
Brand Perception
Companies like Opera Philadelphia track and measure their brand perception and
changes in it through their Civic Impact work with the help of market research. They
have found that brand equity, the “stickiness in your brand that allows your customers
to highly value it” (9.4.2., 128-129), is mostly influenced by their Civic Impact work
outside the opera house (126-127), which makes it a good indicator of measurement.
They also take a look at the development of the brand perception and the influence of
their Civic Impact work and programs on the change in it (Opera America, 2015).
Goodwill quotient
Another way to measure the impact of an opera company’s initiatives or programs is
looking at the Goodwill quotients defined by Opera Philadelphia as “how does [a pro-
gram or initiative] change our relationship with the community” (Bolton, 2015, 136-
137).
Feedback
Another measure to evaluate the success of a company’s work and programs seems to
be personal feedback from partners, collaborators, participants and community leaders.
These can either be collected through surveys or through direct feedback. Some compa-
nies like Opera Philadelphia have formed a Community Engagement Committee con-
sisting of board members and community leaders that are representative of the commu-
nity and deeply connected with it, who provide the company with feedback, connections
45
and advice (67-76). This gives opera companies an awareness of the value and success
of their work and programs.
Social Media
Companies like Opera Memphis track their successful Civic Impact work through look-
ing at social media and the interactions or conversation they started. They measure for
example the number of tweets, which can be seen as number of people engaged and
sustained engagement can be tracked over time. Additionally it allows them to follow
up and further engage their audiences (Canty, 2015, 435).
Level of Engagement
In order to measure their Civic Impact and Civic Impact programs better, opera compa-
nies like to take a closer look at the level of engagement of their audiences, which helps
evaluate if their efforts have deepened their relationships with their community mem-
bers. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis has as part of their strategic plan for 2015 to 2020
developed its Spectrum of Engagement, which tries to capture an individuals’ relation-
ship with the company, starting with “Awareness” and moving from there to “Interest”,
“Buy In”, “Engagement” and lastly, the highest level of Engagement, “Belonging”:
Figure 6: Spectrum of Engagement (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2015, p. 19)
Whilst many opera companies do not have a measurement model in place yet, it might
be interesting to take a look at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis three-level measurement
plan, which they developed to measure the success of their Civic Impact initiatives and
that focuses on the different levels of data points:
46
Figure 7: Levels of Measurement for Engagement and Experience Measurements (own
illustration; Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, 2015, pp. 25-26)
Other indicators of success
Opera companies are also able to look at lives touched or transformed through unsolic-
ited illustrations of impact such as letters from children or stories (Reveles, 2015, 313-
317; Duncan, 2015, 169-178). Measuring these impacts on a larger scale, however, is a
challenge.
Chicago Opera Theater measures and reflects their success in created conversations
around their art within the audience, whilst San Francisco Opera among others is look-
ing at the level of excitement and pride in their institution, both qualities that are hard to
measure.
Summary
Opera companies are exploring different ways to evaluate their programs and successes,
some of which especially in regards to their newly found value approach are hard to
measure. Consequently, they are working on catching up and developing new solutions
to capture them. It is important for opera companies however to keep in mind that their
impact cannot always be measured instantly and so an evaluation of their efforts only
based on these numbers may be counterproductive:
If you participate in the kinds of outreach and the kinds of attempts to improve the lives of
the people you serve [and] you are only participating in the once where people will answer
47
surveys and you can track it over a year, a very short period of time and that if we are not
also at the same time going out and trying to plant seeds that might not take root for twenty
years, then we are not only shorting ourselves but we are shorting them because somebody
needs to give them that first experience, that first breadcrumb.- Ned Canty (2015, 217-225)
Opera companies should additionally question themselves: What impact am I making
on my community? What is the value they are experiencing through my activities? And
measure them not only in an economic way but also by the produced meaning and value
for the community and individuals.
5.7. Civic Impact & its trends in the U.S.
Opera companies approach Civic Impact in different ways from making it their true
meaning for existence to looking at it as a necessary add-on to their activities. However,
the following core elements and trends can be noticed in the field.
There is a relevance shift of the role of and awareness for Civic Impact of opera compa-
nies along with an increased reflection of everything a company does through the lens
of Civic Impact. Opera companies no longer purely produce arts for art’s sake but pre-
sent operas that reflect civic themes and lives. This does not mean they no longer pre-
sent classic repertoire, however the reason why they present it moves from being a great
piece of art to being a great piece of art relevant to their community. This trend can also
be noticed in the development of new work. It no longer is written for the sole purpose
of creating new art and moving the art form forward but reflects the communities of
opera companies. In addition, the operatic form leaves the opera house and applies it
skills and tools to improve or reflect civic life while building an environment for com-
munities to connect and come together whilst participating, observing or co-creating art.
This among others leads to increased collaboration and working with the community in
programming through dialogue with community leaders, organizations or special Com-
munity Engagement Committees that enable the public to make the opera company their
own, part of their lives and creates sustained engagement.
Another central trend is the diversifying of programming and venues, which is motivat-
ed by the realization and acknowledgement that different types of constituents have dif-
ferent needs that are best served in diverse operatic experiences.
Additionally, opera companies increase their focus on having access to year-round crea-
tive talent, either through Young Artists Program or the founding of community choirs,
teen programs, and other initiatives that enable them to continue and deepen their rela-
tionships with individuals, communities and the city.
48
Sustained, reciprocal and continued engagement becomes an important focus in the Civ-
ic Impact movement and the focus of opera companies is on becoming a valuable part-
ner in their communities’, individuals’ and cities’ lives that is diverse, inclusive and
relevant to contemporary live and perceived as a valuable cultural and civic good.
Lastly Opera companies who switch their focus towards benefiting the community and
creating a tangible civic good, are finding many new opportunities in the areas of inno-
vation, collaboration and funding that they otherwise would not have (Boyer, 2015,
149-151; Canty, 2015, 677-681) .
6. Reflections: Civic Impact in theory and practice
After looking at Civic Impact in theory and practice separately, this thesis is now re-
flecting on their coherencies. Does the current Civic Impact theory reflect the activities
in practice?
6.1. Civic Impact in theory and practice
An evaluation of current and future trends in the field, research and recent developments
suggest that WolfBrown’s approach towards Civic Impact from 2014 is not entirely
accurate. Although it includes important factors like diagnostic capacity, programs that
address constituents beyond the existing audiences, a strong network of partner and
community relevance, it is still oriented towards developing audiences for the art form
in order to own the Opera Ecology rather than a transformation of opera companies’
role and value within communities. It therefore continues to have an intrinsic look at
developments and does not fully reflect the transformation of opera companies’ value,
product and market perception. In order to change honestly and meaningfully, adapt and
create consistent sustainability for the art form, opera companies need to not only un-
derstand their environments but become a relevant part of it.
WolfBrown’s approach to programming suggests clarity of intend and an awareness of
who a company must serve to survive, therefore being aware of who to create their
products for. Civic Impact in practice however goes one step further by including the
community that opera companies serve in the process of creating art, programming and
the final product. Civic Impact in practice builds relationships rather than products and
uses the operatic products to deepen those relationships. This can be seen in the process
outline in section 5.4. Opera companies build relationships first. They do not try to cre-
ate programs that then build relationships, which would involve some deal of risk as
referred to in WolfBrown’s first element of Artistic Vibrancy: commitment to risk-
49
taking. Opera companies are no longer acting in the frame of the Opera Ecology but are
participating in the civic life and ecology. Their products are reflections of or co-
creations in collaboration with the community or parts of the community, so the risk of
hitting the target diminishes if opera companies approach the process authentically and
install a loop for feedback and continued dialogue. Operatic products become part of a
huger civic dialogue that is created between several community organizations and be-
comes part of a civic “Gesamtkunstwerk”, a work of art, dialogue and engagement that
consists of several artistic and community goods. The relationships at the core of Civic
Impact are the main diagnostic capacity of opera companies and ensure community rel-
evance.
Civic Impact in practice comes close to Doug Borwick’s understanding of Community
Engagement, this thesis however would argue that opera companies’ goal is to gain rel-
evance and value for individuals, communities and cities by being a participant in their
civic life and offering environments and a place for civic engagement.
Additionally, Opera America’s approach for creating reciprocal relationships benefiting
both, community and opera companies, is not going far enough. Companies need to
rethink their role within a community and their continued growth requires a sincere re-
focusing on relationships without wanting to benefit the company. By participating in
civic life and reflecting the communities and their needs, opera companies will become
relevant and valuable to contemporary life. This will bring a number of benefits as side
effects that should not be the motivation of participating in civic life or seeking partner-
ships. A company can only truly understand its community if it approaches it sincerely
and honestly without ulterior motive and in a second step figures out how it can use its
unique tools to become part of its fabric. Companies need to start looking at everything
they do through the lens of Civic Impact and find relevance for individuals or communi-
ties through collaboration and programming work in dialogue with the community.
6.2. New framework suggestion
Civic Impact at its core is opera companies using all tools, skills and values the art form
offers to enrich and participate in their individuals’, communities’ and cities’ lives
through building meaningful, authentic and sustained relationships and engagement.
This realization leads to a transformation of opera’s goals, identity and values.
This bachelor thesis suggests a new framework for Civic Impact of American opera
companies that reflect these trends in practice more accurately:
50
Figure 8: New framework for Civic Impact (own illustration, 2015)
New understanding of the art form’s value for individuals, communities and cities
Civic Impact means evaluating opera companies value proposition, as illustrated in de-
tail under 4.4. Opera companies expand their definition and understanding of their art
form’s value from the final product to the whole artistic process as well as seeing value
in diverse operatic experiences that use the specific tools and skills of the art for to pro-
vide meaningful and valuable civic experiences.
Redefining audiences and needs
In responds to the evaluation of its value opera companies redefine their audiences and
the needs they serve. They no longer produce art for art’s sake but find value in every-
thing they do for the community they are a part of.
Increased cultural understanding of the environment
To use the art forms full potential and serve their newly defined audiences, opera com-
panies must develop a better cultural understanding of their environment, their sur-
rounding individuals, communities and cities. This is reflected in the opera companies’
process of creating Civic Impact as can be seen under 5.4. It relies heavily on building
relationships.
Diverse and sustained programming and engagement that reflects it (on stage and
off)
This knowledge and previous steps need to be reflected in everything a company does
on stage and off and be accompanied by sincere, sustained engagement.
51
Participation in and embodiment of cultural fabric for community good
All these points lead to an authentic participation in and embodiment of the cultural
fabric for the community good.
6.3. Key Elements of Civic Impact success
To ensure the success of the framework suggested under 6.3. opera companies need to
be aware of the following five key elements of Civic Impact success.
Figure 9: Key Elements of Civic Impact success (own illustration, 2015)
(a) Understanding of cultural fabric and diversity
Opera companies must develop a deep understanding of their communities and cities
unique cultural fabric and diversity.
(b) Rooting in Community, not reaching out
If we think of ourselves [as] rooting into [the community] that changes […] the substance
of what we do. – Barbara Lynne Jamison (2015)
Opera companies must root into their community and not reach out. By applying this
metaphor an opera company’s activities and purpose become clear and their deep con-
nection with the community and its ability to adapt to change becomes visible.
(c) Listening & Reflecting
They must seek dialogue and listen and reflect on what is said.
(d) Collaboration for civic good
They need to approach collaborations and partnerships from the viewpoint of civic
good.
52
(e) Absolute Alignment
Opera companies need absolute alignment on this new approach to ensure success.
6.4. Benefits of Civic Impact
Civic Impact creates a number of benefits for individuals, the community, art form and
opera companies.
Figure 10: Benefits of Civic Impact (own illustration, 2015)
Benefits for individuals
Civic Impact benefits individuals in a number of ways, among others they get to see
their stories reflected on stage, participate in the process of co-creating art and might
increase their understanding of their and their communities’ lives (Canty, 2015, 243-
248; Duncan, 2015, 261).
Benefits for communities and cities
Opera companies’ participation in civic life can diversify it and create and enrich plat-
forms for dialogue. It enables communities to come together through the process of col-
laboration and over a work that reflects them or addresses central issues like Seattle
Opera’s An American Dream. Opera companies can help create or enhance community
identity through bringing individuals, businesses and organizations together and enhanc-
ing the sometimes hidden identity that lies in their customs, traditions including heritag-
es, values, stories and music. Together with other arts organizations opera companies
53
can build “Gesamtkunstwerke” of activities reflecting those which can lead to increased
ownership through pride and perceived value within the community, improve the quali-
ty of life and can be an incentive for visitors, new residence and businesses (Borwick,
2012, p. 48; Canty, 2015, 120-132).
Benefits for the art form
Opera companies’ Civic Impact helps the art form with its perception issues. It creates
new value and meaning to new audiences and increases awareness and relevance of the
art form by showing its value to contemporary live. Additionally new works are being
created and the new process of creating them moves the art form forward (Duncan,
2015; Jamison, 2015).
Benefits for opera companies
Civic Impact creates strong relationships between opera companies and individuals,
communities and cities. Furthermore, opera companies are becoming a valued partici-
pant of civic life and as such earn community awareness, pride and support, in philan-
thropy and policy making, and increase their adaptability to changes in their environ-
ment through being rooted in the communities and more aware of changes in nutrients
(Jamison, 2015, 227-228). Additionally Civic Impact provides opera companies with a
multitude of new opportunities ranging from partnerships, venture philanthropy, innova-
tion and newly gained feedback and dialogue (Duncan, 2015, 125-129).
7. Conclusion and Recommendations
Sustainability comes when you are relevant. If you are always relevant, which means that
you are always changing because that measure is always changing in society, if you are
relevant, you are sustainable. - Barbara Lynne Jamison (2015, 246-248)
Civic Impact of American Opera companies is a reaction to the trends in the opera field
that have challenged their existence. Opera companies are reevaluating their purpose
and service and redefining their value, products and markets. They move away from
looking at their organizations and art form as an entertainment provider for high-class
art and rediscover what makes it unique. They realize that their business is relationship
based and that their art form can move people far beyond the product on the main stage
and through its many specific tools, like telling stories through words and music or cre-
ating understanding for one another, is a civic good. As such, they begin to see it as
their responsibility to share it with as many people as possible as Nic Reveles (2015)
54
puts it: “I believe in the transformational power of art therefore I will go wherever I
need to and do whatever I need to help people understand that and grasp that and em-
brace it.” (345-347). Consequently, their market definition changes from focusing on
the few existing opera lovers to everyone within their reach. Using the operatic art and
diverse experiences to enrich, reflect and engage in civic life stands at the center of the
current Civic Impact movement. Using everything the art form has to offer from collab-
oration across disciplines to enabling empathy is reflected in everything opera compa-
nies do. They become deeply involved in the lives of their communities and city, with
which they build direct relationships first, listening and reflecting, and in a second step
considering in dialogue how their art form can enrich their lives before co-creating or
collaborating in programming. This is where a big shift is noticeable from what has
formerly been known as Audience Development to Community Engagement. Opera
companies no longer purely act on the behalf of creating audiences for the final arts
product but use the artistic process and it specific tools to develop relationships.
Through this process of developing relationships and offering value beyond entertain-
ment to their constituents and responding to their needs, opera companies and their art
form become a valuable and relevant participant of contemporary civic life, which
counteracts many of the issues that have gotten them into challenging times the first
place. Their public perception switches from being a foreign imported entertainment
product of the past century to being something of value and relevance to contemporary
peoples’ lives. This relevance brings many advantages with it. Opera companies are
building lasting relationships and through increased interest and programming with oth-
er community organizations around topics that are relevant to them, wins new audienc-
es; by creating a tangible civic good they become interested in the next generation of
donors who are interested in not only the arts but the communities, increasing, public,
community and philanthropic support. Additionally their process of regular feedback,
collaboration and continued civic engagement enables opera companies to adapt to
changes more quickly with the help of their community and ensuring their long-term
sustainability.
It shall be noted that every community is different, which leads to the conclusion that
there is not one model of success and programming that would work in every city. This
can be seen in the many different ways opera companies are producing impact and in-
teracting with their community. However a certain framework can be identified and key
elements for success as suggested under 6.3. and 6.4. should provide opera companies
55
with the necessary tools to increase their Civic Impact and look at everything they do
through its lens.
This thesis suggests that Civic Impact indeed is an effective way to face the challenges
and repercussions of the past, learn from them and move into a better, sustainable fu-
ture. It recommends that all opera companies reevaluate their purpose within their
community’s, city’s and individuals’ lives and looks at everything it does through the
lens of Civic Impact by rethinking their art forms value to their unique community and
environment and implementing a process as suggested under 5.4.
Since this thesis was limited by looking at ten opera companies of which many are just
starting to realize their potential, it recommends further research into the value of Civic
Impact for opera companies, communities and the art form as well as fining new meas-
urements to measure the new and multi-layered definition of success, especially in re-
gards to the transformative power of opera and the arts.
56
8. Reference
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Headlee, C. (2013, October 5). The curtain closes on the ‘People’s Opera’. Retrieved
on July 3, 2015, from http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/5/the-curtain-
closesonthepeoplesopera.html
Houston Grand Opera (n.d.). Mission, Vision, and Values. Retrieved on July 5, 2015,
from https://www.houstongrandopera.org/mission/
Kaiser, M. (2015). Curtains? The Future of the Arts in America. Waltham, MA:
Brandeis University Press.
Lyric Opera of Chicago (2015). Vision & Mission. Retrieved on July 5, 2015, from
https://www.lyricopera.org/about/visionmission
Lyric Unlimited (2015). Second Nature. Retrieved on July 4, 2015, from
https://www.lyricopera.org/concertstickets/calendar/2015-2016-
offsite/productions/second-nature
Opera America (2015, May 15). Internal Metrics for Civic Impact | David Devan. Re-
trieved on July 1, 2015, from http://www.slideshare.net/operaamerica/devan-
48198504
Opera News Desk (2015, June 26). Seattle Opera to Premiere AN AMERICAN DREAM
in August. Retrieved on July 5, 2015, from
http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwopera/article/Seattle-Opera-to-Premiere-
AN-AMERICAN-DREAM-in-August-20150626#
Opera Philadelphia (2013, September 25). Opera Philadelphia – Opera in the City. Re-
trieved on June 20, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv7E24R3BBg
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (2015). Connecting our Community and Shaping the Fu-
ture of Opera. Strategic Plan. FY15-FY20. Retrieved on May 26, 2015, from
http://www.opera-stl.org/myos/my-uploads/2015/03/16/opera-theatre-of-saint-
louis-strategic-plan-2015--2020.pdf
PeterColin (2013, May 15). The intrinsic spirit of struggling to beat whatever’s stacked
against you. Retrieved on July 4, 2015, from
https://twitter.com/pcolinjr/status/334692186417418240
San Diego Opera (2015). Company. Retrieved on July 4, 2015, from
http://www.sdopera.com/Company
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Scorca, M. A. (2014a, March 1). Creating Civic Impact. Opera America Magazine
Spring 2014, 5.
Scorca, M. A. (2014b, May 20). San Diego Opera and Issues in the Field. Retrieved on
July 4, 2015, from
http://www.operaamerica.org/content/about/pressroom/2014/05202014_b.aspx
Seattle Opera (2015). The Belonging(s) project. Retrieved on July 3, 2015, from
http://seattleopera.org/belongings/#sthash.uEFxbjM2.dpuf
Seidman, C. (2015, February 3). As opera struggles, Sarasota’s holds its own. Retrieved
on April 19, 2015, from http://www.ticketsarasota.com/2015/02/03/as-opera-
struggles-sarasotas-holds-its-own/.
Silverman, M. (2014, December 20). Freud’s goal: Keep Chicago’s Lyric Opera rele-
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http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/local/palm-beach-operas-turn-
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Sparks, J. W. (2014, August 30). 30 Days of Opera aims to shake up Memphis. Re-
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Woolfe, Z. (2015). Agents of Change. Opera America Magazine, 2015 (Spring), 12-15.
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8.2. Interview References
Bolton, Michael (2015): Vice President, Community Programming, Opera Philadelphia,
Skype-interview, Klagenfurt/Philadelphia, 06/29/15, 3:01pm ECT.
Boyer, Alejandra (2015): Lyric Unlimited Manager, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Skype-
interview, Klagenfurt/Chicago, 07/09/15, 8:01pm ECT.
Canty, Ned (2015): General Director, Opera Memphis, Skype-interview, Munich/Santa
Fe, 06/24/15, 2:02am ECT.
Christ, Linden (2015): Education & Outreach Manager, Chicago Opera Theater, Skype-
interview, Munich/Chicago, 06/19/2015, 5:01pm ECT.
Duncan, Brittany (2015): HGOco Programs Director, Houston Grand Opera, Skype-
interview, Klagenfurt/Houston, 07/06/15, 10:01pm ECT.
Gfaller, Joe (2015): Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis, Skype-interview, Klagenfurt/Saint Louis, 07/01/15, 9:52pm ECT.
Jamison, Barbara Lynne (2015): Director of Education and Community Engagement,
Seattle Opera, Skype-interview, Klagenfurt/Seattle, 07/07/15, 10:28pm ECT.
Kiernan Johnson, Patricia (2015): Director of Marketing and Communications, Opera
America, Skype-interview, Munich/New York, 06/26/15, 4:00pm ECT.
Reveles, Nicolas (2015): Director of Education and Community Outreach, San Diego
Opera, Skype-interview, Munich/San Diego, 06/26/15, 7:02pm ECT.
Shilvock, Matthew (2015): Associate General Director, San Francisco Opera, Skype-
interview, Klagenfurt/San Francisco, 07/01/15, 6:00pm ECT.
St. Clair, Kevin (2015): Education Programs Coordinator, Long Beach Opera, Skype-
interview, Munich/Long Beach, 06/23/15, 9:01pm ECT.
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9. Appendix
9.1. Summary Slides
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65
66
67
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69
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71
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9.2. Interview Questions
What is XXOPERA’s definition of Civic Impact?
I have a definition and would love to hear your standpoint on it. Zachary Woolfe defines Civic
Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion of opera companies mission to tackle the
socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community.” Do you agree?
How does XXOPERA create Civic Impact?
What initiated XXOPERA’s focus on Civic Impact?
What were challenges?
What would you name as positive, what would you name as negative sides to XXOPERA’s
Civic Impact work?
What are your lessons learned?
What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact?
Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards XXOPERA’s bottom line? If yes, why?
Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards XXOPERA’s long-term sustainability? If
yes, in which regard?
If you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, would you
strive to create it and how?
Is there anything else you would like to add?
77
9.3. Interview Transcripts
9.3.1. Chicago Opera Theater
Linden Christ, Manager of Education and Outreach, Chicago Opera Theater
Date: June 19, 2015 via Skype
CK: First off, I would like to ask you, what is Chicago Opera Theater’s definition of 1
Civic Impact? 2
LC: Well, we have been in the city of Chicago. I believe it is our 40th
year this year and 3
we are all about providing opera to the public and opening up this opera form to all. So, 4
we are always encouraging new audiences to come and check out our performances and 5
getting the audiences and the public involved through adult programming outside of the 6
opera house as well. 7
CK: Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact as the “expansion of opera companies’ mis-8
sion to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community.” Do you agree? 9
LC: Agree. 10
CK: How does Chicago Opera Theater create Civic Impact? 11
LC: We provide the programming to get people to be aware of opera and to attend and 12
to enjoy it and to have discussions around it. So, we do different activities like our adult 13
inside program, we have operas that we invite our young artist singers to perform and 14
then we often have events where we have the showing of movies or lectures or other 15
events that can draw people in to communicate and share it and talk about opera togeth-16
er. And that is all in preparation for people to come and attend the actual operas. We 17
also do a civic engagement called Beers & Baritones where we have baritones and other 18
singers performing while everyone is drinking beer. It is kind of eliminating the stereo-19
type that opera is only for the elite. So kind of opening it up to all. 20
And then with our Education programming, we have our teen program, Chicago Opera 21
Theater for Teens where we have teenagers that are actually paid to be in our opera pro-22
gram through the city of Chicago and they learn about opera and musical theater and 23
how to sing and act and dance. And it is an after school program that we have been do-24
ing since 2006 and we are at two high schools currently that are participating in this 25
78
program. And then we have an elementary school program called Opera for All and that 26
is for first grade through sixth grade students and they have an entire year where they 27
devote themselves to creating and producing their own opera. So they write their own 28
scripts, they write their own song lyrics, melodies, they create their own costumes, 29
props, set pieces, they dance, they act, they sing, they do it all. So, that is our Civic Im-30
pact for the youth and the families and the communities of those schools. 31
CK: Great, thank you. So during your season, all those wonderful programs you talked 32
about first, they are only in addition to your season, the movies and so on? Or do you 33
also participate in community events? 34
LC: Well, we do have our Gala and our Soiree, those community events where we in-35
vite the public to attend those, these are more fundraisers. And then we have different 36
events where we, like for example, we have this group called The Opera Underground. 37
And it is for people that are in the ages of twenty to forty and these are get-togethers 38
where this Opera Underground group can get together and be amongst the people that 39
have similar likes and similar age group. So we do different activities with that group as 40
well. 41
CK: What would those look like? 42
LC: Inviting them to attend special performances where before the performances they 43
are given food and drinks and it is kind of like a party atmosphere before shows. They 44
also do different fundraisers, events at Millennium Park for summer concerts, and invit-45
ing them to attend other opera organizations, just kind of getting them to be the new 46
upcoming cast of the opera audience. 47
CK: What initiated Chicago Opera Theater’s focus on Civic Impact? 48
LC: Well, I think, it has always been in our mission and it is something we strive to do 49
in Chicago. It kind of came with the company being for Chicago, for the people, doing 50
opera that is, you know, different from the Lyric Opera, and filling in this niche that the 51
public appreciates and wants and then giving back to the community. 52
CK: What were challenges? Do you have challenges creating Civic Impact and what are 53
those? 54
LC: I think our biggest challenge is probably just marketing it. We have been strug-55
gling in this art world. I think it is the art world throughout Chicago and maybe even 56
Illinois and beyond but finding non-for-profit really great marketing directors has been 57
through a drought at this time. And having that would be very beneficial to helping our 58
79
mission grow with our Civic Impact. Right now that is one of the elements that we are 59
working on. I think the rest of the arts organizations are also finding this a struggle to 60
find marketing directors that are really competent and really strong in their field. 61
CK: Ok, so marketing your vision, your mission, your programs. That would be a chal-62
lenge. 63
CK: What would you name as positive sides to Chicago Opera Theater’s Civic Impact 64
work? 65
LC: What I think that Chicago Opera Theater does a great job of pushing the boundaries 66
of opera and bringing out wonderful discussion among Chicago and talk about what is 67
opera and what are they seeing and what are they observing? What are they hearing? 68
And having this open dialogue, this discussion that is kind of always happening at Chi-69
cago Opera Theater in the audiences. And I think that is one of the focus points that you 70
can say this is working because we are having all of this discussion with the community. 71
I think that is probably one of the most positive effects we have seen. 72
CK: Awesome. Could you name any other or is that it? 73
LC: Well, I don’t know if anything else has been as concrete as that. Well, a couple of 74
years ago, we did this Civic Impact where we invited the public to choose the repertoire 75
for the season. They got to pick out one opera that we would be doing in the future sea-76
son and that was really exciting where people could bit which opera they really wanted 77
to see in Chicago. So, I thought that was a really good way of getting the public in-78
volved and change the impact that they have through their voting dollars and their inter-79
est. So, I really liked that. Unfortunately we are no longer doing that. But I think that 80
was a really successful thing we tried doing for many years with our earlier, previous 81
general director at Chicago Opera Theater, Brian Dickie. 82
CK: So what I am hearing from you is that other positive sides are that the community 83
knows you, you have more relevance, and this massive discussion. Is that right? 84
LC: Correct. 85
CK: Could you name negative sides to your work on Civic Impact? 86
LC: No, I can’t really think about anything negative about it. 87
CK: Any special requirements you need for your company in order to make it happen? 88
80
LC: I think it is always just having enough time in the day to devote to it and to con-89
stantly be checking on what are your goals and achieving your goals. Just monitoring 90
the progress and being aware of it. 91
CK: My next question would be: What are your lessons learned? Have you learned any 92
lessons? And what would those be. 93
LC: Good question. I have to keep thinking on that one. I am sure there have been les-94
sons learned. One of the things that we do that we kind of been trying to do even more 95
is documenting before and after operas, videotaping the audience reaction and seeing 96
what was their first opera experience, what did they think about this before the show 97
started and what they think after. Kind of, gaging their reaction to opera and that discus-98
sion that I have mentioned earlier and having that be videotaped and documented 99
through that process of the season. I think it is very good. And I think that is a lesson 100
that we have learned, that we are continuing to implement and another part of our strat-101
egy for the marketing. 102
CK: What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 103
LC: Well, I think having a strong leader that can make sure that the mission is in place 104
and followed and that is involved in the mission in the first place. That makes sure that 105
that foundation of Civic Impact is actually in the mission. That it is on focus and an im-106
portant part of the higher administration team and then the rest of the team and having 107
good communication about it. I think that is very positive and creates good results. 108
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards Chicago Opera Theater’s 109
bottom line? If yes, why? 110
LC: You mean for our financials? 111
CK: Yes. 112
LC: Yes, I think that it is a positive because through having the community supporting 113
us then we see that they are giving back to the organization. They give through fund-114
raisers, through Galas, Soirees, through buying tickets, through foundations and private 115
donors, they see this work that we are doing and they want to give to that cause, that 116
mission, so that we continue. So that we don’t go extinct. 117
CK: My question would be: Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Chi-118
cago Opera Theater’s long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 119
81
LC: I do believe that it is an important part of sustaining Chicago Opera Theater. With-120
out having the community and the Civic Impact we would not be there, we would not 121
have a backing, it would be for none. So, I think that it is just as much a part of the 122
company as opera is. 123
CK: Awesome. Thank you. Then, the last question would be: If you start at a new opera 124
company, which has no Civic Impact Civic Impact or strategy or focus on it, would you 125
strive to create it and how? 126
LC: Absolutely strive to create it. The first step about going out to do that would be 127
turning up conversations with the community, with the audience, with the board mem-128
bers, with the staff, and just having that awareness and growing conversations around it. 129
I’d say that that is the first step, and then implementing programs that can back it. 130
CK: Do you have any favorite programs that you love to create Civic Impact with? 131
LC: Our most successful program has been our Beers & Baritones and our soiree and 132
galas. The Beers & Baritones is by far the one that stands out being the most successful 133
with our Civic Impact, I believe. 134
CK: Is this because of crowd feedback or people turning up or…? 135
LC: Yes, both. Great attendance, and the feedback from the people that are attending is 136
they want more of it. So, we plan to provide them with more of them. 137
CK: So, do you use young artists for that or how do you make those happen? 138
LC: Oh yes, we do. We have young artists that are involved; we also bring in the cast of 139
whatever opera we are doing at that time. We involve the cast to be just as involved in 140
the outside events. 141
CK: And you mentioned earlier that you have your normal season and have all of these 142
community events. And then for Beers & Baritones you also use your season artists. All 143
these community events are they mostly done by young artists or how does that work? 144
LC: Yes. Yes, it is mostly done by the Young Artists, but then whenever we can we 145
include the cast of the opera as well. Whenever possible. 146
CK: So, are Young Artists an important part of your successful Civic Impact strategy? 147
LC: Yes, they are crucial to our Civic Impact. I think that there is a lot of room for them 148
to do even more in this area. Yeah, they are very much crucial with our Civic Impact. 149
CK: Is there anything else you would like to add? 150
LC: No, I think that you had very good questions. 151
82
9.3.2. Opera Memphis
Ned Canty, General Director
Date: June 23, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Opera Memphis’ definition of Civic Impact? 1
NC: I don’t know that we have one that we stick to. We have a very clear mission that is 2
very important to us that seems to cover all those things but I have to admit that it is one 3
of the … We started making this big transition four years ago before Civic Impact was 4
something that people where talking about. And so when people started saying that this 5
is what we were doing, I just kind of said: “Ah, ok, that sounds great.” So, I haven’t 6
really thought about definitions. What I would say is that if any arts group like ours, 7
where you are the only professional representative of a particular art form for three 8
hours in any direction as is our case, what that means is that we have the responsibility 9
to make sure that the two million people living in that area that if they want opera, they 10
can get it. What that means is that it is not just about let’s say how do we get to say eve-11
ry ticket is free and then everybody who wants can then come and get it, at least with 12
opera it is being more than that. You need to make sure that you are going out and try-13
ing to fight against the decades of insidious lies that the media spread about our art 14
form. In our case part of that mission has been not only to do programs that create ac-15
cess for what it is but to create new works that speak to the city, that are of Memphis 16
and for Memphis. And that use the art form that I love, that all of us at Opera Memphis 17
love, to wrestle with the challenges of the city, celebrate the triumphs and confront the 18
challenges and all the things that people are still working on and try to do that in a way 19
that is specifically human. I am not sure if that answers your question but I am not very 20
good at… like we haven’t actually even talked about it. My Director of Education, my 21
Director of Marketing, they all have very specific ideas. I’m not really smart enough to 22
go that way. I am much more of a five-opera-sheets-in-my-pants kind of guy. So I knew 23
that there were a lot of people that needed opera and that we had to figure out how to 24
give it to them. And that’s what we have been working on. 25
CK: Wonderful. Thank you. 26
NC: Is that helpful at all? 27
CK: Yes. 28
NC: I feel like I did not answer that question but hopefully I evaded it in an artful man-29
ner. 30
83
CK: It comes perfectly close. Thank you. I have a definition by Zachary Woolfe. He 31
defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion of opera compa-32
nies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community.” Do 33
you agree? 34
NC: You know, I think, that that is true but I think though, I don’t know that I would 35
approach it in that manner. And I know that I was interviewed for that article, so you 36
probably know a little bit about the kind of things that we are doing. What I would say 37
is that any arts organization that tells stories, that uses art to address the human 38
condition, the best way to address the universal human condition is to address the 39
specific human condition and the best way to do that is to look at the person next to you 40
and say what is their story what is the story they need to make sense of their lives or 41
their life. And if you approach everything that you do from that perspective, in other 42
words, when you are from every angle that you are doing Don Giovanni, you are think-43
ing about Don Giovanni in relation to everything that is happening in your community. 44
Now I think where I might differ from other people is that you know I think that if you 45
are doing Don Giovanni well and you are doing it right and you are doing it honestly, 46
then you... For instance, I would not need to set Don Giovanni in Memphis and put a 47
bunch of recognizable Memphis’ politicians or families, or locations, … I would not 48
need to do that in order to make Don Giovanni relevant to the situation of Memphis. 49
However, I would try to make sure that everybody involved in the production is really 50
looking at for instance the issues of class and privilege, and how the law protects some 51
people differently than others. And you know that is something that is true in the days 52
of Don Giovanni, that is something that is true today. That is something that is a point 53
of entrance for anybody who lives in an urban area today, to examine that. And not to 54
examine it from a point of view where I am trying to force a particular point of view 55
down the audiences’ throat but to take what is already there in the piece of work and 56
just explore that part of its relevance. And I have a lot more faith in audiences than I 57
think some people do. That if you do that honestly and you build the connection and the 58
parallel if you think about it as you are creating it, you don’t need to underline it with a 59
Sharpie marker for the audience to say: “Oh, you know that is relevant to my life be-60
cause X, Y, Z.” So, while I agree with it, I think from a practical basis, I don’t know 61
that… First of all, I don’t think that I would consider that an extension of our mission, I 62
would consider that a recognition of our mission that we just haven’t really been ap-63
proaching. A lot of the time when people talk about Civic Impact, when they talk about 64
outreach, when they talk about Education, you know these programs are sort of over 65
84
there, that’s what Phil down the hall does, he handles our Civic Impact programs, and so 66
if you think about it as we are expanding our mission to also have these other things that 67
do that then you are missing out a little bit. What I would say is that it is a reexamina-68
tion of your entire mission to ensure that you are not just putting on these shows for the 69
people who already love them, - not that there is anything inherently wrong with that 70
but that is not the mission of a non-profit, that is the mission of a private club. 71
CK: Thank you. How does Opera Memphis create Civic Impact? 72
NC: You know there is sort of two ways, I mean multiple ways, but I would say, I have 73
never really broken it down, what I can give you is a number of examples, but I 74
wouldn’t say: “Oh, we do it in three ways,” that would be insane. I would say, with eve-75
rything we do we try to look at it with that perspective, and find the connections. So, for 76
instance, this past year in our chamber opera festival we did the opera Glory denied by 77
Cipullo. This is an opera that is about you know the longest serving prisoner in Ameri-78
can history. It confronts the issues of people returning home from war, things that are 79
still important and things that are really very easily swept under the rug and things that 80
opera can approach and treat in a way that almost no other art form really can. So once 81
we committed to doing this show, we made sure that we were reaching out, trying to 82
ensure that people who might not think of themselves as opera patrons, that we used the 83
connection with the theme of the piece to say to them, we think that the dilemmas the 84
challenges, that you face that your family face, we think that this piece confronts them, 85
we think that this piece deals with them, we are trying to make sure that other people 86
understand that. Will you come and help us, a) make sure that we get it right because I 87
am not a veteran, nobody on my staff are veterans, we want to make sure that we are 88
thinking about this the right way, and then we want to make sure that we are using this 89
as a way to create a dialogue that the experience is not one that is just a 90-minute, I 90
forgot how long the piece was, exploration of the human condition and then everybody 91
goes home and has a glass of Scotch and goes to bed. We wanted to make sure that by 92
doing talk backs, by making sure that people had access to additional resources, that we 93
were using this piece to try to co-create a conversation that needed to be held and use 94
the specific tools of opera where anybody who was there had this tools to create empa-95
thy and people who are used to discussing the hard, cold facts of something, find them-96
selves instead living through somebody else’s experience through the emotional power 97
of the music or the music and the words put together. So that by short-circuiting some-98
body’s logic circuit and going straight to their emotional core, it allows them to then 99
85
think about it differently and talk about it differently. And that is you know whatever 100
Civic Impact, whatever issues, we sort of look at or try to tackle, I think that that is the 101
specific tool that we have and the one that you can leverage. I think that that is how we, 102
in our first commission, we last year did our first commission; it was called Sculptures 103
across town. I would say we very consciously chose a framework and a structure that 104
would allow the stories, multiple Memphians of different background, different race, 105
different class, a framework that would tell multiple stories that had a central core. 106
And you know, I always said before everybody ever said the word Civic Impact to me, 107
when everybody would ask me why is opera important. I would say opera deals with the 108
extremes of life, it deals with falling in love, it deals with murderous rage, it deals with 109
losing the person you love the most, it deals with marrying the person you love the 110
most, it deals with the extremes of the human condition. And these are the things that 111
obliterate the differences between us. These are the things that make us most similar to 112
each other because all of us experience them in some way over the course of our lives. 113
All of us experience these things. And that in a society that is constantly pointing out 114
how different we all are and making money by pointing out the differences between us 115
which are relatively minor, that opera has the potential to showcase the ninety-nine per-116
cent of us that is the same. That is something that personally I always believed in, and I 117
think that when you start looking at the issues of Civic Impact, I think, approaching 118
everything that we do from that point of view, allows you to sort of embrace these is-119
sues. 120
And you know I think there are some very small, specific ways. Say if you are trying to 121
reinvigorate the urban core of a city the way that Memphis is, opera has some very spe-122
cific ways that you can do that if you create it, if you are thinking in a way that is: How 123
does our art form intersect with some of these things? And not only that: How do we 124
create experiences that are unique and special? Unique to the city that are attractive to 125
people that would want to come in and live in a city? You know, that is a pragmatic way 126
in which you can achieve Civic Impact just by making the city a more attractive place to 127
live for the Millennials, for the creative class, to make it stickier for people who are 128
leaving colleges, that they might say, you know what Memphis has all of these ameni-129
ties that a larger city might have and the cost of living is only 30 percent of what it is to 130
live in New York. Maybe I should stay. And that is how you rebuild the city that is how 131
you reinvigorate and consolidate a city that has become too spread out due to suburban-132
ization. 133
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CK: Wonderful. If I look at your season, we have the main stage productions, - that is 134
two a year, and your chamber opera series or festival in the summer. How does Civic 135
Impact come into your planning of the season, the artistic choice of repertoire? 136
NC: Sure, I think again, it is hard in some ways to pull out a single threat of Civic Im-137
pact because if you are … you know, once you make this fundamental change in the 138
way you think about who is your core audience who are you there to serve. Once you 139
make the fundamental shift from saying we are here to serve the people who sit in the 140
seats of our shows, once you change and think we exist to serve this entire community. 141
Everybody for whom we are the only source for opera. If you start thinking about it like 142
that I think you can’t help but chose pieces that seem to speak to a particular moment in 143
your city or in your time. And that reflects itself in different ways. So, this year we are 144
doing The Magic Flute. We are Memphis as in Memphis, Egypt. We have the fourth or 145
fifth largest pyramid in the world. It is made of steel, rather than stone but it is a pyra-146
mid that was build as a sports center. We have a major Egyptology department. So, we 147
have this local Memphis assets and connections we are doing a piece that has some Ma-148
sonic or Egyptian connections within it. How can we use that as a tool to find and forge 149
these connections? I would say that a large part of thinking about our season and plan-150
ning our season, everything we look at, every show we look at, we think about what is 151
the reach of this show outside of the opera house. So, if we are doing The Magic Flute: 152
What are we doing over the course of the year that deals with the Egyptology depart-153
ment at the University of Memphis? The Memphis Zoo has a special bird exhibition 154
going on that will still be going on during Magic Flute, so we got Papageno, the bird 155
catcher, how do we reach out and collaborate with the zoo to create a program that 156
cross-pollinates what they do and what we do. How do we use opera, this art form that 157
in its core is about bringing together multiple disciplines, how do we take this 158
knowledge that we have as opera artists of collaboration across disciplines, how do we 159
take that and use it as a way to knit together an entire city to the greatest extent possible. 160
How do we connect the dots between the different types of music that our city loves or 161
the different kinds of stories that our city loves, and say: “This thing is actually very 162
much like this other thing. We think that both of them speak to something special and 163
important and we hope that you will come and experience one because by doing that 164
you enrich the one.” And maybe that helps bringing other people to that other thing and 165
maybe the people who come to see an opera where we feature kids from the Stax Music 166
Academy, well, maybe then they go and they see a concert of soul music and those ex-167
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periences enrich each other. Both of them elevate and heighten each other. Does that 168
answer your question? 169
CK: Yes, this is wonderful. 170
NC: And again, I apologize, it is one of these things where I guess part of why people 171
like Zac interview me, is that it seems like we are doing all this stuff specifically for 172
Civic Impact but to me that is flipping it around. Everything we do should be from the 173
core Civic Impact. I mean, why else are we doing this? When we are not going to be 174
improving the lives of the people in the communities that we serve, if we are not going 175
to be enriching the lives of everybody, then well, why the hell are we doing this? It is 176
really hard. You know, we could do things that are much easier if we are not trying to 177
improve lives. So, it is hard for me to kind of think about it just from that one perspec-178
tive. 179
CK: If we look at Civic Impact wit Opera Memphis, we have your main stage season, 180
we have all these wonderful events, and collaborations and partnerships within your 181
city, as you mentioned the zoo and so on, and you also have 30 Days of Opera. What is 182
that about? 183
NC: You know it is very hard for me to codify it because in some ways we build it 184
from the ground up to scratch multiple itches. We designed it to serve a lot of needs. So 185
depending on who you talk to or from what facet you look at it through, it is a different 186
program to all people. 30 Days of Opera basically is a program where for the entire 187
months of September every day we do at least one free program somewhere in the city 188
that is opera or opera adjacent. Most days we do more than one, most days two, some-189
times it’s even three and these performances range from popping up at the zoo or at the 190
dog park or at a coffee shop or restaurant and singing for the people there to full, hour-191
long / ninety minute concerts at various free venues in Memphis. Sometimes we literally 192
stand on a street corner and sing to passing commuters. You know, you could look at it, 193
some people look at it and think about it as a marketing tool. This is a way for us to get 194
out, - it’s Guerilla marketing. We are out. We try to be at as many places as possible. 195
We go places where people might be intrigued by the idea of going to the opera, maybe 196
it is on their bucket list and we try to say: “Hey, you should come and do this.” But 197
there is also this part of it that is … I mean if you look at it from the perspective of Civ-198
ic Impact, You need to believe to the core all of the things that I just said. In other 199
words, you need to believe that people participating in an operatic event, need to believe 200
that that in its essential nature makes their lives better and makes the city better. And 201
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that is something that I believe. So if you believe that then in the course of 30 Days of 202
Opera, we have some events, you know, our largest outdoor concert, we might get 203
2,000 or 3,000 people but we will also go and we perform in libraries in some of the 204
poorest neighborhoods in the city and our audience might be three or four kids there 205
after school, maybe a parent or two, a couple of librarians, and there is no way that these 206
kids are going to buy a ticket to the opera. We could give them a ticket, we do some-207
times to the ones that seem to be interested, we’ve made offers, we have found some 208
connections, - there are various programs in the arts in Memphis for people below a 209
certain income level, there are programs that will pay for their ticket, there are very 210
forward looking programs, so there’s lots of ways to do that but what I would say is that 211
it is not for that reason, it is not to sell tickets to those kids or find a way to fill a seat, it 212
is that if you believe that part of what opera does is explore the human condition, ex-213
pand our capacity to feel and to emphasize, if you believe those things, then going into 214
those neighborhoods and giving these kids at these libraries the chance to experience 215
something that they might not otherwise get. It is the hardest part to measure. I can’t tell 216
somebody when we are writing a grant: “Oh, we reached these 27 kids in these three 217
libraries and you know the outcome is X, Y and Z.” but I know you never know what 218
the outcome is going to be and if you wait… if you only participate in the kinds of out-219
reach and the kinds of attempts to improve the lives of the people you serve. If you only 220
participate in the ones that are easily measurable, what that means is you are only partic-221
ipating in the once where people will answer surveys and you can track it over a year, a 222
very short period of time and that if we are not also at the same time going out and try-223
ing to plant seeds that might not take root for twenty years, then we are not only short-224
ing ourselves but we are shorting them because somebody needs to give them that first 225
experience, that first breadcrumb. You know, it is that story that Zachary Woolfe quoted 226
in that Opera America article that I talked about. About this program, where I said, you 227
know, there are all these people that are doing these things that are so necessary, dealing 228
with homeless families, dealing with the recently incarcerated, trying to find them jobs, 229
reintegrate them. You know, these things that are just these burning human needs and 230
bleeding human needs, and at the time I thought, well, we just put on these shows. It 231
definitely caused a crisis of faith for a brief moment but there was the one fellow who I 232
think is the one Zachary quoted, who basically said, I spent all my time saving peoples 233
lives, and I need to know there is a reason I am doing that, I need to know what the next 234
step is once I saved their lives, what is their next step as human beings, and part of that 235
is participating in the arts. That is one of the things that make us more human. But there 236
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was another woman, who actually talked about when she was a girl in a very, very 237
rough neighborhood, and she went to the opera, - her school got some free tickets and 238
they went to the opera. And she said that it was so different from anything that she had 239
ever experienced that, it showed her that there were things outside the six-block radius 240
that she generally had lived her life in. You know, I did not quote that one because it 241
sounds like the kind of stuff that I always balk a little bit at, like the kind of savior thing. 242
But she meant it very sincerely and really it wouldn’t have mattered if it was the opera 243
or the ballet or an art exhibition or anything, what she was saying was it extended her 244
understanding of the world and that for her she needed that because the boundaries of 245
her current world where difficult, she did not have ways to process them. And you know 246
if the arts do nothing else, it is provide tools for us to process the most difficult parts of 247
our lives. And so she was given that. 248
So, 30 Days of Opera: It is a month of free performances, designed to try to get to as 249
many people as possible and give them their first taste of opera. And then, if they like 250
that first taste, provide the tools for them to get a bigger taste and a bigger taste and a 251
bigger taste. Part of it is recognition that seeing a fully produced opera with an orchestra 252
and lights and etcetera in an opera house, that may very well be… to make the argument 253
that that is the A-pacts experience of the particular art form. However that does not 254
mean that somebody who the only opera they get for an entire year is a one singing Non 255
piu andrai in a coffee shop, their life is better, I would argue because of that. And so the 256
goal is to make sure that we create this full spectrum of experiences from the little tiny 257
snacks to full meals, to make sure that we are not in our desire to give our audience the 258
best possible experience that we are not in our attempts to do that neglecting every other 259
possible experience that might have value and that might meet their needs far better than 260
a three our performance where they need to get a babysitter and they need to do these 261
other things that might not suite them. So that is sort of 30 Days of Opera. It is hard for 262
me to break it down that way because it is sort of everything that I believe is important 263
and special about opera is in some way touched-down. It is why this program when we 264
first started talking about it and it comes from a very personal place for me, you know I 265
did not grow up with opera. I grew up with theater and musical theater, and rock and 266
heavy metal and hip-hop and all kinds of other things. So for me a lot of it came from 267
this idea of you know when I first got into opera and started falling in love with it, I 268
wondered, god, why did I never do this before, like why was I shutting myself off from 269
this thing that I now love, and so that question let to a series of other questions and try-270
ing to address all of those questions let in some ways to 30 Days of Opera. But the 271
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framework of it was designed from the ground up to be able to execute pretty much eve-272
ry part of our mission in every possible way and to allow us to try things and you know, 273
if you are doing 50 concerts in thirty days or fifty events on thirty days and one of them 274
is a stinker that is ok because you are doing another one tomorrow and nobody paid to 275
see it. But if you are doing five operas a year, as we are doing, and one of them is a 276
stinker that is terrible, that’s twenty percent of what you do. So, it allows us to explore, 277
to try, to fail, to expand and to market research, and do Guerrilla Marketing and do Civ-278
ic Impact, and do brand management and you know, it does all of those things. It is def-279
initely one of our biggest tools for Civic Impact. 280
CK: Yes, and you are also extending your mission above your season, right? You are 281
really going into your community and you are trying to create awareness and relevance 282
that goes far beyond the offerings you have during a season? 283
NC: Yeah, I think that our most recent grant is basically to try to take the people who 284
get interested in opera through 30 Days and gives them a curated set of experiences in 285
order to continue exploring their interest. And that doesn’t just mean giving them dis-286
counted tickets to the opera, that is a part of what we do, it means giving them, - if you 287
go on YouTube search for Mozart it is going to be overwhelming, so we are going to try 288
to do a little bit of curating and say if you enjoy this concert that we did that had these 289
pieces of Mozart, maybe start with… here are some clips. If we did The Marriage of 290
Figaro, here are some clips from Cosi and Giovanni, which he also did with da Ponte. 291
But also here are some clips and some possible further reading about Barber of Seville, 292
which is based on the same series of plays. You know things like that that allow people 293
to explore and engage with the art form at their own speed. I think it also means looking 294
when, you know if our colleagues at the Shakespeare Academy are doing The Tempest 295
it also means to find a way to go and do some songs either from one of the operatic ver-296
sions of The Tempest or from some of the settings. If our colleagues at the ballet are 297
doing The Midsummer Nights Dream, it means trying to connect some of the operatic 298
treatments of that. It means if our colleagues at one of the museums are doing some-299
thing that, for example, if some of our colleagues do a show about videogames, we find 300
someone to sing the operatic scene from Final Fantasy 6. It means those things. It 301
means making sure that opera is a part of every relevant cultural event in Memphis in 302
every way that we possibly can throughout the year. That sort of thing is really only 303
limited by our staffing. You know, we are a very small shop. The challenge always is 304
that for every hundred ideas we have we have the resources to execute two or three. But 305
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the good news is that four years ago we had the resources to execute zero or maybe one. 306
But by doing these things, by proving that we can think about what we do in a different 307
way and we can serve the community in a different way, we definitely found support 308
within the city and out of the city. Because I did a presentation for the National Council 309
for the Arts earlier this year about 30 Days which I can send you a link to, it is just me 310
talking with my slides, it isn’t fantastic but it shows the chart. You know, when I first 311
got to Memphis and asked what the definition of success was, it would have been sold 312
out shows and by that definition of success, we would have been reaching about 8,000 313
people a year in Metropolitan statistical area of 1.2 million. And from my perspective 314
reaching 8,000 people in an area that size that is failure, that is not success. So, we need 315
to do everything that we can to make sure that we are reaching all of those people 316
throughout the year. You know, what 30 Days allows us to do, is by concentrating a lot 317
of our efforts in that time period, it allows us to kind of build on one day into the next, it 318
allows word of mouth to spread, it allows us to build a calendar, we get a lot of earned 319
media, and things like that. But really we do it throughout the year. We do all sort of 320
things throughout the year that are doing the same thing. It’s is just by doing 30 days 321
straight, people will pay attention, and it allows you do get a lot more done in that way. 322
I would say the rest of the year most of the stuff we do is collaborating, you know going 323
into an institution that is already doing something and giving them some amounts of 324
operatic programming as a tie-in as a way to enrich that experience. With 30 Days it is 325
usually coming at it through the lens of opera and if we are connecting with somebody 326
else, the majority of it is opera and the connection part of it is in the minority. If that 327
makes sense. 328
CK: Awesome. So that is also because your definition of Civic Impact extends just the 329
selling of your opera season it means bringing the gift of opera to everyone in your 330
community and your greater area? 331
NC: Yeah, you know it is every, I have yet to find a cultural or social event in Memphis, 332
anything really, that is after three minutes of talking, that I can’t think of four different 333
operas or arias that have some relevance, than I’ll be very shocked, it hasn’t happened 334
yet. There is always, with 400 years of rep, there is always something. You know, name 335
the event, name the exhibition. Just as an exercise last year with 30 Days we looked at 336
what is at all the major cultural offerings of the city, the plays, the ballets, all the works 337
that the symphonies were performing, what was at the museums, all of those things. 338
And we did a 90 minutes concert where every single number related in some way to one 339
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of those events and it was sort of our homage to our colleagues and the city. And some-340
times this was very direct, so the ballet did The Midsummer Nights’ Dream so we did a 341
number from Britten’s The Midsummer Nights’ Dream. Other times it was, you know, 342
someone was doing an Arthur Miller play and we do New York Lights from A view from 343
the Bridge or something like that. There is always that connection. 344
Again, for me, at the most basic level the reason we engage in the arts is to connect with 345
other people both in person and on that stage. We watch other people’s stories because 346
they help us make sense of our stories and drawing connections is what we do, at least it 347
is what I do. I mean, it is, when I direct shows, that’s how I direct. It is through allegory 348
and analogy, I am saying this is like that and you know these things are connected in 349
this way, so that is very much build into my conception of what we do and certainly into 350
my conception of why I do it. 351
CK: Wonderful, thank you. What initiated Opera Memphis’ focus on Civic Impact? 352
NC: Oh gosh, I don’t know. It is funny when I first got into opera, I knew nothing about 353
it, I hadn’t grown up with it, so I would do these things and every once in a while some-354
one would come up and oh my god, that was so, I have never seen that before, and that 355
was so interesting, why did you do that? And I would say, I don’t know, I looked at the 356
words and the music and it seemed to make sense. And I wasn’t setting out to do some-357
thing different, and new, and innovative, it just made sense. And really that’s … I am a 358
45 year old working in an art form which has seen declining audiences for a decade 359
which ninety-nine percent of Americans assume they will not like and that is a really 360
bad prescription for the future and unless we can breakdown these preconceived notions 361
then the art form does not have a future. You know things need to change and they need 362
to change in ways that are substantial and honest and sincere. The entire Industry is un-363
dergoing kind of ground-up examination of what is it that we do and why do we do it. 364
So after my first year in Memphis when it became clear that if we continued on the path 365
that we were on then, it was pretty clear based on the numbers, based on the laws of 366
physics, that eventually we would not be around anymore. So the question was how do 367
we approach change from those ends? In other words, what do we do to get somebody 368
who has never gone to an opera, what is it that is going to get them to see Pagliacci or 369
The Mikado or Rosenkavalier? But also what else is it that we do that is unique and spe-370
cial that only we do? That might not fit the definition of opera that we might currently 371
hold but the problem is that definition of opera that we want and but that definition of 372
opera is the thing that ninety-nine percent of America thinks they don’t like. So, the 373
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emphasis to do it comes from this very nerdy beliefs that I have that if only people real-374
ly understood what opera actually is rather than what TV commercials tell them it is, 375
then the art form would be able to really blossom and flower. 376
You know, we came at it through an idea, you know, if all we do is put on shows, if we 377
are just a producing organization that tries to sell every seat in the house, we will be 378
gone. And that we will be gone because of economics, and we will be gone because of 379
shifting demographics, and viewing patterns, and all that stuff. So change is, there is an 380
overlap, there is an almost perfect overlap between what opera as an art form and a 381
business model needs to do in the U.S. to survive and increasing Civic Impact. You 382
know, it is, one of them seems very selfish and business like and one of them seems 383
very pure and idealistic. But the steps are exactly the same. Pursuing Civic Impact, 384
making sure that everything you do is about everybody you serve, that is how you suc-385
ceed and that is how you continue to survive and that is how you make sure that opera 386
lasts for six-centuries, for seven, and not just four. So it’s hard to, I would be lying to 387
say that we started from the idealistic part first. We started from what needs to happen 388
for opera to survive as an art form and what do we have the money and resources to do 389
to try to meet that goal? And it just happened that in pursuing those things we also end-390
ed up fitting the definition of Civic Impact. And that is not to say that, I mean, I am a 391
total idealist, you know, if I didn’t believe on a purely, just on a core, core level in the 392
importance and power and value of opera, I would do something else with my life. So, it 393
did not come from a jaded or cynical place at all, it just happened that pursuing the 394
growth and next transformation, next iteration of the art form involves going out and 395
meeting everybody where they live and saying: “Hey, this is opera. How are you doing? 396
I hope that you like this. We think there is something in there for you. And if we are 397
wrong, we tried. See you later. Go, you know, play some video games, go to a ballet, go 398
to a, you know, football game, whatever. That is also fine. All those things are also 399
good.” 400
CK: What are your challenges implementing Civic Impact, what were challenges? 401
NC: Gosh, I mean, resources really. It is. You know, it is. Again, the question is a little 402
hard for me to answer because I don’t think I ever separate Civic Impact out. So the 403
challenges of Civic Impact are sort of aligned with the challenges of just doing what we 404
do and, you know, the number one is resources. You know, the opera business model in 405
America, at least in markets our size, was build on certain assumptions, certain societal 406
characteristics, certain patterns of consumption, a particular model of how much 407
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thought and entertainment was out there and accessible, so, for decades these things did 408
not change and then when they started changing they changed faster than anybody could 409
keep up with. So really, the biggest challenge is making sure that we have the resources 410
we need to pursue that. 411
And I think it is always a challenge to go about it honestly. I think that, you know, part 412
of the reason, you know, here is Civic Impact, I think, and ok, this sounds very much 413
like what we are doing, so we should be applying for these grants, we should be doing 414
X, we should be doing Y, because of Civic Impact. But I think as soon as you start do-415
ing Civic Impact, because people are talking about Civic Impact and foundations are 416
giving money to Civic Impact, as soon as you are starting to do that for that reason, then 417
you kind of take it away. And you know, no matter what the temptation is you need to 418
make sure that you are approaching it honestly. 419
And I think, you know, there is, one of the reasons why we did 30 Days is we wanted to 420
show the city we meant it. We wanted to show them we were serious. And by doing it 421
every day for 30 days, for whatever reason that is just profoundly psychologically dif-422
ferent from doing it for a week or two weeks, that sounds like a vacation. 30 days, a 423
month, it shows people that you mean it and that you are trying. I scape that one of the 424
challenges we have is continuing that process of showing people that we mean it. That 425
this is not just at the end of the day a clever way to sell tickets, it’s not just a marketing 426
thing and you know I think that in the concept of these conversations, marketing always 427
sounds like “Uh, marketing, advertising, uh, it’s tainted.” You know? I think it sort of 428
gets a bad rep. But really all marketing is, is trying to get people to understand the expe-429
rience you have to share with them is something that might be meaningful to them. And 430
that is the biggest challenge. So, I would say going forward this challenge of showing 431
people, yeah, this is who we are now. A big part of what we do is giving people these 432
small, bite-sized experiences because they have value in themselves and they might 433
have much greater value, they might be even more transformative if they just happen to 434
hit the right person at the right time. You know the poster boy for 30 Days of Opera is 435
this fellow Patrick who drove by us singing on the street corner one day, driving home 436
from work, took a picture, tweeted it, this is how we are able to track him, so his first 437
contact with us was driving by, hearing a snippet of some aria, he got intrigued, he 438
learned more. The next thing he went to was the drop party for the, - as part of the first 439
30 Days of Opera, we commissioned a four song hip-hop cycle from a local hip-hop 440
artist that was based on La Boheme, so each of the songs was one act of Boheme and we 441
had a party for, you know, at a local bar, you know, where he performed it, - so he came 442
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to that, so it is kind of opera but also hip-hop, so not to threatening, and then he came to 443
the closing concert and then he came to his first opera and then he subscribed to the next 444
season and now he is one of the co-heads of our Young Professionals Society. So, I 445
don’t know what to call that. I mean, you can call that marketing, yeah, we sold tickets 446
because of that but that’s not marketing, that is creating the general for the future opera 447
army that is going to help bring opera to even more people. So, yeah, it is marketing, in 448
that it is sells tickets but it is way, way more than marketing and it is branding in that 449
people like the idea of us singing Rossini’s Cat duet at the dog park, they think that is 450
funny, it shows that we have a sense of humor but it is not just branding, it is not just 451
any of those things. If you are not taking a holistic view of everything you do, if every 452
piece of that is not duck tailing with every other piece then you are doing something 453
wrong and that’s when you end up with quote on quote Civic Impact programs that are 454
window-dressing for a mission that has not changed at its core. 455
CK: Wonderful. Thank you. 456
NC: You are welcome. 457
CK: What would you name as positive sides to Opera Memphis’ Civic Impact work? 458
NC: I mean it is everything. It is the reason why I spent every day devoting every ounce 459
of my heart and soul to doing it because you see the impact. You know, seeing, you 460
know, I have a friend who is a Shakespeare professor at the local university he brought 461
his kid to see their first opera. It was a piece called The Playground King this children’s 462
opera that we wrote. And the kid was entranced. You know, sings from the opera, I have 463
videos of this kid singing The Playground King, some of the tunes from the Pirate King, 464
this three-year-old kid singing opera. There is this guy, in year two of the program we 465
did our first concert at the Levitt Shell which is this big historic outdoor Amphitheatre 466
in Memphis, free venue through the Spring and the Fall and there was this guy who was 467
a security guard there who, you know, was teasing my counterpart there, the Executive 468
director, teasing her all week, saying: “Oh, the opera show, nobody is going to come. 469
It’s going to be so boring!” You know, all this stuff, - all the typical things about opera. 470
And then she is backstage during the show and she came around backstage and she saw 471
him cry. And she said: “I thought you said this things are going to be so boring.” And 472
he said: “I had no idea it was so beautiful.” And later on she told me that story and I 473
passed it along to a couple of friends and he agreed to be interview for Arts Memphis 474
which is our regional arts fund, you know, he basically said, you know, I grew up in – 475
he grew up in Orange Mound which is not only one of the poorest areas of Memphis, it 476
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is one of the poorest zip codes in the country, and he said: “I grew up in Orange Mound 477
and I always thought that opera was for rich, white people and I never imagined that it 478
would effect me in the way that it did.” I am paraphrasing a little bit. And not only was 479
he moved by this thing, which by itself, you know: win! But it made him decide to go 480
back and pick up piano lessons again, which was something that he had given up years 481
before. So in the end it wasn’t even the fact that our music director who was playing this 482
concert was just so virtuosic, hm, so it wasn’t even like, again, I guess if it was purely 483
marketing, the fact that he, you know, if he was a subscriber and his whole family, you 484
know, that would be a great marketing tool, but in terms of personal, you know, in terms 485
of why I get out of bed in the morning, the idea that this program that all of this hard 486
work ended up with someone not only having this emotional experience that exploded a 487
preconceived notion, a prejudice that they had in their head about this art form, that’s 488
great, the fact that it then inspired them to go and pursue their own artistic exploration 489
like, I mean it does not get any better than that. That’s why all of us do what we do. It is 490
to try to have that kind of, to give somebody that kind of experience. And you know, he 491
is one, sort of example but, you know, that is what, you know, on a personal level that is 492
what I come back to. It is those people. I think on a professional level, all of these pro-493
grams that I have mentioned, have achieved their goals above and beyond of what we 494
thought they would in terms of, you know, changing the way people think about the 495
company, changing the way the city thinks about the company. You know, there is, one 496
of the foundations in Memphis has this phrase: Authentic Memphis Asset. Memphis is 497
the city that invented RocknRoll, we are the birthplace of Blues, we are the birthplace of 498
Soul, we have music in our DNA. And the question was raised of is opera authentically 499
Memphis and it would have been very easy to make the case, well, it is this group of 500
people, singing an opera that was written 200 years ago in Italy that is about people who 501
died 190 years ago and so that very small slice of the populous that loves this work, 502
there is nothing authentically Memphis about that. So, you know, in a way it has proven 503
that opera can be as authentically Memphis as every other art form, that opera speaks to 504
the soul the same way the Blues does, that we can create opera in Memphis, that is 505
about Memphis, that is for Memphis and by Memphis. You know that, all of these 506
things that fall under the Civic Impact umbrella, you know, they have all done that. So, I 507
don’t know that, you never tell the future, people have asked me, so if you had not start-508
ed this stuff would there still be an Opera Memphis? That is not a question that I can 509
really ask, although, the answer rather the fact that I can answer it, I guess is relevant 510
enough. I do know that in the past, we found that out of the wreckage of the global re-511
97
cession and, you know, out of away from all of these changing demographic trends that 512
are just, you know, challenging everybody in the field, our path out leads through this 513
kind of programming, that it leads through trying to engage every person in the city and 514
if that means trying to find a way to go to ring on every doorbell in the city and saying: 515
“Hi, I am Ned Canty. This is an opera singer. Would you like her to sing something?” 516
You know, if that’s what it is then that’s what it is. We’ll find a way to do that. 517
CK: Awesome. Thank you. Do you think there are negative sides to Civic Impact? Yes 518
or no and if yes, what would they be? 519
NC: For me I honestly have to say no because, the challenge I think is if you’ve done a 520
lot of these programs instead of doing La Boheme, I think, there might have been people 521
who are upset that you haven’t done La Boheme, and in a way they should be, La 522
Boheme is a masterpiece that gets the core part of the human condition. I cry every time 523
I direct it and if you direct it every time with fresh eyes, there is a reason why we still 524
do it. It may be emotionally manipulative, and cabinet making rather than great art, I 525
don’t care. It’s an amazing evening of opera. So, if we had done X rather than Y, it 526
might have been harder. I think, we tried very hard to make sure that we were approach-527
ing it both from the idea of new programming but also looking at La Boheme as part of 528
this overall spectrum of what is the story about, what are these human beings going 529
through and if you ask all of those questions honestly and you do it not from a directori-530
al, masterwork-tory way then you are going to find the connection and in finding that 531
connection you find the Civic Impact, you find what it can address, what it can work 532
toward and then you also find the, you know, you use that as the touch point for discus-533
sion from humanity’s perspective. You know, to talk about, you name it, whatever the 534
case might be about, you know, about the impact, Memphis, there was this Yellow Fe-535
ver Epidemic that brought, you know, it was once the largest city in the South, there 536
was this Yellow Fever Epidemic, the population of Memphis got down to something 537
literally like 35 people, and because everybody just fled, and, you know, basically the 538
sort of accepted line of logic is that if this had not happened, Memphis would not only 539
be the largest city in the South, it would probably be the fourth or fifth largest city in the 540
country but it just took so long to recover from that blow, so you look at something like 541
Yellow Fever which is very, very still, more than 100 years later, so many people are 542
still aware of it, you look at that and then you look at the impact of tuberculosis and you 543
look at the impact of the Aids epidemic on the creative community and you have that 544
discussion and you don’t shy away from that discussion, you don’t force that discussion, 545
98
you don’t make your version of Boheme about Yellow Fever or the Aids epidemic, you 546
just make sure that when you address them, the questions you ask open up the dialogue, 547
how do we improve our infant mortality rate, why is it that, if Rodolfo had stuck with 548
his, - I hope you really are an opera fan because I keep referencing all these opera, 549
CK: Oh, I am, absolutely. 550
NC: If Rodolfo had just not been such an idiotic, naïve, idealistic, young artist and in-551
stead had just worked for his damn uncle, he could have afforded the medicine for Mimi 552
cause he has this rich uncle, I mean the kid is as Bourgeoisie as they come and he is 553
playing at being poor because it is fun and exciting and it bites him in the ass. And so, I 554
am not, there are many ways at looking at that character, but so look at that and then 555
look at ok, what does that mean in terms of the healthcare system in America, and why 556
is it infant mortality rates from different Zip codes in Memphis are different and should 557
they be? And again, you don’t make your show about that, you don’t make the opera 558
about that but you make sure that you understand how it relates to the opera and you 559
sort of proceed from there. 560
CK: Yes, wonderful. 561
NC: Did that answer that question? 562
CK: It answered a lot of questions but the question originally was: Are there negative 563
sides to Opera Memphis Civic Impact work? 564
NC: Right. Oh, sorry, wow, I went really far field on that one. I think, the only other 565
negative I would say is that I think that, I think that in a way there is a danger that we all 566
need to be aware of that when we start talking about Civic Impact as a thing in of itself, 567
we separate it out from the core of everything we do and that that can be dangerous, I 568
feel about it the same way I feel about, when people are talking about, the most im-569
portant part about opera is the music, I only think even the fact that you are addressing 570
it, how is framing it in that way, how does that make opera better? That is not a good 571
way to think about opera. Saying this part is more important than that other part. That’s 572
like saying the best way to run a family is to say: “You my third son are more important 573
than my third daughter,” you know? That’s not a good way to think about these things, 574
so I think that the danger that by pulling it aside and looking at it in isolation, it be-575
comes easier to not bake it into everything we do. So, and I guess that is not a downside 576
so much as it is a potential pitfall. 577
CK: Yes. Perfect, that answers my question. That is wonderful. What are your lessons 578
learned? 579
99
NC: You know my lessons learned are that the number one thing opera has to going for 580
it, is that everybody assumes that it is irrelevant and ancient and stuffy and dying. Be-581
cause people assume that it means that the bar is already set as low as it possibly can be 582
and you know, with 30 Days, I’ll use that as an example, when a bunch of opera singers 583
go to dog park, put on cat ears and song Rossini’s Cat duet people think: “Oh my god, I 584
cant believe opera singers did that.” Because they think that it is that very removed 585
stuffy, fancy, ritzy art form. It is actually kind of weird backwards benefit. If a bunch of 586
actors did that, people would not be impressed. They expect actors to be weird and out 587
there. So, I think that was one of the lessons learned that I really didn’t expect. That the 588
very fact that so many people have misconceptions about us, makes it easier to puncture 589
those misconceptions. It makes the first step easier. 590
That being said, the corollary is that the, you know, if I was more technologically savvy 591
or had more time, I keep intending to write a blog in which I reference multiple itera-592
tions, you know, anytime opera is used on TV or in the movies, to just sort of give it a 593
score about how it presents opera. So last week for instance, I was watching Daredevil 594
on Netflix and they used a full version of Nessun Dorma for a montage sequence that all 595
about triumph, and I thought great, you are underlining the fact that this is a triumphal 596
song, everyone is seeing it that way, terrific, great use of opera. And then in another 597
show, I can’t even remember what now, the villain was listening to opera and this is 598
something you see all the time, the villains listen to opera because it is for rich, evil 599
people that kind of refine the art form. 600
CK: Silence of the Lambs, too. 601
NC: That’s another perfect example. Bad guys always listen to opera. It is used at a, 602
somebody liking opera is used as shorthand for they are a rich, pretentious douchebag 603
and that is terrible and it is still all over the place. So, on the one hand it means that in 604
the, in the kind of house-to-house battle of everything we do, it means that these pre-605
conceptions are so widespread that we can puncture them more readily, I think the cor-606
ollary to that is in our bubble of loving opera it is just so easy to forget how easy it is 607
not to go to the opera, there are so many reasons for people not to go to the opera, to 608
never care, and that somebody an live a perfectly fulfilled life with absolutely no opera 609
in it and it can filled with beautiful and amazing art of every discipline except opera and 610
that person could die a perfectly happy and fulfilled human being. That is a fact. That is 611
the truth. And I think that unless we accept that, I think, that, you know, we all love 612
opera so much that it is easy to not really understand that other people could not like it 613
could take a long time to like it or even could think it is ok but prefer something else. 614
100
And I think that that has let to people closing themselves of and it has let to the kind of 615
opera snob mentality, you know, every time I overhear somebody read on some blog, 616
somebody explaining or operaxplaining to somebody why, you know, Forte or Il Vivo, 617
or Paul Potts, are not really opera, I think, oh god, you may be right, I don’t care if you 618
are right or not, all you have done is said: “Oh, you are really moved by Paul Potts sing-619
ing Nessun Dorma, too bad that you are so stupid to be moved by that, you don’t under-620
stand how bad that is. Let me tell you how much better this other thing is.” All we are 621
telling them is I am a pretentious ass-hole who cannot understand that you would be 622
moved by something instead of saying that wow, that’s great. I am so glad that you 623
were… You know if you enjoyed that, that’s from an opera called Turandot I have a 624
DVD of it if you are ever interested or the Met is doing the HD or a local company is 625
doing a production of it, let’s make a night of it. You know, that is the way to respond 626
to that kind of thing, instead to this kind of closed off world in which we all endlessly 627
debate whether Callas or whomever had the best high C in 1962, you know, and you 628
know we create most of our own problems, and those that we don’t create are created by 629
the media but the media is reflecting the problems that we create ourselves. And it took 630
us years to, you know, I guess the final takeaway would be, it’s been four years of 30 631
Days of Opera, we made immense progress, the company, the way the city thinks about 632
the company is totally different, and yet I still regularly meet people who don’t even 633
know that Memphis had an opera, yet I still regularly meet people who will joke about 634
top hats or who say “Oh well I am just a redneck, I don’t understand that stuff.” You 635
know, as if somehow, you know, Tosca was anything but a pop role, you know, any-636
body can understand Tosca. If you watch TV, if you watch movies, you can understand 637
Tosca. So, it took us decades to get to this place where the majority of Americans think 638
that we are not for them and that it is going to take us decades to get out of it. And that 639
all that we can do is commit to it and keep pushing forward and make sure that we are 640
counting all the victories, noting all the losses, learning from the losses and trying to 641
make the time to go circle around it in a different way. Make sure that we are, you 642
know, doing our best to reveal that it is a, it is the work of a lifetime to change all of 643
that. So, you know, that I think is a, you know, Civic Impact is not something were you 644
change your city with one program over one season, you know, it is not a program, it is 645
a way of life. It is a philosophy and it is thinking about what we do and why we do it. 646
That it is going to take years not only for us to learn that but for the outside world to 647
learn that. 648
101
CK: Yes. Wonderful. Thank you. What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 649
NC: I think the sincerity of approach. I mean the foundation of success is believing that 650
it is integral to what you are doing, that it is not grant-bait or you know, a way to get a 651
good article, you know. The foundation of success is baking it into everything that you 652
do. 653
CK: Awesome. And if you look at an opera company, what would be foundations with-654
in that to create Civic Impact and successful Civic Impact? 655
NC: I think, full buy-in from everyone, especially for people who are long-term stake-656
holders, long-term board members, donors, I think you need to make sure that you are 657
involving them and empowering them and making sure that, you know, some of the 658
pitfalls that I have just talked about or you know some of the, you know, there are 659
sometimes, making sure that they understand that it is not just there as window-dressing 660
for foundations to think that you are good. Making sure that they understand that it is as 661
important as anything else you do. I think that is part of the foundation and I think it is 662
the tricky part of it. Because often people who love opera, they support opera, and they 663
often are the people who can not understand why anybody else would prefer any other 664
way of spending their time. And so making sure that you are bringing them into the fold 665
and empowering them to use their love to help, matters, I think that is a big part of it. 666
CK: Awesome, thank you. Now, some easier questions. Do you feel Civic Impact has a 667
positive impact towards Opera Memphis’ bottom line financially? If yes, why? 668
NC: I mean absolutely, because you know I think that demonstrating commitment to 669
your city. When I first got the job people told me, several people told me variations of 670
variations of people will give money to Opera Memphis for two reasons, because they 671
love opera or because they love Memphis. And the people who loved opera were al-672
ready giving us money, and the people who loved Memphis didn’t understand why it 673
made a difference whether or not we had an opera company. And so the biggest un-674
tapped resources for us in terms of engagement and donations was people who loved 675
Memphis and we had an opportunity to demonstrate to them what an opera company 676
can mean for a city, what it can do for a city and what some of these programs that we 677
were instituting how they could improve the city. So, basically it opened us up to all 678
these other folks who once they saw that we were aligning ourselves with the interests 679
and passions of the city, that we were embedding ourselves in projects and neighbor-680
hoods, and trying to really underline the Memphis part of Opera Memphis, as much as 681
102
anything else, they started giving or upped their giving and while I would not say, we 682
did not start out with that as the goal, it has certainly been a very welcome fringe benefit 683
and since we have shown that we can, that we consulate through, that we can do this, 684
that we can leverage a very small, relatively small amount of money into a lot of art, we 685
have definitely gotten support that we would otherwise not have gotten and just when 686
you go out and sing in front of a ton of people inevitably there are going to be people 687
who become intrigued and who will come and buy tickets, who will become part of the 688
fold, so, yeah, it has absolutely increased our bottom line. And it has been nothing but a 689
positive, for us, at least. 690
CK: Awesome. Thank you. Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards 691
Opera Memphis’ long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 692
NC: Yeah, not only will it help. It is integral. I don’t think that without it we would still 693
be around. If we are not thinking about our relationships with the city then how will we 694
ever compete with the Met HD broadcasts, or, you know, touring Broadway shows, or 695
staying at home to watch Netflix, you know, if we are just out there in the ether, why 696
would anyone care. The only way that we will still be around in thirty years is if with 697
every decision we make from the small to the large, the question is how will this be 698
making Memphis better, how is the art that we are presenting, how are the programs 699
that we will bring out there, how is this making the lives of the people who live here 700
better and since we don’t pay taxes because we are a public good, how are we actually 701
acting in the good of the public rather than just acting in the good of people who love 702
opera. So, we need to have all those things or man, we would be gone. We would be so 703
gone. 704
CK: Awesome and then this is my last question: If you start at a new opera company 705
with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, would you strive to create it and how? 706
NC: Yeah, I mean, you would have to, and I don’t think anybody can get away with not 707
thinking about it, I think even the largest companies are wrestling with it. I mean, we 708
are a very small company, we are a tier, I don’t know if you know the American system, 709
but we are a tier three company, so a budget of 1.5 million, which is what the Met 710
spends on shoes in a year, so the economics of it are very different. I think with certain 711
destination companies maybe you can just survive for now, at least by being amazing at 712
what you do and the Met will always be the Cadillac of opera when people have the 713
opera on their bucket list, they are going to go and see one at the Met because: “Oh that 714
103
must be the best because it is the one I know the name of.” I don’t believe that myself 715
but I think that people do. I think any company that I went to, Civic Impact would have 716
to be a huge part of it because it you know again from the most pragmatic parts of it 717
where the old opera model just doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t work anymore, the old 718
model of giving, the reasons why people used to go the opera in America are going 719
away, and so Civic Impact and thinking about things through that lens and that sort of 720
series of lenses all of which kind of look at that, I think that if you are not doing that 721
you will not be around for the long term no matter how healthy you are currently. Too 722
many things have changed, too many behaviors have changed, too much technology has 723
changed, and the value proposition for anybody who engages in the arts is just vastly 724
different than it was thirty, forty, fifty years ago. Yeah, it would be one of the first 725
things that I would set my mind towards and I think also just artistically, we are within 726
an, you know, I could start watching or reading or looking at pictures of great art right 727
now and I would be dead before I ran out of it. So, there is no shortage of great art in the 728
world, I mean it is all there and there is more being created on a daily basis, there is 729
more arts of quality today than at any point in human history. I don’t speak Chinese, I 730
have no idea, there could be a lifetime worth of amazing art being created right now that 731
I could not engage, if we are not thinking about what is it that makes us special, what is 732
it that makes this art form that is more expensive than any other live art form, that could 733
never pay for itself and never will be able to, what is it that makes it worth while as ap-734
posed to all these other things because if we can’t answer those things about what 735
makes it special and different, well then we should all just go and apply for jobs at Net-736
flix or a movie studio or a videogame company, or whoever is creating the next great art 737
form. We need to be answering those questions now no matter how successful we are. 738
So, in terms of how I would go about it, I am a big believer in asking, you wouldn’t 739
believe it from listening to me, but I am a big believer in listening, and I did a lot of 740
listening in my first year, I asked a lot of questions, probably I would spent a lot of time 741
first to people who come to the opera, and then looking at sort of thought leaders and 742
community leaders and in areas or in communities or even just individuals who are 743
thought leaders who don’t come to the opera and ask them why. You know, what is it 744
about what we do that you think that is different or irrelevant to what you are doing. 745
And try to take that and then use that as a basis for the beginning of a program. I would 746
also add to that. I think that tone of the first things I would do would be to look at any 747
sort of future season planning in the past couple of seasons and say what does this opera 748
have to do with the life of this city? And just see what the staff said, see what the board 749
104
said, and if they said, you know, I don’t know but the music is beautiful and the woman 750
who was singing that role her coloratura was flawless, if that was the answer, then I 751
would probably make sure that my apartment was very close to the office because I 752
would be spending a lot of late nights trying to figure out what the hell to do, because 753
there would be a lot of work to be done. 754
CK: Ok. Wonderful. Is there anything else you would like to add? 755
NC: No. I hope this was helpful, it is hard for me to pull it apart and I feel like this is 756
one of those phrases that has different meanings to different constituencies, people like 757
thinking about it in different ways, and I think we will always be thinking about it in 758
different ways and I have a very, I guess if you think I am good at what I do, I have a 759
very holistic view, if you think I am bad at what I do, I have a very single minded view 760
of what it is we are trying to do and I would say that this is just one of those things, it is 761
just like if you were a baker, if you came to me and say let’s just talk about baking soda, 762
you know, how do you feel about baking soda? I would kind of say, well, I wouldn’t eat 763
it straight out of the box but it’s important to everything I do. So that is kind of my take 764
on it. So, I hope that that does not mess up whatever data sets you are collecting. 765
105
9.3.3. Long Beach Opera
Kevin St. Clair, Education Programs Coordinator
Date: June 23, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Long Beach Opera’s definition of Civic Impact? 1
KSC: So let me start with this, you asked your first question, you know how do we de-2
fine Civic Impact and so I think we would probably, start with the company’s mission 3
statement which I am looking at right now. This is to expand the boundaries of the 4
opera experience in Southern California by presenting new and rare works that engage a 5
diverse audience, and install a love for opera in youth. 6
So, I think that goes a long way towards defining what kind of impact we are going to 7
have in the community. Because first of all, it gives the parameters of what kind of au-8
dience we are trying to reach and though we are based in Long Beach, you know the 9
majority of people who attend our performances, they don’t live in Long Beach. They 10
live all over the greater Los Angeles area and in fact all over Southern California. That’s 11
how we define the breadth of our reach as an organization. And so if you are talking 12
about impacting the community, that defines the community. It is not just a city of 13
500.000 in Long Beach but really serving the whole Southern Californian community. 14
In terms of the vehicle that we are trying to use to do that, the means in which we do 15
that, it is through the presentation of you know new or rarely performed works which of 16
course sets our mission apart from organizations like the LA Opera or San Diego Opera 17
for example, the late demised Opera Pacific. We are looking at reaching audiences 18
through newer, rarely performed works. And central to our mission is the development 19
of the next generation of opera aficionados and reaching youth through opera which of 20
course is a key part of my job, you know as an Education Coordinator, is to instill a love 21
of opera in youth. So I think the mission statement goes a long way towards defining 22
who our community is, the tools that we use to reach them, and then ultimately what our 23
goal is. We talk about our audiences having a unique experience that we define using an 24
acronym of OPERA. Outside the box, provocative, engaging, relevant and adventurous. 25
And that goes a long way towards shaping what repertoire choices we make. This is 26
why we are not going to do Tosca next year because that is not consistent with that kind 27
of audience experience. 28
CK: How does Long Beach Opera, how do you create Civic Impact? 29
106
KSC: I think the repertoire goes a long way towards doing that because you know if you 30
perform Tosca, for example, audiences know what to expect, and it is a wonderful 31
opera, it is one of my favorites, audiences know what to expect and it is a piece that is 32
over a hundred years old, that is very familiar repertoire, and because of that it is not 33
necessarily in a position to address the kind of things that you are talking about when 34
you are defining Civic Impact. You know a piece like that may not address contempo-35
rary issues, you know, related to the socioeconomic problems that face our community 36
today. So the kind of repertoire that we do certainly does that. If you look at our upcom-37
ing season, we are presenting the world premier of Tobin Stokes’ opera Fallujah, which 38
is a very gritty exploration of the impact of the Iraq war, a soldier who suffers from 39
post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is obviously dealing with very contemporary, very 40
relevant themes. The final piece of the season The News is essentially a satire of our 41
media driven culture and takes a very spherical look at the way information in news has 42
been turned into mass entertainment and holds a mirror up to the media. 43
CK: Yes. So, you are creating rooms for civic engagement and discussion through your 44
seasons and your repertoire? 45
KSC: Yes, and then we also create events that are designed to of course introduce the 46
audience to this new repertoire because they are not familiar with a lot of it. Fallujah is 47
a world premiere; The News has never been seen in Southern California. So not only do 48
we introduce them to the new repertoire but we also use these events to create a dia-49
logue about the themes that are being presented in the opera. So for example I just met a 50
couple of weeks ago with the administration at the VA hospital, the Veterans admin-51
istration hospital that serves veterans here in Long Beach. They are going to be hosting 52
an event for us prior to our production of Fallujah. That will be in February of next year 53
where we are going to have, it’s going to be a combination of a performance of excerpts 54
from the work to introduce people attending to the piece itself but will also include a 55
panel discussion that will involve the composer, the librettist, and the story consultant 56
who – the work is loosely based on his own experience, a natural Iraq veteran who suf-57
fers from posttraumatic stress disorder, and they will be speaking with professionals 58
from the VA hospital about PTSD and specifically about art can be therapeutic for the 59
creation of or participation in the artistic experience can be therapeutic for people suf-60
fering from PTSD. It is just going to have a tremendous impact on the veterans’ com-61
munity, on people who are passionate about the price we pay when we go to war, it is 62
going to engage a lot of people in a very worthwhile examination of these issues. So we 63
are not just presenting a performance, and hoping that just the artistic impact of present-64
107
ing the piece will touch the community, we are actually reaching out to the community 65
and involving them in an examination of the issues through events like this. And we do 66
this for each of our shows. Each of our shows we do an event as part of a series that we 67
call LBO Coincidences. Where we create some sort of public event that reaches out to 68
the public outside of the performance and usually proceed the performance and gets 69
them involved, gets them engaged actively in the discussion of what the themes are in 70
the piece. 71
CK: So does considering the Civic Impact in your community play a major part in 72
choosing your repertoire? 73
KSC: Absolutely it does. We are not really, I think this is much more true of Long 74
Beach Opera than companies that present the standard repertoire who are probably look-75
ing more at just what the artistic taste of the community is or looking at what is going to 76
sell the most tickets. In terms of the repertoire we pick, you know, it is absolutely driven 77
by what we think will have an impact on the community. You know, being a small 78
company that does repertoire that does not sell itself, and having limited means to sell 79
the repertoire that we do. We have to pick repertoire that is going to impact the commu-80
nity because we need the community to take notice of what we are doing, because we 81
don’t have limitless or enormous resources to get their attention. What we find is that 82
the repertoire that we pick often calls attention to itself. So when we did The Death of 83
Klinghoffer last year, not only did that address what seemed to be this endless conflict 84
going on in the Middle East at that time that we presented the piece this was still, you 85
know what’s going on at that part of the world was still very much part of the news. But 86
we also became part of the discussion when the Met decided to present the opera and 87
then decided to pull out from their Met HD transmissions. You know that was just 88
something, we did not know that was going to happen, that the Met was going to pro-89
duce it after we did. And I thought it was wonderful that people in the LA area got to 90
see the production for themselves and make up their own minds rather than to let news-91
paper columnists or you know leaders of civic organization tell them what the piece was 92
about and tell them whether or not they ought to see the piece. We were able to simply 93
present the piece and allow it to stand on its own merit and they could judge for them-94
selves. It was wonderful that while New York which considers itself so cosmopolitan 95
and open-minded was debating whether or not the piece should even be performed, we 96
simply put the piece on and allowed people to make up their own minds if the piece is 97
anti-Semitic or pro-Palestinian. We just put it out there. And that part of thinking drives 98
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the repertoire that we do. We like pieces that take on relevant social issues; we don’t 99
shy away from controversy. 100
CK: Well, my next question in regards to creating Civic Impact would be… This is all 101
about your season that is going on currently and also programming during the season. 102
Do you also engage with your community apart from your season? And if you do, how? 103
KSC: The answer is yes and we are going to be doing even more of that. One of the 104
chief ways we engage with the communities outside of our main stage season is through 105
our educational programs. As part of our educational programs we have in school per-106
formances that we do of operas that are designed to be performed in schools. They are 107
not connected with our main stage season. These are productions that we have as ongo-108
ing pieces that we are taking to schools. We have one for elementary schools and one 109
for high schools. The one for elementary schools is called The Playground King. We are 110
going to be launching this fall, it is a new initiative for us. It is for young elementary 111
students like kindergarten through third. It uses familiar arias and ensembles from opera 112
and operetta but it sets in new works and put into a new story and the story is a delight-113
ful little story that teaches kids about sharing, about problem solving and about con-114
fronting bullying behavior. The reason why we do this piece is because I went to educa-115
tors here in the Long Beach unified district and neighboring school districts and asked if 116
we are going to create a new show that we can bring to your school that takes on a topic 117
that we think is really relevant to you and your students what shall we talk about? And 118
the first four people I talked to, the first thing I heard was we need you to talk about 119
bullying. We need you to talk about how to deal with and confront bullying behavior at 120
school and so I was introduced to Sarah Squire who works at Opera Memphis and Sarah 121
had developed this program that addresses that very topic and so we essentially hand-122
picked the show to address what we felt was a specific educational need for elementary 123
school students. Rather than just going in and going well, here is a fun with opera show, 124
cause you know, lots of companies do that, we are going to introduce you to opera’s 125
greatest hits, and then you get to meet Suzie Soprano and Funny Tenor and they are 126
going to you know sing to you about how opera tells stories to music and that is great. 127
You know, we are doing that and are addressing an issue that the teacher told us, you 128
guys need to talk about it. Because when they see something like this in the narrative 129
format that is a great way for kids to learn, rather than just being lectured: “Share the 130
playground equipment,” which is what the story is about, rather than being lectured 131
about it they get to act it out, and they get to see the kids figure out a solution to that. 132
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So we do stuff like that. Our junior high and high school shows are both based on his-133
torical events, so they tie in in a terrific way to the educational curriculum. Our junior 134
high show is The Diary of Anne Franck. It is a one-woman monodrama. I do an intro-135
duction with the kids to introduce them to opera as an art form and introduce them to 136
the piece than we present a condensed version of this original opera that was about 90 137
minutes long and our version of it is about half that lengths and afterwards we have an 138
actual holocaust survivor who comes and speaks to the students about her experience of 139
survival during the holocaust. It is very powerful. So, we are using art and we are using 140
this personal narrative to really bring to life what they are reading about in the history 141
books. And of course the kids in eighth grade, this is part of their reading curriculum, 142
they are reading The Diary of Anne Franck. That is of course how old Anne was when 143
she started writing. 144
Then we have a program for high school students that is called The Daughter of the Red 145
Zar that is based on a chamber opera that was written a few years ago by Lisa Scola-146
Prosek up in the Bay area and it talks about the secret meetings between Winston 147
Churchill and Joseph Stalin during World War II, where they had to satisfy their per-148
sonal prejudices and their antiquity towards one another, to defeat the Nazis. And there 149
is a whole subplot that involves Stalin’s daughter Svetlana hence The Daughter of the 150
Red Zar. Again, it used opera to bring history to live. 151
What I really like about the program is the fact that not one, well, on a certain level 152
none of what we do here is art for art’s sake. And I love art for art’s sake but I love that 153
what we do here is really more mission driven. And I think that that is part of our suc-154
cess. I think it is a key part of our success is that people attach a sense of importance 155
and relevance to what it is we are presenting. 156
We have done some performances that fall outside of our usual main stage season that 157
we call Outer Limits which are pieces that are more concert-like in style as supposed to 158
full-fledged opera productions and we have done pieces like Gavin Bryars’ The Paper 159
Nautilus, Liebersohn's King Gesar, last summer John Adams’ I was looking at the ceil-160
ing and then I saw the sky, that are part of this Outer Limits initiative. So, we get to do 161
things that are on the very Fringe of how one would define opera. There are some very 162
cool issues that have been addressed in those pieces, Ceiling/Sky is a remarkable piece 163
that amazingly had never had, it’s about the Northridge Earthquake, it was written in the 164
wake of the Northridge Earthquake, it involves seven Angelinos all from different socio 165
economic backgrounds whose lives intercepted as a result of the earthquake. It is kind 166
of like the film Crash, except it is about the Northridge Earthquake and it is this opera, 167
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musical theater hybrid and the piece has never received a professional production in Los 168
Angeles, even though the piece is like twenty years old now. And so, it was really great 169
that we presented this at the Ford Amphitheatre last summer. And I mean it was great 170
not only see Johns work presented here but I mean the story takes place in LA and it is 171
about Angelinos dealing with issues of racial prejudices and dealing with the tension 172
between criminals and law enforcement, a lot of really important social issues are ad-173
dressed in the piece and it had never been performed here and it is about us, it is about 174
us here in LA. So, it was great to be able to do that. We just did Hydrogen Jukebox Phil-175
ip Glass’ piece, we just finished it a couple of weeks ago. And of course that piece is at 176
the merriest of social issues, in fact the reason the piece was created was because Alan 177
Ginsberg and Philip Glass felt like the issues that are addressed in the piece were not 178
being talked about. They weren’t hearing it discussed in the news or presented in the art 179
and so they said, if no one is going to talk about it, we are going to talk about it. And so, 180
when we presented Hydrogen Jukebox, we didn’t do it as a nostalgia piece which the 181
piece is often done as, as a time capsule about all the issues that Ginsberg talked about it 182
the sixties, in the seventies and the eighties, we didn’t do that, we didn’t present it as a 183
period piece because the issues that he talks about are so relevant today. And so when 184
he talks about the environment in the piece, when he talks about the threat of nuclear 185
power, when he talks about tensions in the Middle East, these issues are still relevant 186
today even though he wrote some of these poems forty, fifty years ago. 187
CK: Awesome. So this Outer Limits series is in addition to your main stage season? 188
KSC: Yes. 189
CK: Is it one opera year? 190
KSC: Yes, it is typically one production a year that we present as our Outer Limits pro-191
duction. 192
CK: And it is at a different location each time? 193
KSC: Yes, well, and that is true for most of our shows. As you know, we are usually 194
moving around. You know this year was quite unusual in that we had two shows that 195
where at the same location. We almost never do that. We like to move the shows 196
around, you know our motto, and the company’s motto is “Expect the unexpected.” And 197
that’s very much part of it, so by doing works that are sight-specific, we are able to put 198
people into a place that challenges or changes their expectation. In such a way that we 199
feel serves the piece well, so Hydrogen Jukebox was presented in a former supply ware-200
house in San Pedro and by taking people out of the theater and putting them into this 201
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warehouse, first of all there is this sense of adventure and discovery that our audience 202
goes through, we call it the Patron Scavenger hunt, where they have to go find the new 203
venue, and they pull up to the right place and then they come in and they are in this new 204
space and what it does, we find, is it makes the audience open up and be more receptive 205
than I am going to my seat at the Civic and this is where I sit down and this is where I 206
always see the show. 207
CK: Awesome. So, you chose the opera and then the location and it is all connected to 208
your community and what challenges them? 209
KSC: Absolutely. So Fallujah, when we present Fallujah next year, is going to be at an 210
auditorium that is at the National Guard Armory here in Long Beach. So it is at an actu-211
al military installation. You can imagine the impact that is going to have on the audi-212
ence when they are going to a military installation and they see men in uniform and they 213
see, you know what I mean, it shapes the whole experience. When we are going to pre-214
sent The News next year, we are going to present it in a television studio, in the sort of 215
place, just the sort of place where this topic is created. 216
CK: So, would you describe your operas as sight-specific operas? 217
KSC: Well, most of the work we do is, you know, not always, I mean like Candide, 218
which we are doing next season, we are doing it at the Center Theater, it is a much more 219
conventional venue but we do a lot of sight-specific work because of that, and we have 220
kind of been a pioneer in that, really, a lot of the companies do sight-specific work but 221
we were really kind of out in front with that when we did The Diary of Anne Franck we 222
performed it in a parking garage, which was awesome because it is dark and oppressive 223
and not the sort of place that you want to hang out, which meant it was the perfect place 224
to conjure up the uncomfortable hiding place, that Anne and the others had to hide in. 225
When we did Ricky Ian Gordon’s wonderful Orpheus & Euridice we staged it at the 226
Belmont Shore Natatorium, the indoor swimming pool, because Orpheus and Euridice 227
crossed the river Styx as part of the opera, so we set the entire opera on the water. And 228
people still talk about that stuff: “You are the guys who did the opera in the swimming 229
pool.” 230
CK. Awesome. Great. Do you participate in civic events, community events that have 231
nothing to do with your current season as an opera company? Like festivals and other 232
things? 233
KSC: We do and we are going to be doing more of that. Currently my position is you 234
know, I serve as Education Coordinator, and actually as of July 1, my position will 235
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change and I will be Director of Education and Community Engagement. So, they want 236
from my role to expanded from just the primary focus of what I do being interfacing 237
with schools to going well beyond that and connecting with community and so they 238
want to see us do more connecting with the community and so we are going to be par-239
ticipating in more events that connect us with the community. So, what we will be par-240
ticipating for example in The Long Beach Bach Festival for the first time and that has 241
nothing to do with what we are doing on the main stage or with our season but it is go-242
ing to create a connection between us and the other arts organizations that participate in 243
the Bach Festival, so we are going to be using the artists that are in our Education pro-244
gram, we will be performing a special performance that duck-tails with the theme of the 245
Bach festival. 246
CK: Awesome. Any other examples of what you have been doing these days? 247
KSC: Sure, there is a wonderful event that we participate in every year it is called The A 248
LOT Arts Showcase. This is an annual event where the different arts organizations in 249
Long Beach showcase some of our work and present it to the public. It is a big public 250
series of other performances that they hold here in Downtown Long Beach. And so last 251
year we performed The Diary of Anne Franck. And so people who had never seen our 252
shows in schools, or had never been to one of our main stage operas, had a chance to see 253
what we do and see who we are. 254
CK: And the last question I would have with that is, you just mentioned your Education 255
programs artists, so you don’t have a young artists program? 256
KSC: So what we are doing is, we don’t have a young artists program yet. But that is 257
changing. A lot of things have been changing since I got here because that is that I do. 258
We haven’t had a young artists program here but we really should, a company of our 259
size and doing the kind of work that we do, we really should. So, the main reason being, 260
we have not had enough work for them to do. When I first got here two years ago, we 261
only had the one educational in-school program, which was Anne Franck, which in-262
volves one singer. This fall we are going to have three school shows and it will involve 263
a total of four singers, and so those four singers are going to be available for us and the 264
company to do more of these outreach events. We are going to start incorporate them 265
into more events this year, and then come next fall we are going to be partnering with 266
the University of Southern California, to formally launch a Young Artist program, that 267
will be a joined venture between the USC School of Music and Long Beach Opera. 268
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It is certainly going to be one of the tools that we will be using to create Civic Impact 269
because we will have a stable of ours to draw from in order to go out and do more per-270
formances like this. Because in order to do things like the A LOT Showcase or like the 271
Bach Festival, or things like that, we need artists to do that. And we have in the past 272
asked artists that are involved in our main stage productions to do additional events but 273
it has always been difficult because they are getting prepared for the main stage produc-274
tions. And for us to go, oh well, after six hours of rehearsal, we need you to go do this 275
concert, right? It is a bit of an imposition, right? So what we need are artists that are 276
available to do things like that. So, this is why we are creating it. And we have lots of 277
great ideas about how we want to do that. We want to do more just getting out into the 278
community and doing performances that raise awareness of the company and connect 279
the company with the community. 280
CK: What initiated Long Beach Opera’s focus on Civic Impact? 281
KSC: I think it was, it is a couple of things, one is that the company’s mission of course 282
changed over time, because when we were founded back in 1979, we were performing 283
standard repertoire because there was no LA Opera, there was no Opera Pacific, and so 284
back in the day we were performing that kind of repertoire but when those other institu-285
tions emerged and they started playing in our territory, the company just by necessity 286
changed but I think also by inclination, because Michael Milenski and then Andreas 287
Mitisek had rather different taste in this repertoire anyway. And they really loved being 288
able to explore pieces that lie outside the standard repertoire and then that leads almost 289
inevitably to exploring pieces that you think are relevant to your audience. Look we 290
could just present, we could do a whole season of baroque opera for example and there 291
is wonderful pieces that we could explore, but does that really reach our community? I 292
was involved years ago as a performer with a company, we did Purcell’s The Indian 293
Queen, but when we did it we partnered with a Latino theater group here in LA, and just 294
sort of turned the whole piece on its head and this really powerful discussion of race and 295
stereotypes and how a work like that is based on this very antiquated European stereo-296
types of what Native Americans and such are all about. And so that is what made it rel-297
evant, not we are trotting out a little Purcell opera at night. And we did it with Musica 298
Angelica and wonderful baroque artists, who sang, and so from an artistic standpoint it 299
was really satisfying that we were doing this not often performed baroque opera but it 300
had to have a spin on it that made it connect to the community on a social level. It just 301
had to because this is how we approach things here. 302
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CK: Thank you. What are your challenges with creating Civic Impact? Do you have 303
challenges? 304
KSC: Sure we do, you know, for example, how do we create a connection, how do we 305
make socially relevant a piece like Poulenc’s La voix humaine, that we are doing as part 306
of the season next year, we are still figuring that out. How do we put handles on that, 307
you know, so that that story matters to our audience. That takes some work on our part, 308
you know, how we connect the dots. 309
CK: Ok. Thank you. What would you name as positive, what would you name as nega-310
tive sides to Long Beach Opera’s Civic Impact work? 311
KSC: Obviously the positive part of it is this notion that what we are doing is meaning-312
ful and is relevant, you know, beyond just the value of the art itself. Knowing that the 313
work that we do goes beyond that and reaches into people lives in a very real and im-314
mediate way is very satisfying. It is a very positive part of the experience for us, you 315
know. The negative side is that we are having to sell people on works of art that does 316
not sell itself, And so we have to convince people that if we are getting off the sofa and 317
dropping fifty bucks or more to come and see a piece of music by Philip Glass, right? 318
And they heard some Philip Glass once and they did not like it, and so why should I 319
come and see your production? And we did that with Hydrogen Jukebox, we had the 320
best ticket sales of the year for Philip Glass, you know. 321
CK: Wonderful. What would you define or describe as the foundation of successful Civ-322
ic Impact? 323
KSC: I’ll tell you how I’ll define it. I think it comes from making a personal connection 324
to the work that we do. I think when things become relevant and meaningful to us, it 325
empowers us to make them relevant and meaningful to other people, and I see that hap-326
pen every year, it is really cool to see how the artistic staff and then how the administra-327
tive staff, get what we are doing that year, like: “Why are we doing this piece? Oh, I get 328
it!” You know, Andreas comes and presents the pieces, we’ll have a staff meeting in 329
which he meets with the entire staff and then previews the coming season, and says: 330
“This is what we are doing”, he lays it out and then we in turn, you know, all of us who 331
then build on that, spent time with the pieces and make a personal connection with the 332
pieces, and it is like a switch goes off in you and you get why we are doing what we are 333
doing. I was never terribly interested in the person of Marilyn Monroe, but we all know 334
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who she is and she has never been a very important person in my world, you know, she 335
is just a celebrity, right? And then I spend time with Marilyn Forever and spend time 336
with the artist who created it and it became a very important and very powerful story to 337
me. And it made it easy for me to make the story relevant to others. 338
CK: Awesome. What I hear from you also is a lot of communication, a good leader and 339
making it personal and finding connections. 340
KSC: Yes, absolutely, all those things. 341
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Long Beach Opera’s long-342
term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 343
KSC: Absolutely! It goes without saying based on anything we’ve talked about. It’s 344
essential to our survival, I think. That’s what keeps us relevant. You know, that’s what 345
drives us artistically. 346
CK: What are your lessons learned? 347
KSC: The big lesson that we’ve learned is that we have to find relevant pieces that we 348
do. If we find a compelling reason to present the piece then the audience finds the com-349
pelling reason receiving it. And this is what we think is really kind of driving attend-350
ance. In general, it is that people need a compelling reason, you know, not just to stay 351
on the “watch that”-flow, they need to know why this particular production is something 352
that they should not miss. And I find that if we as staff, all of us, find a compelling rea-353
son for our audiences to see what we do then that becomes a parameter in our market-354
ing, that becomes a parameter when box offices are on the phone with patrons or when 355
development is talking to a donor or when I’m talking to students or seniors, and telling 356
them why they need to come to see this piece. And frankly, in a way, it is a lot easier for 357
us to do that with the people that we do than, you know, like I don’t know… I’m trying 358
to talk myself into what shows I am going to see in L.A. or in San Diego next year. I’m 359
trying to do this for myself, you know, I’m an opera person and I’m trying to decide 360
whether I really need to go to Madama Butterfly or not, right? And so I think if we do 361
that effectively here, then it translates into all the work that we do. 362
CK: Finding that narrative, how does that relate to Civic Impact? 363
KSC: Well, it defines the reason that you are presenting the piece. So that’s what de-364
fines the Civic Impact: you decide what in this piece is going to connect with the people 365
who see it. What is important in this piece for people to connect to? And what about this 366
piece will change their lives, right? Because this is what we want art to do for us on any 367
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level. You want to be a different person after you watch the film or after you listen to 368
the symphony. You want to see the world in a little different way. And we have to fig-369
ure out with this repertoire, we have to figure out in each piece how that is going to 370
happen. 371
CK: So you approach your community as individuals within a certain community and 372
you are trying to find that narrative for the individual? 373
KSC: Yes, I think so. You know, I think that common thing in all of us, that wants to be 374
moved by a work of art that wants to respond with. People will say: “Well, that is dif-375
ferent: “Different things for different people.” You know, yes and no. A lot of us are 376
moved by or respond to similar things in a work of art. You go to Boheme because you 377
want to see two young lovers falling in love. We all respond to that. 378
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards Long Beach Opera’s bot-379
tom line, financial bottom line? If yes, why? 380
KSC: Absolutely! It’s on a certain level our reason to be. Our reason for being is to re-381
main relevant to our community and I really think that more arts organizations ought to 382
be thinking like this. Especially when we talk about things like the graying of the classi-383
cal music audience, the competition that we face from different competitors. Two 384
minutes ago I mentioned Netflix. I love Netflix! I’m on Netflix every night, you know, 385
watching something. But that’s just another way for me to spend my entertainment dol-386
lar and spend my leisure hours, right? And so how do we remain relevant when you can, 387
you know, you don’t have to go to the opera house to experience opera anymore you go 388
to the Met in HD and in some ways it is an even better experience than going to the Met, 389
because you see everything that close. You see backstage interviews and behind the 390
scene videos, I mean it’s spectacular! Or you can just sit on the sofa and just pull out 391
your iPad and just watch the operas on demand, right? And so, how do you keep your-392
self in the midst as a choice for consumers, who have that kind of quality at their finger-393
tips. So this is a thing, this question is really relevant for companies that are in the sort 394
of Mini-Met business model, you know, where they perform the same repertoire, but not 395
with the means that a company like the Met has, so that’s going to be a great question 396
for Ned and Ned will have a great answer for that. For a company like us, that’s not 397
performing the same stuff as you see out of those outlets, our challenge is to say: “We 398
know you love La Traviata, but this is why you need to see this love story. We know 399
you love the music of Puccini, but this is why you ought to love the music of Tobias 400
Picker.” We have to engage with the community because our art doesn’t sell itself. Civ-401
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ic Impact is essential to what we do because we have to engage, we have to be engaged 402
with the community because people aren’t going to go, just out of idle curiosity show 403
up at our show – we can’t rely on that, you know, for people to come and see our shows. 404
CK: Perfect. Awesome. Thank you. If you start at a new opera company with no Civic 405
Impact, strategy or focus on it, would you strive to create it and how? 406
KSC: … That’s a great question for a lot of reasons. You know, I’ve been here just un-407
der two years now it’s a really interesting step for me to step into the art administration 408
after a career as a singer and educator, just what my background briefly is, you know. 409
And so, when I’ve read that question I thought about when I came to work here two 410
years ago and was already a fan of the company. I have sung for the company in a few 411
locations in the past, then my wife is working for the company, playing for shows and 412
so I was regularly ending shows and seeing what we did here. It was an easy sell to 413
bring me on board because I knew that the work that we have here would impact the 414
community, because I’ve seen that happen. If I were to say, Orange County has no 415
opera company right now and if I’d get a phone call tomorrow: “Hey Kevin, help to 416
start an opera company in Orange County,” right? This would be central to what I think 417
that the company needs to do and I could spend an hour at the phone talking about how 418
Opera Pacific would have succeed or failed to do that. But I would say if you’d want to 419
start a new company that’s absolutely what you have to do. Because in the end, that is 420
the reason there is no opera company in Orange County now. They certainly have the 421
means to start an opera company if they wanted to, but they are not going to because 422
there aren’t people – if there are people they don’t do anything about it - but there aren’t 423
enough people in the community that have a vision for what impact an opera company 424
ought to have on that community. They are not understanding that or trying to make that 425
happen, or maybe don’t want to be part of something like that – you never know where 426
the future is going to go – I wouldn’t be surprised. As an Orange County guy - born and 427
raised – and all of that, I can certainly imagine to be part of that and I would something 428
like that to happen, that would have to just be the raison d’être of the company, right? 429
How are you going to impact the Orange County community? And of course there’s 430
your challenge, because what is the Orange County community? You know, it’s often 431
characterized as a collection of idol suburbs of people who are not civically engaged 432
and that’s a really difficult audience to engage in the mood. We are talking about Civic 433
Impact. How do you even define civic in Orange County? That’s a great question of 434
what’s going on there, because here we work a lot with the City of Long Beach and 435
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Long Beach Unified School District to make things happen here in Long Beach. And 436
then we work with a large unit too. We work with the city of Los Angeles, we work 437
with some of the smaller cities that surround us and all that… I mean Orange County 438
and what we have, you know…. I picture there would be a Board of Supervisors, I don’t 439
know, it would be really difficult. But if you want to start a company: sure! Civic Im-440
pact would have to be the reason for the company’s being otherwise what company mis-441
sion would that be without that? 442
CK: So Civic Impact is as important as opera is to the company? 443
KSC: Yes, absolutely! I guess it is just because of the way we think here, but I find it 444
impossible to separate the two. 445
CK: Yes. Awesome. So you would strive to create it. You would stop by and look at the 446
community. Is there anything else would you do? How would you advise a company 447
that has no Civic Impact yet and is looking into it what should they do? 448
KCS: This is an interesting question, for me also, because I work in church music. I 449
worked as a choir director for several churches from small, struggling churches to large 450
thriving churches – I’ve done this for years – and this is something, that is discussed in 451
churches a lot, because in churches – not unlike art institutions, are struggling to remain 452
relevant in contemporary society – and so churches do a lot of ethics about what right is. 453
Especially little churches talk about “Why do we exist?”, “Who are we trying to reach?” 454
and so you have these discussions. There is a fellow who runs a huge church in South 455
Orange County called Saddleback Church. He wrote a book called A purpose driven 456
church, describing how they went about founding their now mega-church and the book 457
was so successful because he focused the message of the church on what purpose they 458
served to the community. Then he wrote another book The purpose driven life, which 459
has become this huge national bestseller and so he has become a bestselling author, be-460
cause he focuses people’s attention on what is the purpose behind what they should do-461
ing. It’s the same set of criteria you are focusing on. Why does this organization exist 462
and whom are we trying to serve and how are we trying to change their lives? And what 463
drives us? You can’t just think: “Well, we are providing pretty music to our subscrib-464
ers,” because that’s not enough anymore. In the same way providing loving worship 465
services to our parishioner is not enough anymore. You have to figure out how you want 466
to impact the lives of the parishioners of your church. And how does the church remain 467
relevant in their community. It’s the same thing with an art organization: How do we 468
remain relevant in our community and it’s not enough to say “We are doing really nice 469
productions”. And that’s why I think the topic that you are talking about in your paper is 470
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really important and the reason why I was curious what do you understand from the 471
term “Civic Impact” and how you focus it, because it can happen on so many different 472
levels: on a individual level, on a government level, cultural, institutional level, educa-473
tional level. 474
Of course, it’s a very different experience here in the United States than in Europe than, 475
where art organizations are more supported by the State and are not constantly in the 476
position to have to justify their own existence. While here, sink or swim, you know, it is 477
more laissez-faire. You know, you saw it in San Diego. A community can be looking at 478
losing one of the civic institutions that they sort of take for granted for them to be here 479
like: “It’s been here for half a century, it’s always going to be here, isn’t it?” In fact it 480
almost was not and you know, I don’t need to tell you how it all played out, you wit-481
nessed it. I went down and saw the very last performance of the season Don Quixote 482
and saw everything going on and saw friends of mine in the chorus, with the company 483
actively protesting it. I sang in the opera ensemble, so I know Nic Reveles from back in 484
the day, you know, Steven Bryant, he and Darren are old friends of mine from long ago, 485
so I had a really interesting window into all this. So I guess you got to see what work 486
there. 487
CK: Yes, that’s what motivated me to write this paper. To learn what other people do 488
differently at other companies and maybe collect some ideas. Every community is dif-489
ferent, every company is different. 490
KSC: I’m really glad you thought to contact Long Beach Opera for this, what we’re 491
doing here is, it is an interesting place to work, it’s exciting, it’s challenging, it’s a little 492
scary even. We’re not exactly flushed with resources and we have to constantly prove 493
our need to exist to our audiences and we are bound to. You know, Andreas is a huge 494
part of that in terms of the music that we select and the reasons behind the pieces that 495
we select and then we have a really interesting community of people who get what we 496
are trying to do and it is great to be part of this. It’s one thing to observe all this kind of 497
stuff happening and it is another to be in this and see this art form surviving and thriv-498
ing. 499
CK: What about subscriptions? Does it work for you? 500
KSC: About subscriptions? We do rely a lot on our subscriber base. We have a solid 501
base of subscribers and they are pretty of loyal, given that they can’t know what we are 502
serving up from year to year. They sort of buy into the brand, I think, they buy into the 503
brand rather than seeing the season going: “Well, I don’t want to see this and this”, the 504
120
way it might be in a conventional season, they sort of buy into what it is we do. Go like 505
“Long Beach Opera does stuff and we’re going to be down with it all that way and we 506
are going to be on board, whatever they present this particular season”. And it’s really 507
great to see how they just going with the ride. And I know a lot of companies a trying to 508
figure out how not to rely on subscription so much because they’re subscriber base is a 509
little more fickle I guess, but that really has not been so much an issue for us. 510
121
9.3.4. San Diego Opera
Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Community Engagement
Date: June 26, 2015 via Skype
CK: So, I would like to start with what is San Diego Opera’s definition of Civic Impact? 1
NR: It would be a couple if things. From my standpoint it would be helping the San 2
Diego community come in touch with the arts and understand that there is a significant 3
place for the arts in their lives and in the civic life of the community. So that transcend-4
ence simply opera. But is, you know, it's something that I really, really believe. 5
One other thing is that it is extraordinary for us to somehow message the community 6
that art is transformative. That it changes people and that it changes a community and I 7
think we saw that in our own crisis this past year that enough people in this community 8
have been transformed by the arts or specifically by opera to the extent that they thought 9
to save our company from extinction. So, I would say particularly in the last year, our 10
understanding and our appreciation of the opera's role in the community, its Civic Im-11
pact if you will, it is very, very important and not only for the opera-going audience but 12
for everyone in the community. Because everyone in the community supported us, even 13
people who don't go to the opera. So, I think, that is a big shift for us, for our company 14
to look at the impact that the arts over all have on a community and that we participate 15
in that as a company and opera participates in that as an arts form. And what that does 16
for us is get us away from the elitist attitude that our company had for a long time: That 17
opera is it. That opera is the only answer. You know, that we can only be about our 18
growth and our maturity and our success. That is complete and utter nonsense. We can-19
not live in an arts vacuum. We've got to be understanding and open and participating 20
and countering all of the other arts organizations in the city to engage the community 21
and change it. And that is my job, and that is what I am about. That came loud and clear 22
to me over this past year. 23
CK: Awesome. Thank you. So, I have a definition and I would like to hear your stand-24
point on it. Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the 25
“expansion of opera companies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs 26
of their community.” Do you agree? 27
NR: Absolutely. I mean, I think, that is handing love with what I just talked about. The 28
only thing that is different is that I think in the real world where we live we have to un-29
derstand that we do that hand-in-hand with the other art organizations in the city. That is 30
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important for us because we were, we locked ourselves out of the conversations for a 31
long time as a company, not as an art form but as a company. It was a constant struggle 32
for me for instants to argue that opera had a place in the transformation of society, you 33
know, and the transformation of people's attitudes and to broaden people's understand-34
ing of contemporary lives and socioeconomic issues and problems. You know, I was 35
actually told not to pursue that approach to civic engagement or Civic Impact. And real-36
ly, we all now understand how important that is for any arts organization, we have to do 37
it. So, yeah, I agree with the definition completely. I would just broaden it. 38
CK: Awesome, so you would see Civic Impact as an extension to your mission? 39
NR: Absolutely. Oh, yes, absolutely. And you know we have a new mission, don't quote 40
me, cause I don't have it right in front of me. But I think it actually says that in the new 41
mission but I am not absolutely sure. The new board reassessed the mission statement. 42
So it seems to me that that is actually stated in there but I just, I don't remember. 43
CK: So, it became part of the core mission? 44
NR: I'm sorry. 45
CK: Is it part of the core mission or is it an extension to your mission that is my ques-46
tion? 47
NR: In that it is part of the Education and Community Engagement activities that we 48
create and that we promote, yes it is part of the core mission. 49
CK: Ok. Thank you. 50
NR: Because that is what Education and Community Engagement are about and I know 51
that our new general director is all over that, I mean, all about that. I mean, for instance 52
we have this new engagement program called Opera Exposed!, university students who 53
are in their undergraduate years learning to be opera singers and singing operatic reper-54
toire. I sent them out to sing in parts of the city where opera has never been heard before 55
like City Heights, Barrio Logan, El Canon, and Escondido... I purposely do not take 56
brochures. It is not a marketing event. It is not about trying to sell tickets. It is simply 57
about trying to help people understand that this art form can indeed be transformative. It 58
can change people and that it can help them understand, respond and deal with their 59
everyday life situations and if that is not about Civic Impact, I don't know what that is 60
about. 61
123
CK: And what are you going out with? Like these singers, what do they perform, what 62
do they sing? 63
NR: They sing a wide range of things. Last year it was almost specifically operatic arias 64
and ensembles with an occasional art song. This year, I am broadening it so that they 65
will do some Broadway numbers as well from the classic Broadway shows like Rodgers 66
& Hammerstein repertoire, Gershwin repertoire, Lerner & Loewe, so there will be a 67
nice, broad mix of styles and genres in what they do. It is not that that's important to 68
broaden people's understanding what opera is and what it can be in areas that we can go 69
as a company on the main stage as well as in smaller spaces. 70
CK: So, do you believe that the transformative power of the whole repertoire is what 71
can change lives? So, you go out with this standard repertoire of opera music rather than 72
specifically choosing repertoire for that community? 73
NR: Oh, I see what you are saying. No, I think it's, actually in reality, in practicality, it's 74
whatever these kids know. It's whatever they can sing and it is what ever they can sing 75
well, I think that is critical. I don't think that the repertoire is as important as an audi-76
ence seeing a young attractive person singing in a style that is unusual to their audience 77
and selling it. Singing it with enthusiasm and with an absolute belief that this is what 78
they want to do. That I find is actually more important than the actually repertoire and 79
the repertoire comes second. And once the audiences see these nineteen, twenty, twen-80
ty-one year old singers putting across this repertoire, they believe in the repertoire as 81
well. So, I don't worry about giving the Handel or Mozart or Donizetti or Verdi or Puc-82
cini, you know. A lot of it is a mix of repertoire so that people get the idea that it's not 83
just one thing. So like I said the choices of repertoire is not all that important to me, it's 84
what important to me is the fact that these audiences can see these really committed 85
young people singing music that they believe in and loving it. And if they love it, you 86
know, all great artists have discovered if they love it, the audience will love it. And I 87
really believe that that not only helps change people, it also helps them understand 88
opera a little bit better. 89
CK: So, it's more the power of performance than the repertoire. 90
NR: Yes. 91
CK: Awesome, thank you. So how does San Diego Opera create Civic Impact? 92
NR: Well, that's my job. We call it Community Engagement, but it is essentially my job 93
description is to create programs that do just that. Like I said we are going through a 94
124
kind of transition understanding that Civic Impact is more important than just spreading 95
the news about opera or about the company rather I should say. So for me it is about 96
thinking about ways that we can get to an audience as powerfully as possible. 97
Sometimes that's a lecture, sometimes that's a public conversation with someone about a 98
topic that touches on one of our productions, sometimes it's a public interview in front 99
of an audience with someone who only has a tangential relationship with the production 100
that we are talking about with the opera that we are talking about but that somehow that 101
makes a connection that makes the art form more relevant to our community. And doing 102
things in the open, you know, doing things outside, doing things in spaces other than the 103
Civic Theatre. As you know the Civic Theatre has a lot of problems, number one it is 104
3,000 seats and selling 3,000 seats is a huge challenge in this town, so going to smaller 105
spaces and more intimate spaces like my Opera Exposed! group can do that's really 106
what it is all about. That's civic engagement, and making an impact. In Education too, 107
we are changing out philosophy of Education in terms of, it is no longer about opera 108
Education, it's about using opera as the means to help people understand their lives bet-109
ter. Opera is about human life at it's best. It's about human beings given real human is-110
sues. So I don't see how you can separate being involved, let’s say as a seventh grader in 111
an opera writing program and not dealing with the issue of how I live in my everyday 112
life. In order for the piece that they write to have any relevance with their audience, 113
which is going to be other seventh grade and eights grade kids; it's going to be about 114
something that they care about and something that they know. So, in that example opera 115
is simply a vehicle to help kids come to grips with who they are and where they are and 116
what they do. And our Opera Residency, we have the new San Diego Opera Residency, 117
on the surface it is all about introducing kids to the art form of opera and understanding 118
all the elements that go into it, the writing of a libretto, the writing of the music, makeup 119
and wigs, costumes, set design, coming up with the story, all those things are explored. 120
How to sing, all of those things are explored in the Residency, but they are all explored 121
in a way that lets the kids express themselves about what they care about. And I think 122
that in small ways is a way to help have an impact on the community. 123
CK: So, we have the programs that are in addition to your season that promote and 124
bring the themes of the opera closer to the community, these could be the lectures or 125
community events or talks you talked about earlier, and then we have the opera going 126
into schools and creating programs there, creating an opera or the residency program, 127
125
which reaches all these wonderful next generations of opera lovers. Are there any other 128
ways you create Civic Impact? 129
NR: First of all, you said something just now about creating future opera lovers. I'm 130
letting that go in light of what we have been talking about in terms of Civic Impact and 131
community engagement. That has got to take a back seat. I am realizing in my old age 132
and after sixteen years here and after thirty-five years of lecturing on opera that again it 133
is not just about telling people about opera. That I think is a dead end street. It goes no-134
where. I think the more that we can engage people in the themes of opera and what art 135
means to a community then yeah there might be a ripple effect down the line that will 136
draw somebody back to opera and will make them buy a ticket but that just can't be the 137
only important thing. I mean, and it is becoming less and less important to me. It's got to 138
be, at least my job, I mean other people in this company have the job of raising money 139
for the company and god knows we need the money to do these programs but my focus 140
has to be on living in that world of stimulating ideas and thinking about the relevancy of 141
art in our lives and being more concerned about the transformative power of opera on a 142
community and on an individual than about selling tickets. So that's my starting point. 143
In terms of talking specifically about opera, my thing has always been that there is this 144
exciting explosion that happens when music and words come together and whenever I 145
am talking about an opera specifically, that's my starting point. There is something mys-146
terious and exciting that happens when music sets words, when words are set to music 147
rather. And so in creating a program that's about Civic Impact that will be my starting 148
point as well. It will be from the art but because it is that connection in opera that is the 149
most transformative thing it's like when you are in love with somebody and the first 150
time you dance with that person and realize you are in love with them and the song that 151
you danced to becomes my song, our song. You know, there's something really, really 152
special about that moment when that song that piece of music that had words affected 153
you and helped you fall in love. That was a transformative experience. Opera, the visual 154
arts, poetry, a great novel, a statue, a painting, they can all do the same thing. I am al-155
ways going to be talking about it from that standpoint because my art form is opera. So, 156
you are catching me at a moment where I am still thinking about more programs, future 157
programs that I can create that will do that, that will help people appreciate that and 158
understand it and help them better their lives because again it's all about changing lives. 159
It is as much about changing lives as feeding somebody, you know, I really believe that. 160
126
CK: Awesome. Thank you. What I was trying to hint at with the generating future audi-161
ences was that these are for youth. So I was wondering what your programs are for the 162
rest of the city? 163
NR: Well, we have all those adults programs and we have all those school programs. 164
We have now decided the departments into the Department of Education for Schools 165
and Department of Education for Community Engagement and that's specifically my 166
area, the community engagement. I am thinking of ways that we can do similar pro-167
grams that we do in the schools but do them with adults or do them with families. For 168
instants am opera writing program, we are going into a neighborhood or into an com-169
munity and talk to them about their stories: what are your stories? What are your power-170
ful stories? What are your stories, you know, about your lives, or your neighborhood, or 171
your community that have helped change you? How can we set that to music? Can it be 172
set to music and once it set to music would you be willing to help us perform it? And 173
when we perform it, will you bring your family, will you bring your community? Do 174
you think this will touch anybody else, you know? 175
That is thinking big. That's thinking universal. But that is something that I really, really 176
want to do and I am going to be talking to our new general director about it. I haven't 177
had the chance to actually have a one-on-one sit-down with him yet because he has only 178
been here for a week. Those are one of the things I will be looking at. For instants, 179
maybe we go to the Vietnamese community or the Latino community in town and talk 180
to them about opera using their music, their musical styles, so involving musicians from 181
that community and what we do as a company to stimulate the idea that any kind of 182
music can be used to tell a story and it's more effective is the music comes from their 183
own community. If we can help them do that, stimulate the interest, get the stories writ-184
ten, get the libretti written, and then hand it over to a group of musicians from that 185
community and then just help it along, give them all the tools that they need to produce 186
the opera. I think that could be a life changing opportunity for a community and for an 187
arts company. 188
CK: That is awesome. Wonderful. And that all would be, of course, outside of your 189
normal season? 190
NR: Yeah, it almost have to be because we want our artistic team to be involved in that 191
and it's hard for them to be involved in anything when they are rehearsing a show and 192
getting it up. But that is a way of keeping us alive in the community when we are not 193
performing, you know. 194
127
CK: Yes. But don't you think that through your programs you are providing this opera 195
service to your community throughout the year and performing throughout the year that 196
way? 197
NR: Oh sure. Yeah. Absolutely. So, if we are not at the Civic Theatre or at the Balboa 198
Theatre or at a smaller space on a professional level, we are out in the community using 199
our art form to help better people's lives. 200
CK: That is awesome. Ok. Perfect. So that's how you would describe San Diego Opera 201
creates Civic Impact? 202
NR: Yeah. 203
CK: Ok. Awesome. So, what initiated San Diego Opera's focus on Civic Impact? 204
NR: Like I said before we were kind of a sleeping giant until the crisis came along. I'd 205
have to say that even though that was my job and I tried my best to argue for the im-206
portance of community engagement and Civic Impact, you know, the former manage-207
ment, I just don't feel that they were ever really serious about it and it rarely went any-208
where. I think we did what we could. And I think some of our programs were very suc-209
cessful, like the Word and Music program, which was an opera-writing program that 210
went into the schools, particularly middle schools and high school. I think that was very 211
successful and very powerful. I think some of our community conversations were very 212
successful and very powerful. I think all of our Education programs made an impact but 213
at the company level, there wasn't a real grasp at how important that was and how sig-214
nificant it could be in the life of the company. And because of the crisis, we have to hit 215
that very thing head on. You know, it was like a slap in the face through the community. 216
Even though it was a very positive slap in the face because, you know, the former man-217
agement attempted to close us and we resisted and the community said: “Yeah, abso-218
lutely. Don't shut down San Diego Opera because San Diego Opera has a Civic Impact. 219
They are important to the community.” I am going: “Oh, oh, wait a minute. I have never 220
heard that. I have never heard that actually actively from the community. That is so 221
cool! Of course, we have a Civic Impact! Of course, we have an impact on the commu-222
nity.” And it's because we have been trying in our own small way to do these engage-223
ment programs. Now, you know, we really have a very strong vote of support from the 224
community to do just that. And so now it is all about trying to answer that question. 225
How do we do it? How do we do it powerfully? How do we do it authentically? And 226
that's exciting, it's really exciting. I mean, I am a little sad that I am only a couple of 227
years from retirement because I only have a couple of years to be involved in it. Alt-228
128
hough after I retire I am sure I will still be involved but you know that is a really im-229
portant thing for us to know and it was like a pail of cold water being splashed all over 230
us and waking up and realizing: “Oh my god, yes, we are important here and we have 231
something to say and we have something to offer.” 232
CK: Awesome. And so would you say that thought of Civic Impact was a mayor change 233
of the way you think about what opera is and what opera should be or your job as an 234
opera company should be? 235
NR: Absolutely. Yeah, it just helped to clarify that. You know those words have always 236
been there in our mission and the things that we put out. I mean we always said that we 237
had a responsibility with the community and to the city and all that. But I don't think 238
those words rang through for everyone in the company and now we all understand it and 239
we all understand that things need to change. And we need to prove our relevance to the 240
community and I think we are doing that. 241
CK: Awesome. Just coming back to how you create Civic Impact. What I remember as 242
one of the most awesome things during that crisis was that you really instantly went out 243
into the community with the chorus and staff and that you participated in events that had 244
nothing to do with the opera originally like the Italian festival, - or with the season it-245
self, do you still do that? 246
NR: Oh yeah, we are looking for ways to do that. In fact, just before you called I got 247
word the Carlsbad Music Festival, which is a big community festival in that town, we 248
offered to sing outside on their main stage at the end of August and we discovered that 249
they are absolutely thrilled. They can't wait for us to come. So my Opera Exposed! 250
singers, we'll go, gather up a group of five of six singers and run up there and do it and 251
sing opera and Broadway and some other things. And you know, being a traditional 252
musician and a pianist and a vocal coach, I have never been really crazy about doing 253
what we do outdoors because it means certain compromises, it means using a digital or 254
an electronic piano, it means using microphone which, you know, we don't use in the 255
theater, but I've had to understand: “Hey, wait a minute, it's not about all that. It's about 256
simply presenting the music to the audience in the best way that we can, given the cir-257
cumstance and getting that repertoire across in an exciting and enthusiastic way.” And 258
for me, I am the narrator of these programs, I am sort of the host and I, you know, say a 259
few words about each aria before they sing them and help people understand that it's a 260
story. These are stories about human beings doing human things and that the music is 261
129
all about that. It is just about expressing those emotions, those feelings and telling that 262
story. So I've just kind of forgotten about the fact that I am a purist and, you know, I 263
have to have a grand piano and my kids have to sing in a concert hall, that's just ridicu-264
lous, it's just ridiculous. We are not going to make a community impact that way. We've 265
got to be out there, if we can have a theater and a great acoustic even out of doors and 266
we don't have to use microphones and I can have a good piano, great! But if we don't, I 267
am not worrying about it anymore, I am more concerned about seeing to it that they 268
hear us, see us and celebrate what it is that opera can do. 269
CK: Awesome. So, you had to redefine your own definition of opera and how you can 270
experience it? 271
NR: Oh, yeah, absolutely. 272
CK: Awesome. So, what were challenges or what are challenges creating Civic Impact 273
and changing that mindset? 274
NR: Well, the first challenge is coming up with programs that will, that are authentic 275
and that will really help change lives. That's a first challenge. That's a huge challenge. I 276
can't do that by myself. I had run out of ideas at this point in my life. You know it's real-277
ly hard to come up with something new and something creative and something that is 278
going to change people. 279
The second challenge I would say is convincing donors and staff that it is important 280
enough to fund. You know, that we are going to spent money on this or we are going to 281
find the money to support this because it is a good idea. So that's the second challenge. 282
And that's not entirely mine. Although it's up to me to inspire people to give but, you 283
know, we need help from the entire community to do that or from the entire staff to do 284
that, particularly the development staff. 285
The other challenge is getting people to participate in the program. It is easy for me to 286
say that I will take this to the Filipino community or the black community or the Latino 287
community and say: “Oh hey, we want to write an opera with you about your stories!” 288
Well, ok. Who's going to come, you know. How am I going to get people in there? So 289
that's a challenge as well inspiring a community to believe this is something good and 290
this is something that's going to change them and help them and make them prouder 291
about who they are and where they live. So these are three mayor challenges that I can 292
think of right of the top of my head. 293
130
CK: Awesome. Thank you. So what would you name as positive side to your Civic Im-294
pact work or Civic Impact work of San Diego Opera in the future? 295
NR: Well, the satisfaction of knowing that we are helping to change people's minds and 296
people's spirits. Knowing that people grow from what we do. Knowing that people 297
might understand human life a little better by encountering of the art form. The num-298
bers, you know, the demographics, those are important to the bean counters and to the 299
development people and, you know, to the government people, that's important to let 300
them know that we performed for 3,000 people and there were this many adults in the 301
crowd and that many kids and that kind of thing, I mean, that's important to a point. But 302
for me it's more important to have that qualitative evidence that someone's life or a 303
community's life has changed through community engagement. And I have seen it hap-304
pen. I saw for instance our reaching out to all of the schools that have a mariachi pro-305
gram with kids learning about the styles of mariachi and having a festival of mariachi 306
and ballet folklórico in front of the Civic Theatre before, during and after our presenta-307
tion of the Mariachi Opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina. I saw people light up. I saw 308
families at our theater who had never been there before. I saw people enter our theater 309
and see the opera, the Mariachi opera, who had never been there before. And I saw them 310
weeping at the end and still crying when they walked out of the performance and realiz-311
ing by virtue of that that their lives had changed in a very positive way. Those are some 312
of the signs, you see them all the time. You could see them in Education when a kid 313
sends in a letter that he has written to the opera, thanking us for the student dress re-314
hearsal and drawing a picture of what he or she saw on the stage. And it's remarkable, 315
the picture that I love because they pick up so much. They see tiny details that we 316
wouldn't think they would typically see, you know, but they catch it all. It's really, really 317
interesting. So, you know, that there's been an impact and those are the positive sides. 318
That's the great thing about this when people respond and the respond loudly, it's just 319
great. There is nothing like it. 320
CK: Awesome, awesome. So, getting out there and changing lives. Do you think there 321
are any negative sides to civic engagement or impact for an opera company? 322
NR: No. I mean there will be stumbling blocks and there will be challenges but I don't, 323
those are not negatives, I don't believe that's a negative at all. I guess, I don't think there 324
is a downside. I really don't. To going out there and trying to change the community. 325
Even if you do it in a very small way or even if it is not entirely successful, you know, 326
we did it, that's the important point. 327
131
CK: Awesome. Ok. What are your lessons learned so far? 328
NR: The big lesson is that we can do it. And that our attempts at civic engagement have 329
worked, that we have been successful in small ways and in large ways. I've learned that 330
I can let go of my purist attitudes about the performance of this repertoire. That it can be 331
done anywhere in any space in front of any audience and it can still speak to those peo-332
ple, even though they may not be familiar with the style. I have learned a lot about my-333
self and about how opera affects me through these programs. Because you know when 334
you create a program like that you have to go through it before you can offer it to some-335
body else. You have to understand what it means and how it's going to affect you as a 336
person. So, I've learned that too. I've learned more every single day in this job about 337
how art can change me, therefor I am convinced it can change anybody. 338
CK: Awesome. And what would you describe as the foundation of successful Civic Im-339
pact? 340
NR: Again I hate to be repeating myself, it is just the fact that art can change people, the 341
transformative power of art. That's got to be the foundation. If I didn't believe that then I 342
wouldn't send any of these programs out. I would just expect everybody to come to me. 343
Come to the theater or come to the lecture hall and come to me, go on about opera and 344
opera. It's not going to happen that way. I believe in the transformational power of art 345
therefore I will go wherever I need to and do whatever I need to help people understand 346
that and grasp that and embrace it. That got to be the foundation. 347
CK: And what is the foundation of successful Civic Impact within an organization or an 348
opera company? 349
NR: It's the same thing. I think everybody in our company had to understand that, and I 350
don't feel that I am successful until everybody in the company understands that. 351
CK: So, buy-in up and down and left and right? 352
NR: Yep. 353
CK: Good communication? 354
NR: Yes. 355
CK: And do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards San Diego Opera's 356
bottom line? Or can have? 357
NR: It can have but I am not the person to talk to about it because in a very healthy way 358
I can't care about that. I just have to be concerned about, you know, building the pro-359
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grams and making sure that they are effective. Secondarily I have to accept the fact, you 360
know, this program is successful and it's bringing in funding. It's bringing in donations, 361
so that it can keep going because if it didn't, you know, we would have to shut the pro-362
gram down. But that can't be my primary concern, that had got to be the primary con-363
cern of another part of the company and they've got to work with me to try to find the 364
funding. But you know if you ask me the basic question do I believe the efforts of mak-365
ing an impact on the community add to the bottom line? I'd have to say yes, absolutely. 366
Absolutely. 367
Now, that happens in different ways, maybe somebody buys one ticket to one show and 368
they never come again. Maybe a lady who is a subscriber and sits up in the balcony 369
gives us a 125,000 dollars to keep the program going, maybe a foundation looks at us 370
and says: “Hey, they are doing good work, it is changing the community. Let's give 371
them some money.” So, yeah, I mean in small ways and in medium ways and in big 372
ways absolutely, it does, it does affect the bottom line. But that cannot be my primary 373
concern. My primary concern has got to be about that power of art to transform and 374
creating programs that will help do that. As an after effect, you know, it will definitely 375
help the bottom line, I believe that, I have seen that happen. 376
And I think the more we are involved in the community the more that will happen, the 377
more we will be given. I absolutely believe that. But we are young at it. We are really 378
only seriously in the first year of doing that as a whole company and really believing 379
that. So talk to me in a couple years. 380
CK: Ok. I'll make sure I'll do that. Do you feel that Civic Impact could work positively 381
towards San Diego Opera's long-term sustainability? 382
NR: Oh, absolutely. Yes. It already has. You know, the community sustained us and 383
through this crisis they answered our needs. So, yeah, as long as there are people who 384
believe in art and its power, we will be sustained. 385
CK: Awesome. So through creating Civic Impact it gives San Diego Opera relevance? 386
NR: Absolutely, it's the only way. 387
CK: If you would start at a new company with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, 388
would you strive to create it and how? 389
NR: Oh, yeah, you would have to. Absolutely. And I would do it the same way I've 390
been talking about, you know. My starting point would be my firm believe that art 391
changes lives and that it changed a community, and my firm believe that opera being a 392
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great art form can also do that. And then discovering at first because it is a new compa-393
ny small ways to effect that impact and letting those blossom and hopefully get bigger 394
so that we have even more of a Civic Impact and it would be nice to know that every-395
body in town knows about us and knows about opera and knows what it can do. That's 396
our ultimate goal. You know, not everybody does. Maybe five percent of the communi-397
ty knows about it, maybe more now because we were in the news so much over the last 398
year. But yeah, I mean if I was to be starting a new company that would be job number 399
one. 400
CK: Awesome. And what is you most favorite program that you have created to create 401
Civic Impact so far? 402
NR: It hasn't happened yet. I guess I'd have to say Words and Music, which was the San 403
Diego Opera Residency that went out to the schools. And if I can recreate that for adults 404
then that's what I would feel that would be spectacular. 405
CK: Awesome. Thank you. 406
NR: You bet. 407
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9.3.5. Opera America
Patricia Kiernan Johnson, Director of Marketing
Date: June 26, 2015 via Skype
PKJ: So, this has been a big focus part for the last, I was just trying to remember which 1
date it was, I think, it was probably February 2013, or so. Let me tell you how it started. 2
In February 2013, we held our strategic planning meeting for Opera America and the 3
Field. The organization will be turning 50 years old in 2020, which at the time seemed 4
further away then it does now, and the original thought was Opera America has done 5
such a significant impact on repertoire in the U.S. to this points with lots of our funding 6
initiatives and all of our other programs, we really helped establish a North American 7
repertoire for opera, and it is really vibrant, so we thought what is our next area of im-8
pact, what shall we be focused on as we are headed for 2020, we have set American 9
repertoire on a great path, what shall we do next that would be as significant and field 10
changing as that emphasis on North American repertoire, and so we started talking and 11
it had to be audiences, and it had to be audience development. And in that meeting, that 12
is where we changed sort of from this narrow audience development concept to the 13
more holistic view of Civic Impact. I think audience development for us felt a little one 14
sided, it felt mostly about main stage and it felt a little bit about opera companies going 15
out and convincing people to come to the opera house, making people opera lovers, and 16
Civic Impact felt genuine, it felt rooted in the community and it felt reciprocal. So, from 17
that original goal of just increasing attendance which is very narrow and focused, it 18
grew into a broader thing of Civic Impact and that increasing attendance can be a side 19
benefit of Civic Impact, that if we look at it from this more holistic view, companies 20
will benefit and opera will thrive but so will our communities. 21
CK: Awesome. 22
PKJ: And I think what is important for us is this idea of authentic relationships, authen-23
tic engagement, sustained engagement and reciprocal. So that the opera companies are 24
listening to their communities and then in the same way the audiences will listen and be 25
engaged and invested in their community. And this will be, the central issue the industry 26
is facing I think is that there is a decline in ticket sales, we have seen that the numbers 27
both single tickets and subscriptions in general go down, so we are dependent quite a lot 28
in this country on philanthropic support, on donations from individuals, corporations 29
and foundations and governments, so if we can demonstrate our … not just that what we 30
do on the stage is wonderful but that we are a real community partner and we have a 31
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real impact on the community that that will help to increase and sustain the philanthrop-32
ic sector. So by doing this work it will help companies gain revenue as well which is of 33
course very needed. 34
CK: Yes. 35
PKJ: And increase ticket sales. Even if we do increase ticket sales it is not going to 36
overtake the need for considerable philanthropic support. 37
CK: Absolutely. So, this has been probably a long strategic process with your commit-38
tee and all. Do you have a definition yet? Do you think there are many definitions? 39
PKJ: We are working, we have certainly written about it, and we have presented it to 40
our boards and we have presented it at our conferences, this last one in Washington DC, 41
increasing Civic Impact, I think this is a work in progress, I don’t think that we will ever 42
actually get to a definite definition, I think it is ever changing. I mean I think the ele-43
ments of it are that creating an authentic reciprocal relationship with communities that 44
benefits both the arts community and arts organization and the community as well, 45
communities. And what is really important to us as well is the understanding that our 46
community, everyone is not the same, there is not just one community, there are many 47
communities and they have different needs and so finding a way to address as many of 48
them as specifically as possible, and part of that too is then there is a lot growing out of 49
this Civic Impact discussion and what is most important is that we as opera companies 50
do not yet, we don’t really understand our audiences as well as we should. So the focus 51
of ours now is also on good, well-done audience research. 52
CK: Awesome. So, how do you define communities if I might just ask? So, you just 53
mentioned that there is more than one, there are several. What is operas job for commu-54
nities? 55
PKJ: There are many and varied. There are many different activities from opera compa-56
nies. There is of course the main stage product but there is…, it is about creating an 57
environment, I think, for communities to appreciate the art, to perhaps understand their 58
own lives and their fellow men better. I mean it is a lot of what, I think, it is some of 59
what opera has already been doing but in a way that is a little bit more concrete. 60
CK: Awesome. And how does Civic Impact relate to an opera company’s core mission? 61
PKJ: Well, I mean, I think, the core mission of many opera companies and some of 62
them will vary depending on what their particular craft is, is about love of the art form. 63
And I think that Civic Impact, going out to the communities, authentic relationships, 64
136
really builds loyalty towards the opera company and the art form. So, I think that Civic 65
Impact can only help increase and reinforce love of opera. So this concept we have by 66
going into the communities and really listening to them and engaging in the communi-67
ties in new ways that, the opera company shows that it is invested in its community, that 68
it is embedded in its community, and that in responds the community will feel invested 69
in their opera companies and embedded in our opera company. So for example Opera 70
Philadelphia, they are working on (We shall not be moved), there was this situation in 71
the early 80ies in Philadelphia, there was, this group of defectors and the city had hold 72
themselves up in a row of houses and a standoff with the police and the city actually 73
ended up bombing the house and it took down a whole bunch of row houses, it was just 74
this really absolutely horrific mess and it scared the city quite significantly. My husband 75
grew up just outside of Philadelphia and he told me: “Oh my god, yes, that was a big 76
deal while I was a tiny kid.” But nobody talked about it that much which is why I did 77
not know much about it. But now Opera Philadelphia is really working with people in 78
those communities to make an opera about it. And that was actually an idea that was 79
generated by children that they were working with in schools in that area. So that 80
through this opera, first of all, it was inspired by the community, it is driven a lot by the 81
kids, and then they are able to help the community, hopefully talk about it and heal 82
some of these issues that are now decades old. 83
CK: So through civic dialogue and engagement … 84
PKJ: working with the community, yeah. 85
CK: … using the unique tools that opera has to offer to improve civic health and share 86
love for the art form? 87
PKJ: Yes, and to bond the organization and its community more closely together. Yes, 88
you are right, opera has a very unique, it is in a very unique situation, that we are by 89
nature storytellers and that we have, there is all the visual arts components, the visual 90
arts, the performing arts, you know all of that comes together to create some really 91
powerful stories that music can tell a story in a way more powerfully than just words, 92
and yes, through this particular project with Opera Philadelphia it is something that is so 93
specific to Philadelphia and it shows that the company really gets and understands its 94
community and is trying to increase that dialogue. 95
CK: Awesome, yes. 96
PKJ: And authentic community collaboration are also an aspect of community engage-97
ment that, as much as we would love to, I don’t know that we can singlehandedly 98
change the world, that part of it, is working with other arts organizations, working with 99
137
government organizations, working with foundations, corporations, community groups 100
that it is partnership that help increase the strengths of the city and the art form as a 101
whole. 102
CK: Awesome, thank you. So, I have this wonderful Opera America Magazine from 103
Spring 2015 and in it Zachary Woolfe writes about civic engagement and for me that 104
comes very close to Civic Impact, is that the same for you? Civic engagement and Civic 105
Impact? 106
PKJ: Yes. 107
CK: Yes, ok. He describes Civic Impact as the expansion from opera’s fundamental 108
mission, which is performance, to “tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their 109
community.” Do you agree? 110
PKJ: Yes. 111
CK: So that is your definition of Civic Impact? As an added plus to your core value, 112
which is performance and the art form? 113
PKJ: Yes. 114
CK: Awesome. Ok. And so how do opera companies create Civic Impact? 115
PKJ: Through the activities that they are certainly already doing and thinking maybe in 116
a different way about some new activities. Many opera companies of course in addition 117
to their main stage stuff already go out and work with their communities. Houston 118
Grand Opera has HGOco, which is a sort of smaller satellite part of the organization that 119
goes into communities, especially in Houston and works with children and their parents 120
to create new opera that talks about their experience. So that is something they are al-121
ready doing but maybe looking at from a slightly different angle. So it is working with 122
schools, sometimes public service, there are some opera companies that will go out and 123
work and do a food drive or work in a soup kitchen, to show how invested they are in 124
their community. 125
CK: And that is part of their mission? 126
PKJ: Yes, it is to establish and sustain relationships with their communities, and some 127
companies have been doing this longer than others, you know, HGOco has been around 128
quite some time, and other companies perhaps haven’t been framing these kinds of ac-129
tivities as Civic Impact but I think as a field we are starting to understand, that we are 130
not just what we do on the main stage, you know, that sometimes trying to get people to 131
come into an opera house can be an intimidating and big experience, but if we can ex-132
138
tend beyond these walls of the opera house, and really be embedded in our communi-133
ties, it will benefit both us and the people that we serve. 134
CK: Awesome, than you. So what would you describe as success for an opera company 135
looking at a year? When is an opera company successful? 136
PKJ: There are a lot of indicators for success, I mean, certainly selling out the house 137
would be great, it would be especially drawing people from different aspects, maybe 138
new people they haven’t drawn before, reaching new areas. Dallas Opera has made 139
mapping of their audience and they discovered through some of their alternative pro-140
gramming like the simulcast at Cowboy Stadium, they have done heat maps, to show 141
that those activities in particular to Cowboy stadium have drawn an entirely different 142
group of people than people who come into their opera house, so I think that for them 143
was a huge mark of success that they were able to expand and reach entirely different 144
people who maybe have not been to the opera before. 145
I think they showed that sometimes a change of venue, one that is familiar and maybe 146
does not have that connotation of high art opera house was important some people and 147
that it wasn’t downtown art district, it was another place they were used to going and 148
felt comfortable going. So in that case it was more about venue than repertoire. 149
CK: Opera companies create Civic Impact in different ways, one would be through rep-150
ertoire, like creating new operas that have a lot to do with their communities, and you 151
just mentioned through location, or venues and access and what else? 152
PKJ: There are sort of satellite ideas with those, there are maybe types of audiences or 153
new actual geographic locations of those audiences, not just the venue of the opera but 154
where the opera is reaching, Vancouver Opera had traditionally had not great success in 155
reaching the people who lived in the far Northern West of the city, especially in the first 156
nation area, but they have taken opera out to those communities, they have offered them 157
trains, so that brought people in on actual metro transit trains through a partnership with 158
the city and the transit authority, to help bring people into the city and then educate 159
them and show them along the way how fun opera is, so it is sometimes also about not 160
just location of the opera itself but the location of the people. 161
CK: Access probably and getting them to come? 162
PKJ: Yes, and for some of our opera companies that is pretty significant, I run a grant 163
program called Building opera audiences, and it is funded by the Ann and Gordon Getty 164
Foundation and opera companies are encouraged to experiment with new and hopefully 165
sometimes outlandish projects to build audiences, sustained audiences, paid audiences 166
for main stage, and that was actually our first program with Vancouver and since then 167
139
there has been a number of companies come forth with ideas on transportation because 168
that can be a big barrier to attendance. 169
CK: So, the main goal of these great initiatives seems to be getting people to come see 170
the art form. Am I right? 171
PKJ: Yes, and that is overall an issue with opera, I think there are high barriers to at-172
tendance, there are many of them, there are perception that opera is not for them or it is 173
elitist, there is geographic, you know, getting transportation, parking issues, and you 174
know there are language barriers sometimes, financial barriers, and something we are 175
struggling with too now is with understanding that there are multiple demands on peo-176
ples’ time, more than ever nowadays, I am a mother of a four and a half year old and 177
I’m in, I am in opera, I am sold, how often do I go not for work? Very rarely because I 178
have a long commute, I have a daughter who is in daycare, I feel guilty about leaving 179
her with a babysitter and going to an opera, so I think our companies are working to 180
address those kind of situations too. 181
CK: Awesome. Ok, great. Thank you. My next question would be what initiated your 182
focus on Civic Impact, and we talked about this earlier, and you mentioned it being the 183
next big strategic goal to make a major impact. Anything else to that? 184
PKJ: Right. You know, it was very interesting how over the course of that two days, in 185
February we started from this one point of what can Opera America do for Audience 186
development by 2020 and by the end we came out with this very invigorated feeling 187
when we had turned to this idea of Civic Impact. The cornel of the idea we developed 188
over the course of two working days. And from there we have grown it and increased it. 189
And I think the San Diego situation had perhaps a lot to do with the expansion of that 190
idea that we almost immediately were able to kind of put it into practice, into play as we 191
worked to keep San Diego Opera open. 192
CK: So what initiated it was more a look at the field of opera and how to have a mayor 193
impact as Opera America but was it also motivated from an economic kind of view? 194
PKJ: Certainly one of the main goals of Opera America is to keep opera thriving in 195
North America and there is a financial view on that that we have to help opera compa-196
nies sustain themselves and ticket sales are not going to do it. Ticket sales cover maybe 197
a third of all operating cost. The rest has to come from philanthropy. And how can we, 198
sometimes when an opera company is competing against a feed the children kind of 199
organization, how can we justify or demonstrate that what we do is important also and 200
140
worthy of funding. When there is increased competition not only from performing or-201
ganizations but community impact organizations how can we make our case? And I 202
think just main stage grand opera productions in an opera house is not going to do it. 203
CK: Perfect. Thank you. So, do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards 204
opera companies bottom line? If yes, why? 205
PKJ: Yeah, totally, in a number of ways. One it will underpin philanthropy so that we 206
can increase contributed revenue, but we hope that it will also lead to increased audi-207
ences, increased ticket buyers. That, again this idea of building loyalty among the com-208
munity that when we show our city that we are invested in them, we hope that they will 209
invest in us, not just in terms of philanthropy but by buying tickets. They will want to 210
see what we do on stage because we know they get us. You know, there is a civic pride 211
to it as well, that this is my opera company. 212
CK: And they go there to experience art? 213
PKJ: Yes, experience art, experience being part of the community and an opera compa-214
ny that is uniquely theirs too because I think that is an important factor for success for 215
an opera company. It is to have a unique vision and a lot of that is hollered by the city 216
that they are in. 217
CK: Awesome. So opera companies are a place for the community to meet and identify 218
with? 219
PKJ: Yes, I think opera is very much a social experience. The research we have done 220
over many years about why people go to the opera or why they don’t go to the opera, it 221
is often a social experience. We are finding that older people who perhaps are widowed 222
my not go to an opera because they used to go with their spouse and now they don’t 223
have that anymore, so how can we make opera that social experience so that people feel 224
comfortable going by themselves or finding new people to go with. 225
CK: Great, thank you. Does Civic Impact work positively towards long-term sustaina-226
bility of opera companies and the art form? 227
PKJ: Yes, absolutely. I think Civic Impact is a slow burn, long building idea, it is not 228
something that whilst the basic cornel of the idea came to us over the course of two days 229
I don’t think it is going to be implemented and the impact felt immediately, I think it is 230
something that needs to be incorporated into an organization, it needs to be brought in 231
by the board and the entire staff, and I think it is certainly going to be important for a 232
long-term success for a company. 233
141
CK: And in which regard? 234
PKJ: Again, building loyalties is not going to come over night by the company, building 235
that kind of relationship with the community is not going to come over night, so these 236
relationships if we are going to be authentic and sustained, they need to also be faint, 237
they need to take place over a long period of time. So those, increasing ticket sales, in-238
creasing philanthropy and then having that case build of things that you can go to a cor-239
poration or foundation and show the impact you have made, it is all going to take a little 240
bit of time but once that fire is stoked up and running it should be pretty sustainable. 241
CK: And how would you define sustainability for opera companies? 242
PKJ: For some of our companies it is going to mean shifting of priorities or adding staff 243
perhaps, which is also going to take time, and it is a shift of thinking, you know maybe 244
the focus was just on just one aspect of what they do or one program that they do and it 245
is realizing that perhaps energies need to be put in certain other programs that maybe 246
that community project doesn’t sell tickets, so you don’t think it is going to gain you 247
revenue, but you have to think differently and put your energies into those projects be-248
cause they have implications on the rest of your organization. 249
CK: Awesome. And what would you describe as the status quo thinking that might need 250
to be changed? 251
PKJ: I think there is certainly a lot of focus on our main stage season, as there should 252
be, and I think there is always a drive on ticket sales, how are we doing on subscrip-253
tions, you know let’s spent our money and our energy on that product. But I think there 254
is a shift of realizing that we are more than that, it is more holistic than that, that we 255
can’t make everything else be a side part, that it really all has to be part of the same 256
conversation. That we have to put significant energy into these other projects if they are 257
going to work, if they are really going to fly. 258
CK: And do you feel a company without Civic Impact can exist and survive? 259
PKJ: I think any company can have a certain kind of Civic Impact, or certain degree of 260
it, that I think, there is probably going to be no company that has no Civic Impact. 261
262
CK: Awesome. And what are challenges opera companies face with implementing Civic 263
Impact, creating Civic Impact? 264
PKJ: Our opera companies are facing lots of issues in terms of ticket sales, and things 265
like that, but I think it is a matter of creating that authentic relationship, identifying 266
which communities they want to engage with and then overcoming some of these per-267
142
ception barriers, I mean, opera has a high perception barrier, people see it as elitist, as 268
not for them, I recently traveled to Israel to see the opera in Masada and both times go-269
ing to security every time people thought I worked for Oprah Winfrey, it is actually 270
something I get a lot, but both times going through screening and I thought it is funny 271
how Oprah is clearly universal and opera perhaps is not. 272
CK: any other challenges? 273
PKJ: You know I think it is easy for us and our company to come up with these great 274
ideas about stuff they want to do in their community and trying to have the resources, 275
we are non-profits, we don’t have a huge staff, we don’t have a huge budget and so try-276
ing to make those decisions about where to put the energy and the finances, is certainly 277
a challenge. 278
CK: Awesome. Thank you. What would you name as positive sides, what would you 279
name as negative sides to Civic Impact? 280
PKJ: I think we have covered a lot of the positive sides and benefits of Civic Impact and 281
I really want to stress that we see them as reciprocal; it is not just the opera company 282
benefiting but the entire city. And for some bigger opera companies it is not just the 283
city, it is their region. I am not sure to what the downsides are of Civic Impact. Have 284
you heard anything so far? 285
CK: Well, what I have heard so far was not having enough time, sometimes companies 286
name data collection and measurements as a challenge, and of course resources. 287
PKJ: Right, I suppose what could be a downside is if say you worked on a project from 288
a particularly angle and then drop it, because of attention, time, resources, that could 289
give a negative impression with the community. There was an interesting, you know the 290
Wallace Foundation has done these studies recently and they have released their effec-291
tive practices, one thing that has stuck with me was, there was one organization, it 292
wasn’t an opera company that did going out to the community and working with them 293
in whatever language that community spoke, Spanish I think, and they had really en-294
gaged them and it was great, and they were now bringing them into the opera house and 295
then the company didn’t think beyond that, it just said we need to get them to the opera 296
house, well then they did not have anyone there at the opera house who was prepared to 297
speak their language to the people and they did not have materials ready in their lan-298
guage, so it was this big wake-up call for the company: “Oh, we did not really follow 299
through, we did not finish this out. We just brought them to the house and thought that 300
143
was the end of it.” And so they learned from that and changed going forward that these 301
projects can’t be just started and stopped, that they needed to have a big follow through. 302
CK: Awesome, thank you. And do you have any lessons learned so far? That would 303
certainly be one of them. Any other key lessons learned? 304
PKJ: I think this is still very early on in the process I can’t say that there are lessons 305
along those lines, I think, we are recognizing certain challenges, that companies will 306
need to make sure there is proper buy-in not only from the administration but from their 307
board and the community itself, so I think buy-in is, you know recognition that this is 308
significant, and important and worthy. So we have gotten very positive feedback from 309
our companies on this particular project track. 310
CK: My last question would be what is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 311
PKJ: I think a genuine commitment to the concept, not a superficial one, I think, there 312
is a need for top-down, left-right buy-in. It is not something that can just originate from 313
the Education department and be embraced by the Education department or the Market-314
ing department, it really needs to be throughout the entire organization, including the 315
board. The board is a really important component of this. One of the most important 316
foundations is a genuine believe that this is important and buy-in from every side of the 317
organization. 318
319
CK: Awesome. Thank you. So has this become a part of Opera America’s mission? 320
PKJ: Our official mission statement that hasn’t quite changed yet, but I think it has al-321
ways been implicit in what we have written. It is funny, I think, Civic Impact is some-322
thing that we perhaps been pushing without even realizing it until we put it into words 323
probably two years ago. Civic Impact, you would be surprised, the number of times 324
Civic Impact has come up around our office lately, the number of times Civic Impact is 325
mentioned in all of our different projects and with our different opera companies and the 326
press and everything. So, I think it is becoming such an intrinsic part our language and 327
our projects and how we speak to our member companies, so I think it is rapidly gone 328
from this new novel concept to something we inhabit. And I think what struck us at the 329
end of the strategic planning meeting is that it seemed so profoundly logical that we 330
were like why haven’t we been saying that already. That was a revelation for us at the 331
end of that meeting. 332
144
CK: Awesome. And about opera in America, do you feel this has ever been part of 333
opera in America or the founding of opera companies or has it always been this wonder-334
ful art form from Europe here and then making it strive? 335
PKJ: I think certainly opera in the U.S. started out as importing a profoundly European 336
tradition to the continent. But I think we have especially in the last couple of decades 337
have been making it our own, that we are especially through repertoire, telling Ameri-338
can stories in an American way. So, I think it is now a cousin to European opera, in a 339
way. 340
CK: Yes, absolutely. (…) 341
PKJ: And I think part of the success of an opera company like Opera Philadelphia is a 342
sense and knowledge of self and who it is, and that it is unique. When I first started 343
here, eight years or so ago, the big topic was Met HD and that a lot of smaller compa-344
nies said how can I compete, how can we, they are going to steal all our ticket buyers, 345
how can we manage to survive, and there are certain opera companies like Opera Phila-346
delphia that really haven’t felt too much of a pinch from met HD because Met HD just 347
compliments what they do, which is something different. Opera Philadelphia is its own 348
thing. And a crazy opera lover will go to everything. They will go to Met HD and Opera 349
Philadelphia and love it. But Opera Philadelphia offers something that Met HD does 350
not, that it is unique, that it is their product, it is a good company, so there is a lot of 351
civic pride in the organization and it offers just a different product to what Met HD 352
does, it is very unique. If you were to, could you take Opera Philadelphia and transplant 353
it into another city? I don’t know. I think the company would have to change and evolve 354
and adapt to a different city. (…) 355
And Opera Memphis is one that again understands the community and just speaks to 356
them on that level. He (Ned Canty) has a, he may have told you this too but with 30 357
Days, there is this concept, this phrase in Memphis that they call “grit and grind”, which 358
essentially means you keep at something, you just keep at it, you keep going, and that is 359
part of what 30 Days came from, that for thirty days, in a row, we are just going to go 360
out there and we are just going to do opera and we are going to keep at it and keep at it. 361
So it is that understanding of that vibe in Memphis, that that is something really con-362
sistent and something that people really feel. So to then go out and do it in an operatic 363
way is really kind of awesome. 364
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9.3.6. Opera Philadelphia
Michael Bolton, Vice President, Community Programming
Date: June 29, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Opera Philadelphia's definition of Civic Impact? 1
MB: I don’t know if we put an actual hard definition to it. I think we have sort of a man-2
tra that we want to be of the city rather than above the city. And I think that that has 3
dictated a lot of the programming that we’ve been doing and it is sort of our let-this test: 4
“Does that keep us engaged in the community or does that sort of put up a boundary, not 5
a boundary but a wall or a barrier to participation?” And I think for us we have looked 6
at … we’ve done a lot of consumer studies, so we know that we have consumers in var-7
ious buckets: Those who are avid attendees, those who are opera buffs, and then those 8
who are engaged with the company through our civic initiatives who may never set foot 9
into one of the theatres where we produce opera. But they feel that they are connected to 10
the company because of some of the things we do in the community. And I think for us, 11
now we look at what else can we be doing to further reach those audiences who may not 12
buy tickets so that we are reflective of Philadelphia’s population. Considering that tradi-13
tionally, gosh I don’t have the statistics right in front of me, but the majority of our 14
opera attending audiences are Caucasian but in Philadelphia, I think, 44-46 percent of 15
the population is African American. The largest growing segment of the population is 16
Latino. So we need to be reflective of the city in which we work, so that’s been a lot of 17
what we’ve talked about and what we strive to do. 18
CK: Awesome. Thank you. I do have a definition and I would like to hear your stand-19
point on it. Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the 20
“expansion of opera companies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs 21
of their community.” Do you agree? 22
MB: Yes and no. There is clearly a movement in the industry to make opera companies 23
more… Let me rephrase this, we are an opera company, we produce artistic and cultural 24
programming, I don’t think it is an opera companies responsibility to be a social ser-25
vices organization. But I think that there are ways that you can connect what you do and 26
who you reach to resources if they need them. One of the things that we are currently 27
developing is a Workplace Readiness Plan. … And I know there are other colleagues in 28
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the industry who feel differently, I know that Opera Memphis does a lot of, they feel 29
like they need to be a social services provider in a way or connector in a way. But I feel 30
like for us art will always come first but through art, getting up on track with what I was 31
thinking before, here we are looking at Philadelphia youth, only 24 percent of students 32
graduate on time from high school, only 66 percent … and then 66 percent graduate 33
within six years of beginning high school rather than in four years. So for those who 34
actually complete high school, only half of them are only going to attend college and 35
only an even smaller percent of them actually complete college. So what we are looking 36
to do with this Workplace Readiness program is to provide an opportunity for students 37
who may not be college bound and give them an awareness of good, high paying jobs in 38
the arts for which you don’t need a college degree, specifically anything involving 39
stagecraft, like carpentry, electrics, sound, costume design, anything involving the cos-40
tume shop, makeup, any of those behind the scenes sort of programs or jobs. And for us 41
that are one of the ways we really are trying to make an impact with the future of Phila-42
delphia and Philadelphia’s youth. We have several Youth programs that we offer in any 43
grades from kindergarten through high school to engage with students, to make them 44
aware of the arts, to improve or increase their self-esteem by using the arts. So it is a 45
different kind of, it is not a social service that we provide but it has almost social ser-46
vices like benefits. If we are able to increase student’s self-esteem, you know, I got way 47
of track from the original question, so I apologize. Do I believe in the definition? Yes 48
and no, I think bringing culture to everyone in the community, being reflective of the 49
community is very important. We are not being trained to be social service providers, 50
but again we need to provide, if the population that we are dealing with on an intimate 51
level who we are seeing day after day, need resources we should be able to connect 52
them to those resources. 53
CK: Ok. So, as far as your definition of Civic Impact goes would you say that it is an 54
expansion of your mission, something you recently learned and then added? 55
MB: No, I think, part of our mission statement has always included reaching Philadel-56
phia as a whole and providing programming that is reflective of our audiences. But I 57
think, you know, I think, we found that we are doing it, just because you have to, you 58
know, and then as terminology has changed, we were able to put a label on it, oh, it’s 59
Civic Impact. You know, it’s just how we are connected to our community. In this day 60
in age and even a decade ago, any responsible arts organization has to be reaching out to 61
the community, absolutely has to be. And it ensures your livelihood because you are 62
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because it shows to the community that you care. You know, it is like being a good cor-63
porate citizen; we are being a good artistic citizen in that. 64
CK: Awesome. Thank you. How does Opera Philadelphia create Civic Impact? For ones 65
through the Youth programs, you talked about those. 66
MB: Yeah, how do you create Civic Impact? I think, so what we did, we have a Com-67
munity Engagement Committee who provide us with, they are our feedback system. 68
They are a wonderfully engaged committee, about 25 percent of it is made of board 69
members, the other 75 percent is made up of leaders within community reflective of 70
every race and gender and everything else in between in the community and they pro-71
vide us with connections, they provide us with frank feedback, you know, you can’t be 72
doing that, you need to be doing that, you should be talking to this person, these are 73
what the needs of the community are, thank you or thank you for being successful or 74
you need to do more work on X,Y, and Z. And then it’s really, in reviewing the pro-75
gramming we do they provide us with that instant feedback. 76
And so really. I think, we have three main buckets, or two main buckets. One is youth, 77
and one is adult. Adult meaning anyone who is living in Philadelphia who is not going 78
come and buy a ticket for a show in a theatre. 79
So for youth we have in-school programs, we have Teaching Artists programs, we have 80
two afterschool programs that we run. One is called Hip-H’opera which is a program 81
that we do in three schools which initially started as using students writings as the inspi-82
ration of an opera which we will produce in 2017. But that has evolved into an Arts In-83
tegration program where students are learning a variety of art forms through teaching 84
artists and then also improving their self-esteem in the process. But that process has also 85
evolved into a new project, which we just piloted this past spring, called Ti voce or Teen 86
Voices of the City Ensemble, which will basically be an all-city choir. And it’s gotten 87
the stamp of approval from the School district and it would be open to any student in 88
high school who wants to join a vocal ensemble and it will be an all-city choir. There 89
are so many schools in Philadelphia, which don’t have access to any music education 90
whatsoever. We found through our Hip-H’opera program that bringing kids together 91
through a communal experience creates an instant community among these kids and we 92
are actually looking forward to expanding up on that as we are moving forward with the 93
Ti Voce project. 94
For adults, you know, we have our programs like the Opera on the Mall, which is our 95
HD broadcast of the opening production of the season, which takes place at Independ-96
ence Mall in Philadelphia. So we really looked at a space that has space to accommo-97
148
date a lot of people. I can’t really call the mall a venue because it is basically a big open 98
field, and you know, that attracts, I think last year we had 6,000 people, so every year 99
it’s been building, we have been doing it for about four years, regardless of weather, 100
regardless of familiarity or unfamiliarity with the title, audiences continue to grow. And 101
again, we have found out through studies that the people who come to Opera on the 102
Mall are not going to buy tickets to one of our shows but they feel that they have to 103
come every year to the opera broadcast. And through that we have done Community 104
Recitals, we just did a recital about two weeks ago with Lawrence Brownlee in the 105
church where Maureen Anderson worshiped and as a child and it was, that is one of the 106
key programs that we did this year to really engage with the African American commu-107
nity by doing what we do in a venue that is close to them and meaningful to that seg-108
ment of the population. And we are still trying to determine what the best is for the La-109
tino community as well but thanks to our Community Engagement Committee we are 110
working on that and they are providing us with lots of ideas and suggestions. 111
CK: Awesome. And those concerts are free or? 112
MB: Yes. Oh, I am sorry, the Lawrence Brownlee program we charged $15 for that. We 113
are keeping it nominal cost, we did have 10$ offers for families and kids where free and 114
that sort of thing. 115
CK: And then of course for the adults you also do your programming which reflects the 116
city? 117
MB: The Opera on the Mall event is completely free, the only thing we ask is that you 118
give us your information, so that we can bother you by email. So we sent them ticket 119
offers, we sent them discounts, you know, again we realize that they really just want to 120
go see the Opera on the Mall. It is a very interesting communal experience as well. You 121
know, it is not exclusively people who don’t come to theatre but for the most part, for 122
some folks it is their only connection to us, every year. 123
CK: Awesome. Thank you. And what initiated Opera Philadelphia's focus on Civic Im-124
pact? 125
MB: I think the first real, I mean, the student programming we have been doing for 126
twenty years or more, the afterschool programs we have been doing since 2007, but our 127
longest running in school program is going on 22 or 23 years now, since 1991. But I 128
think a lot of things changed when we did those flash mobs, the Random Acts of Cul-129
ture. And suddenly everybody was talking about us and we were on national news and 130
in national television broadcasts and suddenly everybody wanted to talk to us and peo-131
149
ple were, everybody wanted one, for everything, from a birthday party to bowling tour-132
nament. So then it became sort of stepping stone for what else we will be doing and how 133
we, how do we budget for it, how do we make it financially viable and even if there is 134
no quote on quote return on the investment financially what is the communal or what is 135
the goodwill quotient on that and how does that change our relationship with the com-136
munity. So, and that’s probably even more powerful than the monetary return if you 137
will. It is making, doing what you do for anyone and bringing smiles to faces. And I 138
think that was the first step in, as we did about eighty of them within two years. And, 139
hm, it really kind of changed Opera Philadelphia’s brand in Philadelphia there. And was 140
the first step. So, I think as we move forward then came one component of the after-141
school program, then came more community recitals, then came the Opera on the Mall, 142
we started, oh gosh, that was actually right after the first flash mob. It’s been a progres-143
sion of expansion of activities. And I would say some of our programming with the Af-144
rican American community has been very strategic, both through community projects, 145
like the community concerts, but also making sure that what we are doing on stage is of 146
interest and reflected of the community, so we just did Charlie Parkers Yardbird which 147
sold out, the entire run you couldn’t get a ticket. So, it is really like making sure that we 148
are finding the best cast but also being cognitive that our casts have to reflect our com-149
munity as well. So, it is all of that. 150
CK: Awesome. So, what were/are challenges? 151
MB: From a very day-to-day operational standpoint, you can’t be everything to every-152
body. As much as you want to be and you can’t say yes to everybody. Of course you 153
would never say yes to a birthday party but really there have been times where we have 154
wanted to work with people but we just, we couldn’t make it work for whatever reason. 155
Maybe it is a lack of manpower on our side, maybe it is a conflict with rehearsal sched-156
ules, and what not, because frequently we are trying to do things around our main stage 157
productions and trying to find a day where people can be available can be difficult. It is 158
learning who to say yes to and who to say no to. I have had a couple of, in developing 159
the locational program, I have met with so many people who just want to be part of it 160
and at the initial stage they just can’t be because we need to slowly progress into this 161
and if I would say yes to everybody it would be unmanageable. So that for me on the 162
day-to-day basis, that’s the biggest challenge: Who do you say yes to and who do you 163
say no to and finding the right partners who can help you strategically advance the mis-164
150
sion but increase the quality of your programming so that when you are ready to ex-165
pand, you have set a really spectacular foundation. 166
CK: Awesome. And what would you name as positive, what would you name as nega-167
tive sides to Opera Philadelphia's Civic Impact work? 168
MB: It is open doors for us, literately. There has been, on the positive side, that’s the 169
number one, I think, we have, there’s been philanthropist that, I mean, it wasn’t meant 170
to be abut philanthropy, but the fringe benefit of it has been, that foundations that we 171
couldn’t get into before have opened their doors to us. I can’t say its revealed a tremen-172
dous return, in some cases we have gotten money, in some cases we haven’t but at least 173
people respect what we do and are now more interested in the company and we have 174
gotten some gifts from folks that we would never have gotten gifts from previously but 175
again they are more interested in what we do. That’s from a philanthropic level, from a 176
cultural standpoint, people are just more aware of us, we are in a town that is sort of 177
dominated by The Philadelphia Museum of Art and The Philadelphia Orchestra, some 178
folks did not realize that there was even an opera company in Philadelphia. And so it 179
has made that more meaningful as well. It has been a really exciting past couple of 180
years, in that respect. 181
CK: And negative sides? Are there negative sides? 182
MB: The negative side is really, oh, another positive thing, gosh, we have worked with 183
some really amazing partners, people that we would have never expected to collaborate 184
previously. There is really some, some of the organizations that we have worked with 185
have just been a delight, both professionally and personally, and that has also helped 186
opening doors to us to other collaborators and partners and just helps to spread the word 187
on what we are doing in the community. 188
Negative side, I guess would be, not every collaboration works and not every partner-189
ship works but that’s kind of part of the course. And again, you can’t say yes to every-190
body. So even the folks that you want to say yes to, you can’t. You can’t always fulfill 191
their wishes or your own desires based on a merit of other obstacles that happen on a 192
day-to-day basis. 193
CK: Ok. Thank you. What are your lessons learned? 194
MB: I guess, collaboration is key. Partnership is key. Finding that good sounding board 195
is key because if you build it they may not come but if you build it with the right part-196
151
ners, they will. If that makes sense. And go with your gut, I would say, I think so many 197
things that we have wanted to do, have ended up being validated by the community. If it 198
doesn’t feel right, it is probably not the right idea and it probably will not be as impact-199
ful as you think it will be. And so getting that feedback from, like the Engagement 200
Committee, has also been crucially important. Surround yourself with people who know 201
the community. 202
CK: Awesome. Ok. Thank you. What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 203
MB: The foundation is really just giving back to the community. Again, it comes back 204
to being of the city. We can’t distance ourselves, we have to provide meaningful pro-205
gramming for the community and the foundation of that comes from having that strong 206
network around you, having those good partners that provide you with access to the 207
community, that provide you with knowledge. Partnership has been key. I would say 208
that partnership might be the biggest, the most important aspect of impact, successful 209
impact. Because it helps you with the right programming, it helps you with reaching 210
new audiences. You can send out all the emails you want and all the flyers you want but 211
then if you have someone else’s logo on there and that someone may know the partners 212
logo but may not be familiar with your logo, you get brand equity in that partnership. 213
Trustworthiness. So I would say that collaboration is probably the foundation for suc-214
cessful Civic Impact. 215
CK: Awesome. And do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards Opera Phil-216
adelphia's bottom line? If yes, why? 217
MB: Financially it has certainly helped, but I don’t think it is the reason why we do it. 218
Again, I think, it has helped us definitely with again some foundations that we may not 219
have had access to previously, and I think it is because they have liked what we have 220
done in the community. In some cases, you know, The Knight Foundation has been ex-221
tremely generous towards us because we did so spectacularly well for them with the 222
whole Random Acts of Culture initiative, I mean, we ended up getting around eleven, 223
twelve million hits on YouTube, which I don’t know any of the other organizations in 224
Knights network of those Random Acts ever even got closed to. So, from those Random 225
Acts of Culture videos, those flash mob videos, and they like what we are doing, so you 226
know we provided them with great success and they have been very amenable to our 227
ideas and quote on quote working with the winners so to speak without patting our-228
152
selves on the back to much. You know, again, it is a trustworthiness that comes back 229
and in a way a different kind of collaboration. 230
CK: Awesome. And do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Opera Phila-231
delphia's long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 232
MB: I think, in providing us with audiences it would be, you know, it is a huge oppor-233
tunity. In terms of philanthropy, it is not, I don’t think it will ever be the be all and end 234
all of sustaining an organization financially because too many people are too interested 235
in what happens on the main stage and on the production, but I do think it is a wonder-236
ful help, just in the community. I think communities feel pride around those arts organi-237
zations which they respect and admire. So, I think, in that way, the more engaged we are 238
the more civic support we have from John Q Public to John Q Politician, you know. I 239
think it helps spread that desire to see the company succeed. Again, of the city not 240
above the city. 241
CK: Great, ok. If you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strategy or 242
focus on it. Would you strive to create it and how? 243
MB: I would think, it has to come in phases. It has to be part of the equation but you 244
have to grow it as you grow your company. I think, if I am starting a new opera compa-245
ny, there’s got to be something that you offer for free to the entire community as just an 246
initial step, whether it is a summertime concert which is probably just as expensive as 247
doing an HD broadcast but it is finding ways to give back to the community. It is abso-248
lutely essential. I think I would probably start with a summertime concert or something 249
like that or an opening season concert that everybody would go to and then also doing 250
some sort of educational program for kids. That is essential, absolutely essential and 251
then move on from there. Is that enough? Do you need more of an answer than that? 252
CK: Yes, that is ok. Would you describe Civic Impact as a mayor mind change, mindset 253
change? 254
MB: You know what, it is funny because I have been with Opera Philadelphia since 255
2001, and I have been in program management since 2007, or so. And it’s taken, it has 256
been a journey with our board of directors, you know. I think in 2006, or so, 2007, it 257
may not have been as important but now our board feels that what we do in the commu-258
nity is one of the most important things that we do. And as a company seeing minds 259
change about how and what we do in the community, again, it is something that you 260
153
have to do, it used to be something that you have to do, but now it is something that is 261
absolutely embraced by every department in the company, artistic and production and 262
marketing and communications and every single segment of the company believes in 263
what we do and understands how important it is to make sure that we are doing this sort 264
of program. It has been a journey and after some lifting, it’s been, the past three, four 265
years, the board and staff and everybody has just been spectacular. Some of it has been 266
some changes in faces, in personalities within the company as we hired new people but 267
been a success though, yeah. 268
CK: Awesome. And so, throughout that development your mission probably changed 269
from just serving the audiences with your standard repertoire and everything on our 270
main stage to reaching as many people as possible? 271
MB: Yes! Again, I think it is looking at repertoire, it is doing, we are in the process of 272
creating a cabaret inspired opera about Andy Warhol that will premiere in September, 273
and we know that the audiences that are going to go to that, are definitely going to be 274
your edgier urbanites that would never come to see something like Traviata. And folks 275
that went to the Charlie Parkers Yardbird, I did the pre-performance talk and I always 276
took an unofficial survey how many people have never been to an opera before and 277
there were five, ten people sometimes that had never been to an opera before and this is 278
there first opera. Some people were going because it is Charlie Parker, some people 279
were going because it was a Jazz inspired opera or a Jazz infused opera. So, it is making 280
sure that the pieces you produce are also of interest to the entire community. So it is not 281
just activities, it is just as much on stage repertoire as well and developing that reper-282
toire, because sometimes it is not there. So we have Charlie Parkers Yardbird which is 283
this Jazz opera, you can say, ANDY – A Popera, which is a Cabaret inspired opera, we 284
have a couple of other things in the pipeline, one is a Gospel themed opera, and another 285
one is a Hip Hop based opera that stems from our Hip H’opera project with our kids, 286
there is a lot of stuff brewing. So, but it is all long-term strategy. 287
CK: So, if you would describe a successful season, what would mean success to you? 288
MB: Uh, is that the opera nerd in me talking, we would do Lulu, and we would do Be-289
atrice and Benedict, and we would do all this stuff that no one will ever come to see… 290
I’m kidding. It is really, I think for us, it would be one mayor piece in the Academy of 291
Music which is our largest performing facility which has 2500 seats in it, it would be 292
one very traditional production, it would be one sort of community inspired, community 293
154
embracing production in the Academy, it would be something a little bit edgier, maybe 294
a modern concept of a standard warhorse perhaps, and then it would be a series of 295
community concerts throughout the city, it would be a job shadowing program for teens, 296
and it would be our Opera on the Mall program with thousands attending an opera that 297
they would never come and see in an actual theatre, and some maybe viral component to 298
be determined that would allow people to engage with us through technology. 299
CK: Great. So it is far more than selling all your tickets and seats? 300
MB: oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 301
155
9.3.7. Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
Joe Gfaller, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Date: July 1, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ definition of Civic Impact? 1
JG: So, our, I might say vision instead of mission because we have a single mission for 2
the company, you can pull that off of the Opera Theatre website pretty readily, but so 3
the vision behind the community engagement, the Civic Impact that we do, is that we 4
believe that we are central to the cultural life of the community that we are apart of here 5
in Saint Louis, and as such we believe it is critical that the work that we do serve the full 6
Saint Louis region in as meaningful a way as possible. So that we are working toward 7
build an audience for opera and for our company that is reflective of the community that 8
we are apart of. 9
CK: I have a definition and I would like to hear your standpoint on it. Zachary Woolfe 10
defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion of opera compa-11
nies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community.” Do 12
you agree? 13
JG: I think that’s a reasonable definition. I mean, the term Civic Impact in opera is one 14
that has been promulgated largely through the good work of the people at Opera Ameri-15
ca. I think a lot of companies have been working to define our role in the community 16
and the way in which we impact and engage our community for quite some time but the 17
using this phrase of Civic Impact is, I think, a newer naming conviction than what or-18
ganizations have previously been using and people have been talking about economic 19
impact, they would talk about sustainability, they would talk about community engage-20
ment or things of that nature but as a meaning of describing Civic Impact that is fair. I 21
don’t know, while I think we do work focused on Civic Impact we don’t have set up 22
programs that we design as Civic Impact programs, we design them as the programs 23
that we have through which we impact our community and improve our communities. 24
So, I think that the company back of this, if you are looking particularly at that mission, 25
it is a new term and so that definition is one that is still being considered and as with 26
any term or buzzword surrounding sort of work that is done in any business sector, in a 27
few years we will be probably using some different words because that’s just the nature 28
of industry, businesses, of any sector. I wouldn’t get to tight up in that particular two 29
word phrase and what those two words specifically mean as much as being focused on 30
156
what is the nature of the work that one is doing in the community and how is that being 31
an advantage of the community that one is a part of. 32
CK: Ok. And would you say that Civic Impact is something that is an extension to your 33
mission or is it a core part of your mission? 34
JG: So again, that phrase, that is a new phrase, the definition of that phrase is one that is 35
going to continue to evolve over time. I would say that our focus on improving the qual-36
ity of life for the community in Saint Louis is central to what we do, whether you say 37
that and you say Civic Impact is central to our mission is a separate question because 38
Civic Impact is a really new concept. 39
CK: Ok. And for you for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis improving the lives of people in 40
Saint Louis would be your definition of Civic Impact for now? 41
JG: No, ensuring that our programs serve the greater good of the community that we are 42
a part of, I think might be a term that I would use to describe the community impact or 43
civic value we might bring but I don’t know that we as a company use that two word 44
phrase to mean a particular, to have a particular definition. It is new and it is something 45
that has been very well articulated very well by many wonderful people at Opera Amer-46
ica, Marc Scorca in particular, and is something that at the Marketing platform is talked 47
about a great deal as a concept but everyone executes that concept in and looks at it in 48
nuances based on who are the communities they are serving, how are they serving that 49
community and what it is that’s behind it, if it is, if the emphasize behind that service is 50
to sell tickets then it is probably not truly community engagement, it is probably not 51
doing Civic Impact, it is actually just doing sales or development. If the emphasis be-52
hind that is in fact to benefit your community through the resources that are available to 53
you as an opera company, then that is a different matter. I am not trying to avoid an-54
swering your question, I am just saying I don’t know there is an answer to how do we 55
define Civic Impact because we have not defined the Civic Impact term as part of our 56
business model, we have just do the work that we do that has an important community 57
impact and it is making our community, we hope and believe, a richer, stronger, better 58
place but we don’t have like a Civic Impact committee, we don’t have a department of 59
that, it is the work that is done by all in service to our community ultimately. 60
CK: Awesome. And Civic Impact is a term that is used a lot in your strategic plan, this 61
is why I was wondering if you have a definition. 62
157
JG: Right. And it is being used in, I am not sure how far back you have researched on 63
this, but it is about 18 months ago that the term was really introduced in a meaningful 64
way by Opera America to the field. So why it may be used in strategic plans right now 65
and certainly in our strategic plan, it is something that is a new naming thing that has no 66
mention in someone’s strategic plan that was written three years ago that covers five or 67
six years may not include that term even if the company is in fact doing that work be-68
cause the term is a new term. 69
CK: Absolutely. How does Opera Theatre of Saint Louis create Civic Impact? 70
JG: So, the nature of our core programming is not just to experience opera as an audi-71
ence member but connect community to the art form and to the artists who create the art 72
form. So everything that about what we do at Opera Theatre is tight to creating, building 73
those kinds of bridges and eliminating the preconceived notions or preconceived nega-74
tive stereotypes for what opera might be based on what people may have gotten through 75
third hand experiences or through other forms of, you know, popular culture or the lack 76
of direct experience. So before every performance we have a, we are a festival compa-77
ny, so before we have some very significant garden, flowering garden grounds in ad-78
vanced to each season we have a tent in our garden like Glyndebourne or like it is done 79
at the Santa Fe Opera, and we encourage our audience to turn up to performances early, 80
to picnic in the gardens beforehand, to connect with one another, to hear preshow lec-81
tures about the piece but to sort of experience opera in a casual, informal, inviting set-82
ting. So the first phase is community connecting with one another at the theatre, then 83
once the performance begins, that is community connecting to the art form and after 84
every performance all of our artists will come out and do Cocktails under the Starlight 85
and will mingle with their audience so that is then moving from community connecting 86
to art form to community connecting to artists and being able to build through that rela-87
tionships with these extraordinary singers that in some other environments, you know, 88
at some other companies, you might have to be a six, seven figure donor to get to have a 89
glass of champagne with Stephanie Blythe or Denyce Graves or someone like that but 90
that everyone in our community is talking about it to be present for that experience after 91
every single performance, in fact, we have some audience members, and members of 92
the community who simply come to part of the post-show, sort of open event with these 93
artists and they might may not even attend the opera that particular evening. So, that is 94
one aspect of what we do in sort of our core programming. 95
Have you been to our website or have you read our strategic plan? 96
158
CK: Yes, both. 97
JG: So, inside of that thing you will see a great deal of additional, sort of focused work 98
when it comes to improving the quality of lives in our community. Starting at very 99
young youth with various programs through our Education department such as Opera 100
on the GO! or some of our Opera Camps, moving to the next level, high school age we 101
have our Monsanto Artists-in-Training program which identifies through the top two-102
dozen or so high schools artists, singers in the Saint Louis region from all works of life, 103
provides them with voice lessons weekly for the year and allows the students to com-104
pete in two recitals, the second recital over 30,000 dollars in scholarship money is pro-105
vided, in the case of many of the winners of the scholarship and the winners of those 106
recitals, some of these young people who have never, who would be the first people in 107
their family to attend college, and people for whom the engagement with this music 108
curriculum that we provide comes helps to then carry them through some of the perhaps 109
rocks of their high school education. So we are sort of serving the community in that 110
way to engage the next generation of artists and inspire people to recognize that people 111
just like them could be the next generation of our artists. We further through our 112
Gerdine Young Artist program then do that at the professional level, singers who may be 113
just finishing their master degrees in voice, or something comparable where we have a 114
thousands applicants for this program, and of the thousand artists through a six cities 115
audition tour we will cast 33. This past year, at least, 33 singers took part in our Young 116
Artist programs. These young artists are then able to be deployed in our community in 117
different context, many of those young artists are in fact the artists that perform as part 118
of our Opera on the GO! program in schools, they may also be part of our programs like 119
Opera Tastings to the new series we did to sort of break down barriers and precon-120
ceived notions about opera in the Spring before the start of our season, we had a pro-121
gram called the Spring Sing! which brings together members of the community from 122
across the Saint Louis region to learn a few pieces of classic choral repertoire to then 123
perform in an kind of spontaneous and random act of beauty, it’s a spontaneous perfor-124
mance at a location in the Saint Louis region allowing these volunteer non-professional 125
singers to stand side by side with our professional company in performance and build-126
ing relations between the singers but also building relations with the community itself. 127
We impact our community through the extensive reach of our audiences from across the 128
globe, we have subscribers from Australia, we have ticket buyers from New Zealand, 129
from Thailand, from Germany, from Australia, from Britain, Costa Rica, etcetera and 130
the presence of all of those cultural enthusiasts are having a positive economic impact 131
159
on the community as well and of course the programs that we chose, the stories that we 132
chose to tell in our season are able to create a different kind of dialogue as well and we 133
are very focused on bringing new stories, contemporary stories that resonate with con-134
temporary culture to our audiences through the works that we do which is why we pro-135
duce operas such as The Death of Klinghoffer, and Nixon in China and Champion and 136
27. And in the season ahead a new Salman Rushdie opera called the opera Shalimar the 137
Clown, so that’s covered a lot of ground. 138
There is not one answer about how do we impact our community cause through every 139
program we do we hope that we have impact in our community. 140
Unlike a Lyric Unlimited or HGOco model we don’t have a kind of separate department 141
whose focus in on doing that sort of work, which is a separate brand from the Opera 142
Theatre brand, everything that Opera Theatre does in the community is Opera Theatre 143
Saint Louis, not a corollary side program of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. 144
CK: So it is part of your core brand what you do? 145
JG: Yes. 146
CK: And is it as relevant as your main stage season? 147
JG: Well, everything comes out of our main stage season. The Opera on the GO! pro-148
gramming is opera that is formed from your main stage season, the music that we per-149
form at the Spring Sing! responds to what we have done or are about to do in our main 150
stage season, our Opera Tastings features the artists which are on our main stage season 151
singing music from if not the exact opera they are performing in our main stage season, 152
from the composers period and style, in which they were set. When we do an opera like 153
Champion which was the true story of Emile Griffith, who was an Afro Caribbean wel-154
terweight world prize fighter who was gay and killed his opponent in the boxing ring on 155
national television on camera, and was in the closed because of the fact it was the 156
1960ies and he was one of the most important athletes in the country. When we tell that 157
story today we allow for that story to then create for power discussions, community 158
events, and other related programs to allow that the resonance of those, the events in the 159
opera, mean something meaningful our community today and create a different dialogue 160
in our community today. We will do the same thing with Shalimar the Clown which 161
deals with a man in Cashmere who basically becomes radicalized through very personal 162
events that occur in his life when an American ambassador steals his wife but ultimately 163
through the sort of global consequence to those actions, we will certainly have a conver-164
160
sation about that, about the intersection of faith and culture, about you know our pres-165
ence in the Middle East, the intersection between contemporary classical music and 166
traditional music from India and Cashmere, that’s all part of what we do. So, these are 167
not programs that are created separately for the sake of engaging the community, these 168
are extensions of the work that we do, that is central to the mission of the company. 169
We chose programs that we believe will resonate with our audience and our audience 170
includes people in the Saint Louis region as well as audiences from across the globe, so 171
we are mindful to program our work in a way that responds not just to the audience in 172
Saint Louis but people who may be choosing to travel here from New Zealand or Thai-173
land or anywhere else. 174
CK: What initiated Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ focus on Civic Impact? 175
JG: So, in its current form it linked to the arrival of our current general director Tim 176
O’Leary in 2008 certainly, but prior to his arrival we were doing, we took world premi-177
ered commissioned operas in the nineties and 2001, from Japanese composers once they 178
played here to Japan or we had taken work the Edinburgh Festival or any other sort of 179
ways which you could consider meaningful to Civic Impact both locally, nationally and 180
internationally but in its current iteration I think, we recognized in a very clear and di-181
rect way that for many classical music organizations that are seen to be paired aside in 182
the community that they are apart of, that the actual reach can be limited to your sort of 183
largely white, largely affluent, largely highly educated, where all those three things 184
overlap (…) that is in many cases the core audience. It is not the only audience for many 185
classical music, classical focused or more rarified arts organizations and we recognized 186
that in order for us to really serve the community that we are a part of, we need to move 187
beyond and past that and create an environment that is inclusive for all audiences in our 188
region but in order to do that we have to apply a higher level of intentionality because 189
for generations if you are a person of color in Saint Louis region, you might not per-190
ceived that you had been invited in the past to the work that we did, so, as we, I would 191
say there is a confluence of certain new staff and leadership roles on the general director 192
level and the marketing and public relations department as well as recognizing where 193
there were problems in our communities. And when we produced The Death of Kling-194
hoffer in 2011 there was an extraordinary positive responds from all aspects of the 195
community, particularly from faith communities across different faith backgrounds to 196
the fact that we did the work and created a level of dialogue we were able to create 197
about differences in faith and extremism because of the work and so having had that has 198
161
been successful and was a necessary project to do in order for that opera to be received 199
well in this community that we were able to then look at that model and see how we can 200
continue to improve and grow on it as we look at engaging audiences around other top-201
ics and other issues. 202
CK: Awesome, thank you. What were or are challenges? 203
JG: There are always challenges when you are trying to open doors or knock on doors 204
for the first time that have never been knocked on before. We worked very closely with 205
an organization called The Links which is an African American sororal organization and 206
held a special event with one of our artists in February 2012 as we began the season 207
with The Death of Klinghoffer and sort of the challenge in some cases is sort of building 208
trust from new subsectors of the community, so in that case we invited the three Link 209
chapters, each of these chapters are 150 people, so maximum we would have had 450 210
people at this events, we had RSVP at 215 or something like that and we generally as-211
sumed we were going to see a pretty significant no-show rate because it was a free event 212
that we were hosting, and just cocktails and some music, and we had almost every sin-213
gle person attend and everyone I spoke to at that event, I very sincerely said: “I am so 214
grateful for you taking the time to join us today and to be here at Opera Theatre.” And 215
they actually said back to me: “I am so grateful to you for actually inviting us because 216
we have never been invited before.” And that was true for us, I mean, they had never 217
been invited in the way that we invited them to this event for us, they are not invited to 218
the opera, to the symphony, to the art museum, to any of these mayor cultural institu-219
tions because I think there is a misconception that by doing mass marketing or sort of 220
broader community communications work that everyone is invited but when you have a 221
history of where individual groups may be not invited or less invited or not see them-222
selves to be invited, that you have to extend that extra effort in the first place. We had a 223
wonderful meeting with the CEO of the Urban League, Tim, the general director, and 224
myself, in my first six or eight months here, we just sat down to see what we would be 225
able to consider doing together, and he started the conversation very upfront and said: “I 226
have no idea why I am talking to anyone from an opera company but so and so, this 227
other person who encouraged us taking the meeting, so and so said that I should meet 228
with you and I am sure that they wouldn’t tell me to meet with you if there wasn’t a 229
good reason, so hopefully after this meeting I know why we are all here.” And by the 230
end of the conversation we had started to uncover some really positive opportunities for 231
quotes and working with that organization, but that is emphasis I think is usually the 232
162
largest perceived risk when people don’t, no one wants to feel that they are being 233
essentialized or being tendered to where we are doing this one project so we are going 234
to talk to you, we are doing a project that deals with, I don’t know, the immigration ex-235
perience in Mexico, we are not but let’s say we were, if we were doing that and that is 236
the first time that we were speaking to any people from the Latin American community 237
in Saint Louis, they would assume that we would just reaching out to them because we 238
had one show and we wanted to sell them some tickets and we weren’t going to talk to 239
them again until we did something else that we thought we needed them to buy tickets 240
to and so we try to very much avoid that model and see in conversation with leaders in 241
the community about how we can best partner and build relationships together rather 242
than just assuming here is something we are doing where someone of your cultural 243
background will be reflected, you should be interested in what we are doing, we are 244
trying to build relationships with the company, with the brand and then allow for the 245
programming itself to then further those relationships but not to tender by creating pro-246
grams for the sake of reaching an audience that we haven’t reached yet. 247
CK: Great. Thank you. Any other challenges? 248
JG: I would say that that’s the largest we have and retention. You know, once you are 249
building, beginning to create engagement with your community whatever that piece of 250
the community you are talking with if you are not able to provide sustainable experienc-251
es that are of the same quality and provide the same consistent benefit to anyone indi-252
vidual or any group of individual then you are not able to retain those relationships over 253
time. So making sure that it is not, that it is something of consistent focus and consistent 254
continued focus is critical and making sure that everyone on your team is aligned in that 255
agreement that people all realize the reason we are doing the work is for this broader 256
philosophical civic good reason rather than doing the work because we want to sell tick-257
ets to this one show or we happen to have a singer of this background so let’s tour them 258
around to meet other people who might look like them, that people get the big picture 259
view and it has to happen from the bottom and from the top-down. 260
CK: Awesome. Thank you. What would you name as positive, what would you name as 261
negative sides to your work with Civic Impact? 262
JG: I mean, I think the positive sides are pretty self-apparent, in seeing the engagement 263
from new audiences from different backgrounds and seeing the shift in which percep-264
tion of the brand might be understood by the community as a hole. Certainly in seeing 265
163
the success of those programs rewarded through continued support from funding agen-266
cies. 267
I’d say some of the potential negatives or risks are just if you don’t have that alignment, 268
the risk of there being potential conflict over why you are doing it, is this time well 269
spent? And all of that. And making sure that at the staff level, at the board level, at the 270
volunteer level, wherever it might be, that we are able to successfully, you know, create 271
that alignment. Without that alignment then you can have that risk of conflict or at least 272
of misunderstanding that may not be productive or helping and may take a while to re-273
solve. The other negative of course the more we can do the more staff you need in order 274
to do it well at the same level of excellence of everything else what you do. So, trying to 275
figure out when you hit that threshold where you do need to find additional resources in 276
order to make the work be successful, is always a challenge because we are a nonprofit 277
and no one wants to spent more than they need to spent in order to you know make sure 278
that we are using the generosity of our donors as effectively as possible and as wisely as 279
possible but figuring out at what point you are creating enough programs that it is not 280
sustainable to do these new programs with the existing staff that you have and that new 281
additional staff is required in order for other things that might be sort of core activities, 282
you don’t want the core activities to suffer because you are focusing on the community 283
engagement part. The work on stage will have to be excellent, you can’t let that suffer 284
because you are moving your resources towards finding new community partnerships. 285
CK: What are your lessons learned? 286
JG: I feel like I may have covered some of that as we’ve been talking but that you have 287
to start somewhere. I would say that the biggest challenge is just starting it. You just 288
can’t pick up the phone and start a conversation and determine how you can better be 289
serving the community, be a part of it not assuming that where you are is the be all and 290
end all of, you know, the potential of the organization. 291
CK: What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 292
JG: I’d say internal alignment, and authentic dialogue with your community. 293
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards OTSL’s bottom line? If 294
yes, why? 295
JG: Yes. Because it makes us a more meaningful organization for our community, it 296
builds audiences for the art form that we serve, it inspires philanthropy, it has a positive 297
164
impact to the earned revenue line, to the contributed revenue line, to the branding of the 298
organization and to the good will of our community surrounding who we are and why 299
we are relevant. 300
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards OTSL’s long-term sustaina-301
bility? If yes, in which regard? 302
JG: Yes. Everything I just said. 303
CK: Wonderful. And would you describe this focus on Civic Impact or civic engage-304
ment as a major mindset change? 305
JG: I think it has been an evolution rather than a major, sort of sudden, immediate 306
change, but that we have certainly been getting there over time and we will continue to 307
evolve as we understand our community better and the work with that we serve our 308
community but I would not say that it is like a light switch that is suddenly turned on 309
and we were doing it. We had always been doing it, the Monsanto Artists-in-Training 310
program that works with high school students, we are in our 25th year of doing. So, it is 311
not just like the term Civic Impact came up and we decided to create a program for high 312
school students that could make it possible for them to go to college that has always 313
been part of our mission. So, I would say it is a graduate evolution, it is not a sudden 314
shift. 315
CK: Ok. Awesome and if you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strat-316
egy or focus on it, would you strive to create it and how? 317
JG: I don’t think you can start a new company without simultaneously being focused on 318
the Civic Impact of that company within the community. 319
320
CK: So, you would strive to create it. And how would you do that? 321
JG: I would say it would need to be central to the creation of the company. I wouldn’t 322
create a company and then have Civic Impact. In order to create a company, find out 323
what the needs of the community are, how do you serve those needs and how can you fit 324
into whatever the necessary niche is to be successful. But you can’t be successful unless 325
you have these conversations inside your community, you can’t just have an idea to start 326
a company and then assume it will work because you have the idea, it has to come out 327
of the needs of the community you are a part of. 328
165
CK: Ok, and if we are talking about a company that has been around for ten years and 329
creates standard repertoire, and you would start there and they had no focus on it yet? 330
JG: Yes, for a company to have long term success it needs to be engaged in the fabric, 331
the cultural fabric and the civic fabric of the community that it is a part of. 332
CK: Ok, and how would you go about that? 333
JG: The same way that we, I mean, by connecting with members of the community and 334
learning and understanding what the needs of the community are and how the services it 335
already provides could benefit that community and determining how you can shift and 336
evolve the services you are considering providing in order to better meet the needs of 337
the community. 338
CK: Awesome. Thank you. Is there anything else you would like to add? 339
JG: I think we are good. 340
166
9.3.8. San Francisco Opera
Matthew Shilvock, Associate General Director
Date: July 1, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is San Francisco Opera's definition of Civic Impact? 1
MS: I think for us, it really is defined by those activities outside of the opera house that 2
give us a sense of presence and belonging in the community, and there are a number of 3
strategies or motivations behind that, ranging from developing pride within the city, 4
pride for the city, pride for the opera company and the arts, through generating audienc-5
es of the future or different audiences. Civic Impact has so many different facets to it. I 6
would say in general those activities outside the opera house, which give us a sense of 7
place in our community. 8
CK: Awesome, and then I have a definition that I would like to hear your standpoint on. 9
Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion 10
of opera companies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their 11
community.” Do you agree? 12
MS: It is interesting, I think. To tackle the social needs of a community is maybe a ra-13
ther lofty aspiration for an opera company. I think we can provide mechanisms for peo-14
ple to grapple with their own interpretation of social problems, I am not sure that we can 15
necessarily solve social problems; I think we can make for a better city with our impact. 16
I think it is a really fine line as to how one is interacting with the broader issues of soci-17
ety, I think, the arts are an incredibly profound prism through which one can understand 18
and therefore maybe have a deeper appreciation and understanding and maybe reconcil-19
iation of social issues. You know, I think of a city like San Francisco, which has such 20
deep social issues, and again, I think, the arts in general can make the city a stronger, 21
more empathetic place to be and live, whether we can actually solve those issues with 22
the arts I think is a slightly deeper question than I can … The meeting that we had at 23
Opera America, we definitely touched up on that and there are some opera companies 24
that are grappling with that and even go as far as put opera as a social service into their 25
mission statement. I think there was a splint of opinion as to how kind of concrete part 26
of the mission for an opera company that should be. I think that should be kind of deal-27
ing with the social issues as supposed to kind of stun the social issues. 28
CK: So, would you say Civic Impact is an expansion of your mission or an add-on or? 29
167
MS: I think, it is being a necessary expansion over the last forty years for an opera com-30
pany. I think largely as the necessary way to find voice and presence in a community 31
that one was used to take for granted somewhat. I think if you go back into the 1960ies, 32
70ies, and certainly before that then San Francisco Opera had a much more recognized 33
place in the community, I think, arts companies in general, they are having to fight for 34
that voice a little bit more, and I think that has driven a lot of these broader strategies 35
that many opera companies are now employing. 36
CK: Awesome. Thank you. How does San Francisco Opera create Civic Impact? 37
MS: A variety of programs. I’d say ranging from programs targeted towards audience 38
expansion of presence through to some of our Education programs, which I would in-39
clude in this. I think on more of the presence end of the spectrum, I would say, our flag-40
ship program, which is actually coming up in a few days, is Opera at the Ballpark pro-41
gram which we began nine years ago, eight years ago rather and that’s, we do a live 42
transmission of what’s on stage to AT&T Park, home of the Giants and we have… That 43
has become an incredible civic event in the cultural calendar of San Francisco. We get 44
an average of 27,000 people attending, the record we had was 32,000 and it is just an 45
amazing coming together, first of all, of sports and the arts which gives it a wonderfully 46
feeling to be in that stadium with so many people, all for free, and it also, I think, makes 47
one aware that opera has a huge currency and relevance, particularly if you put it into an 48
environment that is comfortable for people, so that is our flagship program, we also 49
have an extensive media capability in the opera house and so we also share four titles a 50
year on local public television, we have an average audience of about 30,000 per show, 51
and then we have other outdoor concerts as well but I think particularly with the simul-52
casts and the public television concerts we are able to share a lot with San Francisco 53
audiences who might otherwise not be able to attend the opera house. We know, kind of 54
getting to one of your later questions, we know that we get back a huge number of new 55
people attending the simulcast each year. We have added, over the years as we have 56
added, almost 60,000 new households to our database of people who have attended the 57
simulcasts, and so it has really been a powerful way for us to have a much deeper reach 58
into our community. So, that is our flagship program. On the Education side we have a 59
very interesting program that goes again very deep into the schools, we created it in 60
tandem with the San Francisco school district and we are in a number of classrooms 61
each week for about forty weeks a year, and so opera becomes really part of the curricu-62
lum, it is something that the children engage with on a very, very regular basis, they get 63
168
resources from the opera house in terms of professional visits, they create their own 64
operas, it’s interesting, going back to the social question, we see time and time again 65
children coming up with themes and issues for their own operas that do allow them to 66
grapple with and understand social issues. I went to a group of five little operas that had 67
been created by elementary school children, just a few weeks ago and out of the five, 68
two were about homeless issues and one was about this whole issue about the tech 69
community and the impact of the growing tech community on San Francisco. It was 70
very interesting to see the children had chosen very timely issues, very timely social 71
issues in San Francisco to tell that story through opera with. That is called our ARIA 72
project, arts resources in action, and it’s become a very well-respected program in terms 73
of how you can really have a meaningful impact on young children and use opera to 74
grapple with a whole bunch of different subjects, you know, we use opera as a lens for 75
math and science as well as languages and history and so forth. 76
So 77
CK: Awesome. And does Civic Impact come into consideration for planning your main 78
stage season? 79
MS: You know, certainly in terms of the ballpark that has to happen at a particular time 80
of year, give it the weather here, it is very weather dependent and the way our season 81
works we only have a very small period in which that can work, so we want to make 82
sure we have a good strong title for that, I think in more general terms we certainly 83
think about the diversity and the accessibility of a season and trying to find balance be-84
tween a season that will engage new audiences in the opera house and also delight the 85
hardcore subscribers. So yes, in the sense that we need to craft a season such that if as 86
the result of that Civic Impact outside the opera house we can get people to engage in-87
side the opera house, we have to make sure that the season is crafted in a way that 88
would be appealing to new audiences and existing audiences alike. 89
CK: And do you feel that you can create Civic Impact by just performing and presenting 90
your main stage work and classic, standard opera repertoire? 91
MS: Oh, well, you mean within the opera house, or? 92
CK: No, I mean within the city. If you go out and do these programs and you show … 93
repertoire-wise, my question is repertoire-wise. 94
MS: Oh, I see. I think one of the interesting things that is happening now, we are within 95
the next year developing a much smaller capability, a much nimble capability within, 96
we are developing a small 300 seat theatre in the building next door to us, because one 97
of the challenges we have and I think this is true of a lot of big American opera compa-98
169
nies, the house is so big, the repertoire has to be approached in a way that you have a 99
strong chance of filling a 3,000 seat house, and that can mean that you don’t have the 100
chance to engage in smaller, more nimble repertoire, so for the first time San Francisco 101
will now have a facility where we can do that and we can bring people in at a lower 102
price point, we can engage with more experimental works, maybe more socially con-103
nected works to the local community, in a way that you just can’t in a 3,000 seat opera 104
house. So, I think that is really going to really change the way that we can have a dy-105
namic around repertoire, and a kind of conversation around repertoire with the public, 106
so that is exciting. When we, San Francisco Opera is, David Gockley, our general direc-107
tor, he is being a champion of new American operas, has commissioned over his tenure 108
45 new works and those become great vehicles for a broader discussion and exploration 109
within the community and whenever we do one of these new works we develop a pro-110
gram of auxiliary events which exist around the community, we work with other partner 111
organizations to really kind of get into the, both the artistic but also the social fabric of 112
these works and try and provide very meaningful opportunities for the community to 113
engage with them outside of the opera house. So, I think, certainly when we do some-114
thing in the ballpark, you know, it is important that it will be a well-known title, that it 115
is accessible and comfortable, and will it help us bring together as many people as pos-116
sible to celebrate this art form in one place but on the other end of the spectrum when 117
we are doing brand new works, those really are often works that we can have a very 118
deep and meaningful social discussion on outside of the opera house, so just because 119
any of them are crafted around very contemporary themes. 120
CK: Awesome. Thank you. And then what initiated San Francisco Opera's focus on 121
Civic Impact? 122
MS: I think, again, to some degree, Civic Impact has been a growing thing, not only in 123
America but certainly in San Francisco over a number of decades, and again, I think for 124
many opera companies it has been, it is often triggered by, probably back in the 70ies 125
and 80ies triggered by the reality that you couldn’t just do it and they come anymore, I 126
mean San Francisco Opera back in the 70ies, did not have a marketing department, did 127
not have a development department, you know, it just had a box office that processed 128
subscriptions requests for people who automatically came every year, so I think, once 129
you get into the 80ies and you get into a period where opera really has to prove itself 130
much more, it can’t just take it all for granted. I think, you see, the beginning of these 131
strategies emerging. In the past ten years for us, I mean it was very important when Da-132
170
vid Gockley took over San Francisco Opera, that he give it a much more public sense of 133
ownership from the city that this needed to be a company that with the pride of the city, 134
it was not just for the people who were coming as a whole the answer needed to be ac-135
cessible, you know, and he had championed those strategies beforehand, so I think for 136
us the development of the media suite, the development of the new Education program, 137
those were all important hallmarks of David coming in and really wanting to make a 138
strong impact in that area and wanting to knock down the walls of the opera house in 139
terms of bring opera to a much greater civic audience. 140
CK: Awesome. Thank you. And what are, what were challenges? 141
MS: I think for the simulcast, we did not begin those at AT&T Park, we began at the 142
civic center, on the other side of city hall, with a, everything was brought in from 143
scratch, I think, we did two of those and we realized just how expensive and challenging 144
it can be to create those events from scratch, so certainly being able to find partnership 145
with the San Francisco Giants was an important learning process for us how to make 146
these more accessible and I think also just having a very known venue in San Francisco, 147
a venue where people congregate by the tens of thousands anyway and that is set up to 148
deal with that, the parking and concessions, and all of those things that is, that was an 149
important development for us. I think in our Education programs the Opera Guild, 150
which is a partner organization of ours, has had Education programs and still do, so that 151
was an issue working with them to try and make sure that our new programs existed in 152
good collaboration with it, but I think we worked through that well with them and main-153
tained a good sense of partnership. I think, on the Education front one of the challenges 154
is when you go deep in a program, - you are going to go deep or broad generally in an 155
Education program, you can either service a lot of people very briefly, you know, one or 156
two visits or you can put a lot of visits into a smaller group, maybe because we were 157
able to work with the opera guild whose programs do reach a lot of people, we were 158
able to take the luxury of going deep in our programs. And I think those programs now 159
reach a level of maturity, we now need to understand what kind of long-term impact 160
they are having. What does it mean to spent an entire year in a classroom talking about 161
opera, what kind of benefits approve from that, are they lasting benefits, are they mean-162
ingful benefits, so I think there is certainly a question of evaluation there. And some-163
thing that we plan to build into again other programs that reach their maturity but it is 164
certainly a question of evaluation and the measuring success of these programs can be a 165
challenge for companies, particularly for the broader public programs where you don’t 166
171
necessarily know your audience, you know, our pubic television programs we don’t 167
know, we know what the ratings tell us in terms of how many people are watching but 168
we don’t know who those people are because it is a one way delivery system, and I 169
think that has been true for a lot of programs that arts companies do outdoor concerts 170
and so forth, where one hopes that you are having meaningful impact, you can measure 171
it in some second or third hand ways but it can be tricky to really grapple with, the im-172
mediate value of a particular program over another program, making sure that you are 173
applying your resources most correctly. Which is where the Ballpark simulcast has had 174
a particularly strong benefit because we have been able to measure that impact, we have 175
been able to get into the data for that in a way that we have never been able to before to 176
that level of detail, and I can talk a little bit about that if you’d like? 177
CK: Yes, please. 178
MS: So, when we went to the Ballpark first in 2007, we had never done it there before, 179
we had to deal with the Baseball team in terms of staffing, and determining how many 180
of their paid staff would needed to be hired, and so forth, and so we realized that we had 181
to really get a sense of how many people were going to show up, again all the other 182
stuff we do, outdoor concerts and talks, it doesn’t really matter how many people show 183
up, when we started this Ballpark thing we suddenly needed a much more accurate head 184
count, so we worked with the Giants and developed a sign up system that, again its free 185
so you don’t have to sign up and you don’t have to pay certainly, but most people, we 186
encourage people to sign up and most people do, and that has been a value that has been 187
given us not only the headcount but also the details about the individual patron, we then 188
put that into our bigger database system that we use for ticketing and donations, we can 189
measure how many new people we have, how many people are returning, how many 190
people are going to buy tickets and so forth and so we know that, - I haven’t seen the 191
data in a while but I would imagine that over these simulcasts we have now brought in 192
probably close to 2.5 million dollars in ticket sales, from people who were new to the 193
opera through the simulcast and we can see, there is a nice flow of people who keep 194
coming back, and eventually start subscribing. It is certainly not everybody, it is only a 195
portion of the people that is absolutely fine, we are not doing these to sell tickets neces-196
sarily but it is nice to know that a decent proportion of the people attending they do go 197
on and are inspired to have more interaction with us. So that has been a powerful base 198
that we have been able to build up over the last seven years and again, it gives some 199
confidence that we, you know, it is a valuable strategy. Both from just saying we have 200
30,000 people attending but also we are incentivizing some of those people to come into 201
172
the opera house and some of them become subscribers. So, it lets you know that you are 202
having certainly an impact in terms of your ability to inspire people with the art form. 203
CK: Awesome. And so it actually works for you? Because other companies like Opera 204
Philadelphia with their Opera on the Mall program, they do not get people come to the 205
opera house from that … It is interesting. 206
SM: Yeah, you know, it is interesting that since we started out, it has led to a number of 207
other companies doing these which is wonderful and each company needs to look at 208
them differently, you know in terms of how many people you are going to track, and the 209
behavior of those people afterwards. I think, it is just something very San Franciscan 210
about this event, it is something that works and resonates, I think the location is good 211
for us, I mean Philadelphia is certainly in a good location too but you know, some of 212
these companies doing it are doing it in locations that are ten miles out of the city, in 213
more remote locations, that certainly has an impact, I think. For us the stadium is very 214
centrally located, so I am not sure why we have such success in terms of box office 215
transfer but we seem to have done, you know, is given a very nice ticket offer to patrons 216
at the ballpark, so for a very time-limited period we do a fifty per cent off ticket offer 217
which certainly helps to get past the big price hurdle for people, I am not sure if other 218
companies do that or not but we certainly found that helps, but we also early on decided 219
that we would really invest in marketing for this. When we were doing simulcasts in 220
Houston there was much more fear of cannibalization that the people would come to the 221
simulcast and not buy tickets to the opera and that is certainly a valid concern but it 222
tends to lead to being a little bit shy about marketing because you don’t want to over-223
play the simulcast out of that fear. When we came to San Francisco, particularly when 224
we came to the ballpark we realized, you know, this had to become a big and celebrato-225
ry event and so we did and we continued to market these quite aggressively, you know 226
with big bold city marketing. So we have pole banners, bus shelters, we really don’t shy 227
away from getting as much exposure for it as possible, we have never found that to be a 228
cannibalizing effect, in fact we often found that the extra marketing for the simulcast 229
has helped that show in general just in terms of awareness. So, again, for us it has been 230
a very complimentary activity for what we do elsewhere and again I think the other 231
companies it is the kind of thing that is very effective by location and by the attitudes 232
and the kind of approach of a particular city and just as much the company. 233
CK: Awesome, then my next question would be what would you name as positive sides 234
to San Francisco Opera's Civic Impact work, and negative sides? 235
173
MS: Well, I think, positive is that if it is working well then it reinforces opera and San 236
Francisco Opera in particular as a valid means of cultural expression whether you attend 237
in the opera house or you are aware of us through another medium outside of the opera 238
house, that we can have impact in people’s lives and in how they view the city and how 239
they themselves use art to enjoy life, to understand life, to come together as communi-240
ties. If Civic Impact is working well for us then we become a participant in the life of a 241
city and in the life of the individuals within that city, we become part of the vibrant fab-242
ric that is San Francisco. 243
A negative, I am not sure it is really a negative so much as a thirty, forty year phenome-244
non of opera companies and arts companies in general, having to add more layers to 245
create that kind of awareness, every year we go a little deeper or do more extensively, 246
we add new, more added functionality in the opera house, whether back in the 70ies that 247
was a marketing department, or now a media department, one is adding layers to the 248
structure of arts companies in order to create that kind of awareness which back in the 249
pre-1980ies could somewhat be taken for granted. So, I think that obviously adds to the 250
cost structure of companies, it adds to the complexity of companies, it is a reality that 251
we have to deal with but I think that goes back to the question of evaluation, making 252
sure that you are using those resources in the most impactful way possible, that can be 253
tricky for opera companies or arts companies in general because particularly through 254
these broader civic programs you don’t always have the luxury of measuring like we do 255
the Ballpark simulcast. I think that it is important that companies think about measure-256
ments and evaluations and don’t become to attached to a civic program such that they 257
are afraid to cancel it. We have to figure out how to place our resources most impactful. 258
CK: Awesome, thank you. And then what are your lessons learned? 259
MS: I think, a couple of things for me personally. One of it is, that kind of profound 260
understanding and appreciation that, you know, when I go to these Ballpark simulcasts 261
and I see that many people wrapped in attention to the screen, they are not, they can get 262
up, they can go and get food, they can walk around, they can be on their cellphones, 263
they can do whatever they want but they, it is amazing how focused people are when the 264
opera is on the screen. It speaks to me hugely about the inherent power that opera has as 265
a medium of cultural expression and emotional expression and again, we worry a lot in 266
this business about relevance and you know, are we still relevant as an art form and we 267
appeal to a smaller group of people, et cetera, the Ballpark simulcasts to me are great 268
evidence to me to the contrary that you know if you can create a comfortable environ-269
174
ment for people to see what we do and you remove the barriers of price, and location 270
and time and so forth, we still have huge connection to a very significant audience and 271
we can have a very moving and emotional impact on that audience. I am not sure about 272
a lesson learned so much as but I think it is a realization of just how profound our art 273
form can be. And I think to some degree the same is true of the Education program I 274
mentioned in terms of just seeing how deep that impact can be and the kinds of qualities 275
and attributes you see coming out of those children. So, I think that’s not a scientific 276
take away but it is certainly the more time I spent with these programs the more I see 277
what they develop and you just see how much impact we can have on individuals as 278
well as the broader community. I think we learned a lot of lessons, more specific lessons 279
along the way with our simulcasts and how best to do them, how you have to be careful 280
with repertoire choices, as I said before, you really need to pick that repertoire judi-281
ciously if you are going to fill a stadium of that size and I think it is one of the lessons 282
we are now learning, which is I haven’t really touched on it, how do we engage with the 283
meteoric rise in San Francisco of this new tech audience, I mean, there is a huge explo-284
sion of activity happening now in San Francisco with many tech companies moving into 285
San Francisco proper, up from the Peninsula, in the South part of San Francisco, and 286
you know, the rate of population explosion in San Francisco is incredible and there is a 287
lot of new money flowing into the city, there is a lot of new people flowing into the city 288
and how can we best have a relationship with those people and how, the headquarter of 289
Twitter is now two blogs from the opera house, how can we become part of that world 290
and how can they become part of our world, and I think that is where we are learning a 291
lot of our lessons at the moment is what works and what doesn’t work there. So that is 292
an exciting new chapter for us with Civic Impact because that demographic is changing 293
incredibly rapidly. The pace of change there is just exponentially. That is both a chal-294
lenge and an opportunity for us. 295
CK: Awesome, thank you. What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 296
MS: I think, the simulcast again that is very measurable, it is very self-evident how that 297
is successful or not in term of numbers of repeated attendance, the number of total at-298
tendance, we can measure that easily. I think, the sense of the excitement level around 299
San Francisco Opera as a company, is maybe kind of the key metric there, in terms of 300
exactly how you are measuring that we are still grappling with that, we are still defining 301
of how one measures that, in terms of social media presence and activity and so forth, 302
but I think that that somewhat broad notion of the level of excitement for the opera 303
175
company in general, how many people in the city can you talk about the opera company 304
to, or have even heard of us, how many people would drive by the opera house and have 305
a sense of pride and connection to the building. We need to develop the metrics that will 306
help us understand that better, but that is that kind of level of fundamental civic pride 307
that I think needs to be the measure of civic success. I mean, you look at a sports team 308
and how they do that particularly the Giants coming out of two World Series champion-309
ship wins in the last four years, I mean they have been able to craft a very powerful kind 310
of building of civic pride within the San Francisco community because of their success 311
and they have been able to transfer that into a great sense of civic pride and presence, 312
you know, they have advertisements, which have the tagline “We are San Francisco. We 313
are Giant.” It is a little easier for a sports team that attracts 40,000 people every game to 314
have that kind of civic pride but I think it is that level of excitement where whether you 315
actually go to a Giants game or not you are excited they are in San Francisco. For us 316
that is the measure of success, you know, how many people feel proud that we exist in 317
their community, whether or not they actually come to a performance. And again, the 318
measurements for that are not easy but I think that is the kind of foundational measure 319
of success. 320
CK: Awesome and do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards San Francis-321
co Opera's bottom line? If yes, why? 322
MS: I do in the sense that if we don’t have that pride of presence in the city then we 323
don’t exist. We need to again prove we have value for the city and the people of the 324
city. It is getting increasingly complicated to get to the opera, just logistically, it is park-325
ing garages are getting turned into apartment buildings, and you know, traffic is horren-326
dous and it is simple and kind of boring logistical things are things that are becoming 327
quite critical to us now, so I think the bar is getting higher and higher to prove to people 328
that we are worthy of their participation, whether it is in the opera house or at another 329
venue or in another fashion. So, I think without civic participation, you know, as broad-330
ly defined I think we quickly lose that mandate to exist in the community and certainly 331
exist at the level that we do now. So, I think yes, it is critical to the bottom line, compa-332
nies cannot afford not to do this, the question is how do you do it most effectively and 333
efficiently and impactfully but we have to be doing this. 334
CK: And then, do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards San Francisco 335
Opera's long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 336
176
MS: I mean again, it is similar to the last question in that regard that again we have to 337
have a very positive civic contact with the community. We have to prove that we de-338
serve a place in people’s lives whether that is as a popular point in the city or as a place 339
where one goes for entertainment, we have to prove that I think. Certainly the Education 340
programs we are doing, we do hope have long-term measurable impact in terms of cre-341
ating not only citizens that have great positive attributes as results of including opera 342
into their curriculum but also do they see opera as a viable part of their entertainment 343
spectrum and may go to it. I think that is for us an important part of the Education pro-344
grams is creating lifelong curiosity for what we do as a company and as an art form. 345
Any entertainment company now has a huge challenge of finding a voice amongst all of 346
the noise of so many other entertainment options, I don’t think that is going to get any 347
easier, so we certainly have to keep getting cleverer and cleverer at how we make that 348
presence. I think opera has a unique set of possibilities as an art form that is reaching 349
deep into people’s emotions and it is such a multimedia art form where we do have pos-350
sibilities that we can exploit, continue to exploit to have the impact that we need to 351
have. 352
CK: Awesome, thank you. Then my last question would be, if you start at a new opera 353
company with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, would you strive to create it and 354
how? 355
MS: Good question. I mean, I think, most companies would have some kind of Civic 356
Impact, I think that maybe now, they may need adjustments but probably there will be 357
some basis, I think, it is very important to understand the city and to take time to under-358
stand the city and what the city needs and again as I think we talked about with the sim-359
ulcasts and the variety of approaches to simulcasts, although one could take the basic 360
concept and apply it, it needs to be applied in a very nuanced way that’s reflective of the 361
city which you are trying to serve. That is true of simulcasts or Education programs or 362
media activity, or you know, auxiliary programming. I think you have to stand back and 363
do an audit of what is going on in the city, who are the partners, because a lot of the 364
stuff whether it is working with the baseball team, or working with the library or a mu-365
seum, you need partnerships to do it with who you need to legitimize the power of other 366
organizations who are essentially giving you a stamp of approval by partnering with you 367
and I think, you know, that is, developing those partnerships, first understanding how 368
you can have that essential legitimacy in the community. We developed a nice partner-369
ship with the San Francisco Interfaith Council and on the basis of that partnership we 370
177
are able to work with them on an Interfaith Concert commemorating the tenth anniver-371
sary of the 9/11 Attacks that was only possible because of the relationships that we had 372
build up with them as a partner organization. I think as we did certainly with our Educa-373
tion programs, you have to step back, listen to people, let people tell you what the city 374
needs, and how the opera company can fit into that before you start applying strategy 375
that may have worked in one city and that may have good validity in another city but 376
may need to be approached differently, it may need to be applied differently, and then 377
of course the resource allocation, and how much resources one can generate, I mean, we 378
are in the luxuries position to be able to afford the kind of media work that we do that is 379
certainly not available to all companies but so, yes, I think, the important thing is to 380
listen, to reflect and to develop partnerships and then from that will come the programs 381
that will make sense in that community. 382
CK: Awesome. So you would describe it as an important part of a company’s mission 383
and job? Civic Impact? 384
MS: I do. I think it is becoming more into it, I think it is becoming less something that 385
happens up on the side, and more something that defines who you are and what your 386
brand is as well. I think those things all become intertwined. How the community as a 387
whole sees a company is very tied to how individual ticket buyers might see the compa-388
ny as well, the company is going to have a sense of brand and presence that is expressed 389
both to the consumer, the paying consumer as well as the person who is just hopefully 390
proud to have an opera company. I think those things become much less peripheral for 391
companies and much more central. 392
CK: Is there anything else you would like to add? 393
MS: I think that is a good sense of where we are at with it. 394
CK: Maybe one last question, what would you define as a successful season? 395
MS: On the main stage? 396
CK: For San Francisco Opera. 397
MS: But particularly on the main stage, or? 398
CK: No, just a successful year for San Francisco Opera, not just on the main stage. 399
MS: That is a good question. I think it is a season in which we can across as much activ-400
ity as possible excite, delight and engage people. I think certainly what we are seeing 401
this summer on the main stage with Le Trojan, Two Women and Figaro is being one of 402
those blocks in time that really across the border has done all of those things, it has cre-403
178
ated huge excitement, including that kind around the community for us doing Trojans 404
and the sheer size and scope and emotional power of these, it has been really impactful. 405
And I think when you feel like everything is just resonating with that level of excite-406
ment and awareness, you feel very alive as a company. And again, we will see that on 407
Friday, the signups for the Ballpark this Friday is bigger than it has ever been I think 408
and to be able to share that with the city on the holiday weekend, on the July Fourth 409
weekend, and to be a part of the city’s celebration, I mean it will be a way to cap off an 410
very exciting season but I think, you know when you found works that have reached 411
audiences in a powerful way and like The Trojans people are coming back for two, 412
three, four, five, six performances, in a way that I have never ever seen before. So, you 413
kind of get the sense of the measure of excitement for the community both internally 414
and externally, for what we are doing and you have a strong sense of when that is all 415
working and you are resonating with people on a very profound way. 416
CK: Awesome, thank you. 417
179
9.3.9. Houston Grand Opera
Brittany Duncan, HGOco Programs Director
Date: July 6, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Houston Grand Opera's definition of Civic Impact? 1
BD: Well, I would hesitate to speak on behalf of the Houston Grand Opera. I don’t want 2
to tell you this is the company’s definition but one of the things we talk about a lot is 3
seeing the opera house as a cultural resource for the city of Houston. And I think what 4
that means is we are filling a need for the community in the same way that you know 5
other service organizations do for the community. You know, what we do is not only 6
bring people to the opera house but also go out into the community and a large part of 7
what we do that is different is putting things on the stage that directly reflect the way 8
that people live in Houston. So that is the difference involved that people can come to 9
one of our performances and see their lives on stage not just La Boheme and Tosca and 10
all those wonderful works that are also relevant in different ways but in more of a direct 11
relevance in terms of our programming. 12
CK: Awesome. Ok. I do have a definition that I would love to hear your standpoint on. 13
Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion 14
of opera companies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their 15
community.” Do you agree? 16
BD: Yeah, I mean I think that is right. Socioeconomic is a challenging thing to tackle 17
and there are different ways to tackle it but cultural needs of the community absolutely. 18
I think both are true, tackling the cultural needs is the more obvious one. 19
CK: And would you describe it as an expansion of your mission, an add-on or is it part 20
of your core mission? 21
BD: I think it is part of the core mission. HGO’s sort of three tenures are Excellence, 22
Affordability/Accessibility, and Relevance. And so that definition touches on both rele-23
vance and accessibility/affordability. 24
CK: Awesome, great. How does Houston Grand Opera create Civic Impact? 25
BD: Well, as you probably know, I work in HGOco, which is our department within the 26
company that connects HGO with the community through different partnerships and 27
cooperation. So, we do all sort of different programs, we have a children’s touring opera 28
called OPERA to Go! that goes out to schools and community centers and reaches just 29
180
about 50,000 students every year and we go into classes and do different things in the 30
classroom. 31
The program I am most involved in is called Song of Houston and that is about partner-32
ing with different community organizations to create new works that reflect the spirit of 33
Houston. We are right now creating a veterans songbook project, we are working with 34
veterans service organizations to facilitate storytelling and writing workshops for veter-35
ans and composers are involved in that and composers set the stories to music and we 36
have this little songbook that sort of reflects the different veterans experiences, which 37
has been very awesome. We just got that started last fall and it is going to go on for two 38
more years. This fall also we are doing an opera called O Columbia, which was inspired 39
by interviews with folks at the Johnston Space Center, with scientists and astronauts and 40
engineers who told us all sorts of cool things about NASA and about their personal ex-41
periences and that became this chamber opera that we are going to perform in Septem-42
ber. So, hearing stories, reflecting them back in music and then providing an opportuni-43
ty for a community to come together around that creative work. 44
CK: Awesome and where do you perform these? 45
BD: All over the city, some of them at the Wortham Theater Center, which is our home 46
base. We do performances in veterans’ homes, in community centers, in schools, in li-47
braries, in other organizations like the Asian Society in Houston has a wonderful audito-48
rium that we have performed in. So anywhere, really. 49
CK: And who do you use to perform them? 50
BD: Different artists, mostly Houston based, we sort of work with a bunch of mostly 51
emerging artists ad them in our upcoming O Columbia, the space opera, the principals 52
will be sung by our Artist Studio, our young artists training program. 53
CK: And how does the audience or community participate in creating these works? 54
BD: Mostly through workshops in terms of the ones we just talked about like the Veter-55
an Songbook, through workshops and interview sessions and initial research. So for O 56
Columbia we did an initial visit to NASA, we did follow-up calls with different people, 57
we then did a libretto workshop where we invited a lot of the people back, we invited 58
everyone and a lot of them came to hear the text of the work and then share their reac-59
tions and questions and then we just did a music workshop in the late spring, and many 60
people came back to that and were able to check-in with us at that point. We are build-61
ing in stops along the way for them to come back together and reconnect over the piece. 62
CK: Awesome. And who composes these pieces? 63
181
BD: Different composers, for the Veteran Songbook we are working with all sorts of 64
Houston based composers, O Columbia is written by Gregory Spears who lives in New 65
York and librettist Royce Vavrek who is also New York based, the next piece in our 66
series will be by David Hanlon who lives in Washington DC and the libretto is by 67
Stephanie Fleischmann who lives in New York, so there are all over. 68
CK: Awesome. So you fly them in, introduce them to the community, have dialogue, 69
create the work, and then present it to them and work with them in that way, right? 70
BD: Exactly, and then we often offer some sort of talk-back or session after the per-71
formance to sort of close the loop and let everyone be heard at that point. So it is an 72
interesting cycle in terms of listening and then creating something and then listening 73
again and it is just sort of constantly ongoing, it is always good to have that final check-74
in after the performance. 75
CK: What initiated Houston Grand Opera's focus on Civic Impact? 76
BD: I don’t know exactly. HGOco was created in 2007, and it was the creation of sever-77
al people in leadership, Anthony Freud was the General Director at that time, Patrick 78
Summers who is now our Artistic Music Director, was also involved in the creation as 79
well, and Sandra Bernhard was brought in to lead this program. So where that specific 80
idea came from, I couldn’t say but I am sure there is an article about it that is floating 81
around on the web somewhere. But obviously it makes sense if you want to be a con-82
temporary opera company in a changing city like Houston, you want to find a way to 83
really become part of the civic fabric, you know, to stay connected with what is actually 84
going on in the city. 85
As you probably know, Anthony Freud left Houston for Chicago and started Lyric Un-86
limited there, which takes a very similar approach. 87
CK: Awesome. And what were or are challenges? 88
BD: Oh god, there are so many challenges. You know, one of the things that is chal-89
lenging is that in choosing a specific community, a specific section of the community to 90
connect with, you are making a deep connection with that group but you are potentially 91
excluding other groups. It is hard to be everything to everybody, you know, we have 92
done projects we had a East + West series of chamber operas. There were eight, each 93
one sort of focusing on a different Eastern country and people from that country who 94
had immigrated to Houston, and it was sort of about their journeys, about what their 95
lives were like in Houston and sort of cultural challenges they were facing. And that 96
182
was really cool. I came in right at the end of that and the first two shows that I worked 97
on were the opera River of Light, which was focused on India, and Bound, which was 98
focused on Vietnam. And that was really neat, I got to meet all sorts of awesome people 99
from the Vietnamese American community in Houston and Indian American communi-100
ty but it is kind of limited, there is a fine line between focusing and being something 101
that everyone can be part of, you know, focusing on a specific community and finding 102
something that touches people more broadly. And I think what is interesting to see is 103
what happens with an opera project, that is a different type of community. So, that is 104
one challenge. Another challenge is continuing the engagement with these groups over 105
time, you know, it is we are building these relationships and you don’t want to let that 106
go, so it is how do you stay connected and engaged with people after that project is 107
done. 108
CK: Awesome. Thank you. Any other challenges? 109
BD: Oh, there are so many challenges but I think those are the big ones. The third one is 110
just talking about what we are doing. It is hard to explain this in one sentence. You 111
know, it is a difficult thing. We try really hard not to use the words Education or Out-112
reach, but it is hard to tell people what this is without going near those words. Because 113
those are the words that people understand but it is not truly what we are trying to do. 114
CK: So, do you have an answer yet? What are you trying to do? 115
BD: Well, the quick answer is HGOco connects the company to the community through 116
collaboration but that requires further explanation, you know what I am saying. That is 117
not everything you need to know and of course there is a billion different ways to do 118
this. That’s the best we got for now. 119
CK: What would you name as positive, what would you name as negative sides to Hou-120
ston Grand Opera's Civic Impact work? 121
BD: I don’t really think there are any negatives to this kind of work. I think it is really 122
important. Obviously I would say that because I do it all day but I think it is one of the 123
best ways that we can remain connected in an authentic way with our community. Posi-124
tives, yeah, connecting, it offers a lot of opportunities also in terms of logistics to work 125
with lots of composers than we would normally and to explore different subjects and to 126
really sort of push the art form in terms of this process, of feedback and interviews, and 127
I would say we are creating something really cool that will hopefully you know become 128
more mainstream over time. 129
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CK: And what is the effect on Houston and the communities that comes out of your 130
Civic Impact work? 131
BD: I think it is just this awareness and the sense of connection and sense of belonging, 132
you know that people feel like HGO is a place where they belong, where their stories 133
can be told, and that the opera really is an important part of Houston. You know, it is 134
something that is contemporary and relevant to the people in Houston. 135
CK: Awesome. And what are your lessons learned? 136
BD: Lessons learned. Apart from the drill of things, this is work that is very time con-137
suming, it is building relationships from scratch and doing it in a very believable way. I 138
sent out a lot of emails to people and I am constantly trying to update different constitu-139
ents on these projects, it feels very handcrafted for every one of these projects. It is 140
made by this group of people and just sort of the art of building that community around 141
the work and bringing them into a work has been really an interesting challenge, I am 142
continually trying to do it better, I think, one of the big questions is in terms of all of our 143
programming, is breadth of programming versus the depths of programming, and find-144
ing the balance between reaching as many people in Houston as we can on an annual 145
basis, which is obviously valuable, and having a sort of sustained engagement with as 146
many people as we can, which takes a lot of time and organization and you have to be 147
really strategic about it. You can’t have a sustained relationship with everyone. So find-148
ing that balance has been a learning experience. 149
CK: And do you have a solution for it? How do you create sustained engagement? 150
BD: Yeah, I mean, we do that through like I said earlier, I think, the key is keeping the 151
engagement going on when the project is over, but I think in terms of what during the 152
project works is we have a good of sort of way of building that engagement but it is 153
always a challenge, you know, you can’t do everything. And you must know, because 154
you probably do a lot of things. We just can’t have ten three-hour sessions with every 155
child, every student in Houston, we just have to sort of find the best fit for having these 156
impacts more broadly and that is why we are shooting for the bigger picture. I think it is 157
looking at the bigger picture and just trying to give that balance in the best way that we 158
possibly can. You can always do more, that is a challenge. 159
CK: Yes. How do you come up with these themes and topics to create work around? 160
BD: Different ways, we have a close interaction with the Mayor’s office, and I know 161
that a lot of the Eastern countries and connections for that East + West project came out 162
of the connection with some of the offices like International Affairs or whatever in the 163
184
Mayor’s office. But the things sort of come up organically, or we for to someone like 164
that and we tell them what we were thinking about and ask them what are the topics in 165
the city, what are the trends, what groups is the mayor focusing on? So, it is a little bit 166
of everything. 167
CK: How do you evaluate if your projects are successful? 168
BD: That is a very good question. We do lots of surveys. But it is really not about filling 169
out those surveys, it is more about the number of people that were part of the project in 170
sort of a qualitative evidence that we have about, if the people, you know, the three 171
women who drove from Boston to attend one of the Vietnamese operas last year. “We 172
heard about this and we just had to come.” And then there was a girl who came and 173
said: “You know, I did not know what this was going to be but that is my life and that is 174
my story on the stage.” It is things like that where as many number as we can chart out, 175
it doesn’t have the same impact when these projects are affecting someone’s life. And 176
you know, I am not a scientist but for me that is what measures the impact of the pro-177
ject. 178
CK: What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 179
BD: Listening. You have to listen to people and reflect what they say to the best of your 180
ability. It is easy to have a preconceived notion of what people want to say or who peo-181
ple are but it is really all about listening and trying to understand. 182
CK: Awesome and from an organizational standpoint? 183
BD: Also listening. We are really all about collaboration and to be a good collaborator 184
you have to listen. You have to be really aware of the other party’s needs and sort of 185
where they are. So, I think, that is really important. Otherwise, just having the support 186
form the whole company for this work is important. HGOco is in a unique position be-187
cause it was created as a new enterprise, it has a different name, and I think that that has 188
helped make it more a part of the company and less an offshoot of the Education de-189
partment or wherever else projects would live in other companies. But just getting the 190
buy-in from the rest is really important. 191
CK: And how does HGOco relate to the rest of the company and the work you create? 192
BD: We are definitely a sort of integral part of the company, it is, obviously our projects 193
are on a shorter timeframe than main stage projects, that is always a bit of a challenge, 194
you know, trying to plan these out in the future, there is a lot of stuff that is already been 195
committed to, scheduling is a interesting challenge, but we get support from you know 196
185
marketing, fundraising, props and costumes, technical production, so it feels pretty inte-197
grate. You know, we use the same process for these chamber operas that we would for a 198
normal main stage production, it is just on a different timeframe and there is all these 199
crazy HGOco people in it. 200
CK: Awesome. Ok. I find it very interesting to see that you really created a different 201
department and brand for your Civic Impact work rather than making it part of your 202
whole company. 203
BD: Yes, it is interesting. I wonder if with time it will not be the same. But I think it is 204
an important step on the way rather than adding it on to another department to give it 205
appropriate, - I think giving it a name is really important, having a different name, and 206
just. I wonder if it is a step on the way to full integration, but it gives it an appropriate 207
sort of prominence by having a separate department with a different name that it would 208
not have otherwise. 209
CK: And how does it relate to your main stage work, do people feel like it is something 210
absolutely different? Does it have a different value? 211
BD: Yes, well the venues are different and the budget is different but we use members 212
of our orchestra and a lot of the emerging artists in Houston who would sing with our 213
Chorus or in smaller roles, obviously we are not flying in big stars for these shows be-214
cause it takes a lot of time in rehearsals and in development. We use sort of similar re-215
sources but it is very clear that our focus on the development in the community aspect 216
rather than let’s see a show on a bigger stage. 217
CK: Ok. And how does that resonate with your audiences? The ones you had before, are 218
they very different? 219
BD: It is an interesting mix. We have people who see both, we have people who just go 220
to the main stage and we have people who don’t care about the main stage at all but are 221
interested in our work. 222
It is very clear to me is what we are doing is not about leading people into main stage 223
shows, we are not about selling tickets for Tosca or Boheme, you know, it is about con-224
necting people in an authentic way and it is not a marketing tool. So, in that sense we do 225
have some different audiences. But we also have people who like everything. So, it is a 226
mix. 227
CK: So, it is not free, right? Your concerts and operas? 228
BD: Some of them are. At the very least as affordable as we can make it. I think our 229
tickets for O Columbia will be 20 dollars. 230
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CK: Awesome. Great. Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards Houston 231
Grand Opera's bottom line? If yes, why? 232
BD: Yes, I do. It gives people that they can understand as a tangible good for the city, 233
and that’s important. I mean people want to support something that is doing a service 234
for the community. And that is what I feel our job is. So it is not that we are raising 235
money and selling tickets but I think that having this work makes HGO a more compel-236
ling recipient of philanthropy. 237
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Houston Grand Opera's 238
long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 239
BD: Absolutely. Because it is this work that is going to allow us to remain relevant for 240
the city when you know when the next generation comes up, when the city continues to 241
diversify, to attract people from all different types of the world. As long as we are re-242
flecting as long as we are remaining relevant to the city as it is, I think there is a place 243
for the company. 244
CK: If you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strategy or focus on it, 245
would you strive to create it and how? 246
BD: Yeah, I think that this is critical. I don’t think that this is something that you can 247
ignore and I would start it by looking at the city and figuring out what it means to live in 248
that city, what makes it tick, what are the important aspects of it, and then based on that 249
developing some sort of strategy for reflecting those, for engaging with those communi-250
ties, through programming, through other events, but I think it starts with the character 251
of the city. 252
CK: If you look at your Civic Impact programs, do you have a favorite one so far? 253
Something that is most successful? 254
BD: Most successful, I don’t know. My favorite is The Song of Houston project. I think 255
it is fascinating work, it is different sources, communities, like the NASA group, we 256
went down to Galveston Island to talk to people about their experiences with hurricanes 257
and that kind of projects. The veterans’ project has been hugely interesting and I think 258
that is the way that we are going to be able to reach a lot of other different people who 259
otherwise might not have connected with opera at all. And that is really exciting to me 260
to watch people see their stories reflected in song, it is really cool. 261
CK: Is there anything else you would like to add? 262
BD: No, I think we covered it all. 263
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9.3.10. Seattle Opera
Barbara Lynne Jamison, Director of Education and Community Engagement
Date: July 6, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Seattle Opera’s definition of Civic Impact? 1
I guess our definition of Civic Impact is kind of two-fold, we measure it in breadth and 2
depth. I would say that our impact is measured by how many people we can reach 3
through the arts and the difference we can make in their lives. So, when we measure it, 4
we are measuring those things, knowing that the arts are actually making a change in 5
people’s lives. That is a working definition right now, we are just looking at what that 6
means for us. I think as a company we are just starting. So, this kind of goes towards the 7
next question. We are just starting to think o our work beyond just the Education pro-8
gram, which is a new idea in opera companies in this kind country and so we have been 9
looking I would say for close to three years in the Education and Community Engage-10
ment department at Civic Impact and how we measure it and how we look at that and 11
how we create our programs with that objective in mind. Newer, in the last year or so, 12
have we started to look at Civic Impact from the viewpoint of this day in age, in the 13
thinking about all that we do at this opera company. 14
So, our programs for creating Civic Impact are, I start with the obvious, schools, chil-15
dren out of school and in school as well. But we are also looking at Civic Impact as just 16
going beyond the students that we reach in our school programs, realizing that the fami-17
lies, we have a little bit of a halo effect, we call it, that while the immediate target is the 18
student or the child, the grandparents or the parents, the aunts, the uncles, the friends 19
those people are indirectly affected and there is a Civic Impact there beyond the primary 20
target. So for our children, where we have that degraded “halo effect”, we have camps 21
and workshops, for times when students are out of school on breaks, we have Saturday 22
programs for children and teens, we have a youth opera chorus that meets weekly, and 23
our Teen Vocal Studio that is career training and college preparation for them. We work 24
with boys clubs and girls clubs, and girl scouts and those other community programs. 25
188
We also go into schools and work with teachers in arts integrated programs that work 26
closely with literacy, where children create their own operas and their own opera mo-27
ment, that’s from pre-K all the way to grade five, so, elementary school. We also have 28
programs where we tour schools, so we provide performances to those schools and go-29
ing back to that halo effect though, our performances in school are designed, we com-30
mission our own work, they are brand new works, they are not adapted main stage 31
works, they are works that are created specifically for school tours and one of the crite-32
ria that we place for our composer and librettist is they must be aligned for a school 33
chorus, something easy to learn and offer a group of students, whether it be a chorus or 34
a class room or a grade level, the opportunity to perform with the professionals for their 35
school. And what that does is give the parents an opportunity, a reason to want to come 36
to this performance. So, suddenly the parents can see their own children performing in 37
this production and that has shown Civic Impact beyond just the schools and we see that 38
the parents are making the effort to come and see the difference that the arts can make 39
in their children’s lives where they may not have seen that before. And Civic Impact 40
even inspires the teens in our teens vocal programs and through these career opportuni-41
ties gives back to the community over time. Is this what you are looking for? 42
CK: Yes, absolutely. Another question would be, those topics of these operas that you 43
write are they related to the community? 44
BLJ: They actually are. They are very closely created about the community. Since I’ve 45
been here we have commissioned two operas, one of them is a trilogy so actually four 46
operas and they have been all sourced from the community and from things that are 47
important to our community. For schools, I haven’t gotten to the adults yet, we created a 48
trilogy of opera called Our Earth. Sustainability and stewardship is a really important 49
part in the curricula and the mindset of the Pacific North West in the U.S. here and a 50
particular part of that is the salmon. Salmons are vital, because it’s part of the country. 51
1.000 years ago the Native Americans where fishing for salmon, had native lore about 52
salmon and they continued to be a force of live we have here with the fishing industry 53
and it’s a huge thing. So, the first in the trilogy is called Heron and the Salmon Girl, the 54
second is called Rushing Upriver and the third is called Every river has its people. And 55
these are drawn from, they are patterned after Native American folklore. They use 56
Lushootseed, which is the Salish language of the Native people up here that these peo-57
ple, the Salish people, are working to keep that language alive, because it is dying out 58
and being replaced by English on the tribal lands. And this is a story about the salmon, 59
189
who are the Salmon people, which is a ficticous idea of the Spirit embodying those hu-60
man and animals, which is Native American folklore, it is part of the curriculum in 61
schools here, as well as salmons. Many schools raise their own salmons from eggs and 62
then release them into the streams, so that is very closely tied to our community and to 63
what our community values as well as what the school is teaching. Even the different 64
characters are taken after different stages of a salmon’s live: Parr for instance is one of 65
the characters, P-A-R-R, and Parr is the adolescence stage of a salmon. So it’s very, 66
very closely tied into what our community values. In fact, I did not grow up in this part 67
of the country, but people who have and who have been part of this work, who are pro-68
fessionals, who are born and raised here, talk about how this resonates so deeply with 69
them and really grounds them in their history in this part of the world. So it seems to 70
have been very effective in this regard. A piece that we commissioned for adults just 71
recently, which is premiering this summer in August, is called An American Dream and 72
part of our unfortunate history is that during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 73
which is what brought the United States into WWII, actively, I should say, is that we in 74
this country were responsible for targeting all Japanese Americans and all Asian Ameri-75
cans for that matter and targeting them as potential spies and basically the aggressor, 76
even though they might have been Americans and would have the same view with the 77
Japanese bombing. Interestingly, I grew up in this country, but in a different part of this 78
country and I wasn’t aware that this has happen. So I was a victim of our own country’s 79
propaganda I suppose and glossed over it... So this is really becoming something that 80
we are addressing as a community, this happened here. There are a lot of Pacific Is-81
landers here in this part of the world that have immigrated to the United States. An 82
American Dream is about the story of a family that has be incarcerated and taken away 83
from their home. And their home has been sold to an American soldier and his German 84
Jewish wife who has immigrated from Germany and who is hoping to get her parents 85
out of Germany during WWII. So this story is about two families basically who have 86
been exiled in different ways: the Japanese because they have been sent away by the 87
government and this German woman, who has fled her country to save her life and 88
hopefully her parents’ life. So that is something that we have sourced by stories here in 89
the community. We started that off by asking people to tell their stories: „If you had to 90
leave your home, what is the one thing that you value, that you would not want to leave 91
behind? What would you take with you? And what is the story of that?” So we part-92
nered with other community organizations, one of them being a film festival, a film 93
company and they created video moments of these people telling their stories and shar-94
190
ing the stories of their belongings. We called this the Belongings Project and created a 95
video quilt of these stories and some of these stories our librettist chose a couple of the-96
se stories and created this fictitious story around this opera around these stories. So, as 97
we are getting ready to premier this work in August, we have partnered with Asian 98
American organizations in this part of the country and we are working closely with 99
them to help them tell their stories. To help people who are not privy to this – mostly 100
white Americans and not Asian Americans, realize that the propensity for this still exists 101
when fear and government takes control and we have to be careful about this. We are 102
also sharing stories of exile exiles from around the world that are still happening now. 103
This work is also going to be performed in rep with another story of exile Nabucco, a 104
Hebrew story of exile, so that will be kind of our theme for August that ties us really 105
closely to our community and our German and Jewish community. Our Jewish commu-106
nity here is being really pulled into this Nabucco story because they feel that that is the 107
story of their history, with the Hebrew history. We are also working with some Jewish 108
Americans who have immigrated here as well, because that story is slightly represented 109
in An American Dream. So that is how we source our topics for our commissioned work 110
and we’re looking to commission some more works in the near future and I’m looking 111
for some topics that resonate equally with our audiences and our community here. Does 112
this answer your question? 113
CK: It sounds great, yes. And how do you ask the community these questions? Did you 114
write about it or how did you make that happen? 115
BLJ: We’ve done it in a few different ways. Some of it, we just started to ask other 116
community organizations around here. When we started looking at the salmon, the Our 117
Earth, we actually were looking at endangered species. We thought it was going to be a 118
broader title, we at Seattle Opera. But then we started talking to the Aquarium, the Zoo, 119
and the Nature Conservancy, we started to dig a bit more deeply and questions just 120
started to evolve. Conversations about „What do you value?”, “What are some of your 121
objectives?“ and with the teachers as well „Where are you doing your curriculum in the 122
science realm of endangered species?“. They are not really looking at endangered spe-123
cies that broad, they are not looking at the Panda Bear. In our schools they’re looking at 124
how salmon are endangered. So we started off with a broad idea and then we start to 125
narrow it down, and we listen. It’s not really the questions that we’re asking it’s the an-126
swers that we hear back. We are open and we listen to those. I think that’s really the 127
key. I think sometime we have questions believing that we already know the answers. In 128
191
defining what Civic Impact needs to be, we need to be open to hearing answers that we 129
did not expected. I think that is where our deepest resonance has come. I know that that 130
happened with An American Dream for sure! We asked people “What is your most pre-131
cious belonging?” and they told us stories about it. And so from there the librettist was 132
able to see that there a story, to dig a little deeper into the stories of these exiled people 133
here. It was a story about a Japanese doll that a Japanese girl couldn’t take to concentra-134
tion camp with her and there was a story about a letter a woman has received from here 135
Jewish parents in Germany - or not from them, but about them – and these stories are 136
intertwined in new different ways, but the heart of the story is about the exile and being 137
away from your home and what you miss when you’re gone from home. So I really 138
can’t say, we have just asked a pack of questions – it’s really more about the listening. 139
CK: So you use other community organizations in order to find those people and then 140
listen? Or are there different ways? 141
BLJ: That’s something that we found is a huge resource for us, that we can all work 142
together. We all have contacts to different people. It’s not uncommon that we start with 143
the people we already have already here. But we know that in order to broaden our Civ-144
ic Impact we can’t stay here, we can’t just reach the low hanging fruit. We need to be 145
willing to move beyond that. So other community organizations can often help us and 146
give us information that we would not have otherwise been privy to. We would not have 147
access to those people or those stories. And by being an initiator I think other organiza-148
tions and people that are outside our close circle start to see opera as relevant to them in 149
ways that they otherwise would not have. If they realized that opera is not just Marriage 150
of Figaro and Traviata and Carmen, but opera is a story. It’s just storytelling and it’s 151
our stories. We don’t know a single human culture in history that did not have musical 152
storytelling as part of their culture. Present or past, we don’t know any in history that 153
did not engage in musical storytelling. And from all I can see there are really true basic 154
purposes that humans have for musical storytelling. One is music elevates things, it 155
gives it importance. And that’s why religious institutions often sing prayers and sing 156
things, even the Buddhists chant. There is something elevated about something being 157
sung to humans. So we elevate the stories that are most important. And as humans we 158
have also told stories to install values and what is important messages to our young and 159
to people that will continue our legacy. And so if you get stuck in the stories of the past 160
they lose their relevance and I think when people start to realize that opera continues to 161
live and continues to tell stories of the Now and the things that we want for the future, I 162
192
think people start to get invested in the art form in way that they could not have seen 163
otherwise because they were only aware of storytelling in the past. 164
CK: Awesome. What initiated Seattle Opera’s focus on Civic Impact? 165
BLJ: I think there are a lot of things that initiated it. I think they initiated separately and 166
yet concurrently and it took us some time to come together and realize that we were all 167
doing that. The Education and Community Engagement staff was new about five years 168
ago and I think that the new people in our departments – I was one of them, and Sue 169
Elliot was the other, she is no longer with us but she and I came in here at around the 170
time from different opera companies and from bigger cities, where we’ve realized that 171
in our own different ways we’ve brought that purpose with us, that’s just what we found 172
purposeful in our careers. If I can be so bold and speak for her, I think that’s the case. 173
And concurrently we were looking for a new General Director and our new General 174
Director came in with a real focus on the community and that needs to be at the heart of 175
everything that we do. I think along that we were looking at some transition in our 176
board and our new Board Presidents believed strongly that the arts are wonderful way of 177
reaching people and changing people and making lives better and that’s why I think 178
they were attracted to our new General Director. And so I think between the board, our 179
leadership and the Community Engagement department, I think separately and yet con-180
currently this was heating up until now two years ago, when we really started to move 181
forward with these ideas. 182
CK: Awesome. What would you name as positive and what would you name as nega-183
tive sides to Seattle Opera’s Civic Impact work? 184
BLJ: Positive, I think that people who otherwise would not have seen opera as some-185
thing that they have a connection to, can realize that opera is relevant to them. Negative 186
sides to our work? I could not really think of what the negative side... There are chal-187
lenges to it, but I don’t know if there are negative sides to it. The challenges are reach-188
ing beyond what’s easy. But I don’t think there is ever a negative side to ever having an 189
impact on your community. 190
191
CK: So what are, what were challenges for you? 192
BLJ: I think there are a lot of preconceived notions about our company, or about opera 193
in general, that are hard to overcome. Our company has revolved very closely around 194
the works of Wagner and that can be challenging when we realize that this is a deterrent 195
193
for some people. So to help us brand a little bit more broadly, we are having to rethink 196
what that means for our company. Knowing that we still are a presenter of The Ring 197
that’s really important to us, to our board, to our community, we have a lot of pride in 198
our work on The Ring historically. As a company we embrace Wagner’s works and yet 199
we’ve also realized that opera, that our opera performance has gone far beyond that. 200
Even we put Händel on for the first time and that was new because people had not heard 201
a lot of baroque music on our stage in the last twenty, thirty years. So one of our chal-202
lenges was just helping our audience and our community understand that opera is far 203
more than works from 1820 to 1850, alright? It’s a broader pallet than people think it 204
could be. I also think that one of our challenges is rethinking how we present works. It’s 205
hard to do new things when you’ve been doing the same things. It’s hard to change 206
those ideas, so I think the biggest challenge was to think outside the box, to re-think 207
how we do things, build our Community Engagement stuff as well as our artistic work. 208
The challenges we are up for and we are finding successes along the way. And we are 209
also finding challenges in how we message this to our community. What do they need to 210
hear in order to understand? Sometimes we look back on what we use, the language we 211
use to reach people and we realize that we are not using their language, we are using our 212
language. So we are really thinking about even the language we use to describe our 213
work very differently. So these are the biggest challenges I would say. 214
CK: Great, thank you! Awesome. What are your lessons learned so far? 215
BLJ: I think the lessons learned are wrapped up in the challenges, those are things we 216
have learned: the translating, using their language, listening. We don’t know how to 217
make our work relevant if we are not listening and exploring what our community needs 218
or where they are and who they are. So those are some of the lessoned learned. It is real-219
ly to stop and reconsider every little thing very differently. 220
CK: What is the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 221
BLJ: I thought this was a really interesting question when I read it. I would say that for 222
it to be successful it has to be rooted in the community. I think sometimes when we are 223
talking about community outreach, and I image it is like we were a tree, that we are 224
reaching our branches outward and giving them the fruits, but if we think of ourselves 225
rather than reaching out to them with our branches, rather rooting into them that chang-226
es sometimes the substance of what we do. Because the nutrients you are getting com-227
ing from the soil might change. But I think in order to be, the foundation of Civic Im-228
194
pact has to be the community, it has to be the soil that we root into, rather than the 229
branches we reach out to, or reaching out to them with our branches. 230
CK: That is great. Awesome! Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards 231
Seattle Opera’s bottom line? If yes, why? 232
BLJ: It depends on what it’s called our bottom line, but I believe that it does. In the 233
United States we classify non-profit status, as a non-profit status and in a non-profit 234
organization we have to show to the I.R.S. that we are supported by our community to a 235
certain degree. I think a good indicator, when you’re not having a strong Civic Impact is 236
that you are not supported by the community and we measure that support often, unfor-237
tunately, in dollars, people that don’t like what they see on the stage they don’t buy 238
tickets, but if people like what they see happening in the community and it resonates 239
with them and it helps them see that it is making the community better, they are those 240
who donate, they are those who give to that and support that work and support our or-241
ganization. I think the better quality, the broader, the deeper your Civic Impact, the 242
more support you have. Absolutely! I think it is better for the bottom line. 243
CK: Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Seattle Opera’s long-term 244
sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 245
BLJ: Absolutely! I think sustainability comes when you are relevant. If you are always 246
relevant, which means that you are always changing because that measure is always 247
changing in society, if you are relevant you are sustainable. I think things can get stuck 248
and antiquated and no longer relevant to society and in those cases, yes you become 249
obsolete over time. But I believe that if you are meeting the community’s needs and you 250
are listening – and we are hearing to the community and we are hearing them and re-251
sponding – I do believe that’s the only way to stay a sustainable model. 252
CK: Awesome and how do you measure if you are successful, or that you are successful 253
or that your projects are successful? 254
BLJ: We are still working on that actually I have to say. We had - briefly we had a data 255
analyst position. And that position has been open for a few months and we would like to 256
fill it. We are looking for funding to fill that position, so we really do believe, that in 257
order to measure it we need to have someone in the company who is - who’s work re-258
volves solely around measuring how we are meeting our goals, how we’re responding 259
community’s needs, doing market research, doing assessment of our program both on 260
195
the stage and in the community. And so that’s how we’d like to continue with this work. 261
Right now this position is open in the company but we have some tools in place, we are 262
continuing to collect data asking those questions of our community and we hope to con-263
tinue to work forward with that. 264
CK: Okay, awesome. Ok and then I also have a definition of Civic Impact and I would 265
like to hear your standpoint on it, if that’s ok? 266
BLJ: Okay. 267
CK: Zachary Woolfe defines Civic Impact for the Opera America Magazin as „the ex-268
pansion of opera companies mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of 269
their community.“ Do you agree? 270
BLJ: Okay. Socioeconomic needs of their community... 271
CK: And cultural, yes. 272
BLJ: And who is this again? Opera of America? 273
CK: Zachary Woolfe. 274
BLJ: Okay. I think that that is a boil down. Yeah I think there are a lot of ways that that 275
can happen, but I think that that is - that I could agree with that. I think that the arts, the 276
arts can be used in many ways. I think for so long, we took this Western Post-War or 277
Pre-War, Western European approach to art, which was really not the way art was his-278
torically searched. I mean that art is for art’s sake, right? It was just some late 19th cen-279
tury aesthetic idea that art exists for art’s sake alone. And then we started looking at 280
how art could mean so much more to society, which was actually not a new idea. It was 281
actually kind of an old idea, because even Native American tribes now, well when you 282
ask them to talk about their music, they talk about their paintings, their jewelry and their 283
food and all of this is all wrapped up together and it’s creative and it’s meaningful to 284
them in a holistic sort of way. And so I think art became something that we’ve separated 285
out of our lives in the 18th century, I mean the 19th century and in the early 20th centu-286
ry. And we started to see that we lose something when we put it into a little glass box 287
like that. And so I think we’ve started to move back to realizing that arts can make a 288
difference in people’s lives in the way they approach life, in the way what it means for 289
the community’s socioeconomic needs as well as their cultural needs. So I think we’ve 290
started to put things back together in a way that is actually kind of ancient and not nec-291
essarily new. So I can see that we are moving towards that and I think that’s where the 292
Civic Impact pieces are coming from: is that it used to be that art was there for anyone 293
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who wanted it and now we have realized that art is there for everyone, in different 294
forms, in different ways and in different packages. 295
CK: Awesome! And would you describe it as an add-on to your mission or is it a part of 296
your core mission? 297
BLJ: We are, with our new general director and our new board president- I think we are 298
really exploring what our mission is now. We have gone through so much change in the 299
last two years, that we are really looking- we are not adding things on to our mission; 300
we are really looking at things in a new way, so I wouldn’t say it’s an add-on. I’d say 301
it’s something that we’ve always done to some degree. But we are at our very core 302
thinking about this very differently. But we are just at the beginning stage to do this. 303
We’ve spent a couple of years laying the foundation for this discussion but now we are 304
really having this discussion from a strategic planning standpoint, from our mission 305
standpoint, from our artistic standpoint... So I would not call it an add-on, but I’d say 306
that this is a really bright new way for Seattle Opera, where we’re ready to think differ-307
ently and make sure that our work is relevant to the community that we serve today. 308
CK: Would you say you’re redefining your WHY? 309
BLJ: I wouldn’t say we are redefining it. I think we’re just evolving – that’s all. I just 310
don’t think that we are just out there and redefining our WHY’s. But our WHY, that is 311
constant, is our community. How we address the community has to change. So the 312
WHY is our community and I think that that is constant. The HOW definitely needs to 313
change. If we don’t change the HOW, then we get stuck. 314
CK: Would you say the WHY 20 years ago was your community? 315
BLJ: Yes, I’d say it was our community. We’re a pretty young company, so 20 years 316
ago we were still pretty new and we were meeting the community’s needs at the time 317
and we were still building our community. Seattle was still growing. 20 years ago the 318
city was completely different than it is now. It was still very young... So I would say 319
yes. We were definitely meeting the community needs at that time. Our understanding 320
of the community and the community itself continues to evolve and so we have had to 321
adjust how we define our community and how we meet our community’s needs. 322
CK: Would you say you’re looking different at who your audience is? 323
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BLJ: Yes. I would say, that that’s true. That we are broadening who we see our audi-324
ence as, that’s true. And actually where we see ourselves, where we see our work hap-325
pening. For so long our work happened on the stage at McCaw Hall. That was where 326
Seattle Opera did its work. And we are changing how we see our work. That our work is 327
not only performances but our work is everything we do in the community. 328
CK: Awesome. Diversifying your programming process? 329
BLJ: Yeah. 330
CK: Great. Cool and then my last question would be: If you start at a new opera compa-331
ny with no Civic Impact strategy or focus on it, would you strive to create it and how? 332
BLJ: Oh absolutely! I mentioned even earlier, that Sue and I, when we came here, that 333
we thought that was very much the core and what we do, why I believe the arts are and 334
why my career is in the arts. So I’d absolutely find a way to do that. It is so much what I 335
do that I can’t even imagine being hired at a company that didn’t believe it is important. 336
So I would definitely begin doing that and then I would start by asking a lot of questions 337
and getting to the community. It’s kind of like getting to know a good friend: you start 338
off by learning about each other. And so I would say that should I go to a new company 339
that hadn’t invested in that in the past that I would probably work, first of all, internally 340
in an organization. I think it’ important that we understand as an organization, as a 341
company, what that means. Otherwise it’s really easy to leave that to the education 342
team, right? I think internal works is very important and then once we have a shared 343
vision of what that means, talking to the community and we’re all ambassadors for our 344
opera company, from all our different perspectives, reaching out and learning what that 345
means for the community that we serve. I would definitely make that a priority. 346
CK: Awesome and is there anything else you’d like to add? 347
BLJ: I don’t think so. I think I talked a lot. 348
CK: Yes it’s been great. Thank you! You’ve mentioned the girl scouts earlier. I thought 349
that was pretty cool. What do you do with them? 350
BLJ: Oh we’ve performed for them. We do some workshops with them. And whenever 351
they’re involved in things we sort of, again, we sort of pre-packaging a lot of things, we 352
try to talk to our community partners, people that we want to work with and say: „What 353
do you need?“. And they might say: „We’d like to survey the others.“ and we say „Oh, 354
but we could do this.“ or listen to... Sometimes people don’t know how to ask for what 355
they need, but if we find out what they’d like to have –we know our resources that we 356
198
have at our disposal, we can create things – so we customize a lot of our programs for 357
different groups. 358
CK: That`s great and what would be your favorite program so far to create Civic Im-359
pact? 360
BLJ: The favorite program that we have done so far to create Civic Impact... I think it’s 361
An American Dream. The jury is still up on what Civic Impact will be on that. We are 362
just getting started with this but the community is embracing it very deeply. The com-363
munity is very excited about this work. There are people who have never been to the 364
opera, who are really eager to see this work. And it’s the story of so many people and 365
their decedent in our community and I think it’s a very exciting work. 366
CK: Yeah. I think it is really, really cool. 367
BLJ: Yeah. 368
CK: Awesome. Alright. Thank you very much! 369
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9.3.11. Lyric Opera of Chicago
Alejandra Boyer, Lyric Unlimited Manager
Date: July 9, 2015 via Skype
CK: What is Lyric Opera’s definition of Civic Impact? 1
AB: So, Lyric Opera, we really define Civic Impact as the way we work with our Chi-2
cago community and that is really what Lyric Unlimited was established for, is to be 3
able to create programming that goes beyond our main stage and is inclusive of our 4
Chicago community. 5
CK: I have a definition and I would like to hear your standpoint on it. Zachary Woolfe 6
defines Civic Impact for Opera America Magazine as the “expansion of opera compa-7
nies’ mission to tackle the socioeconomic and cultural needs of their community.” Do 8
you agree? 9
AB: Yeah, I think that is definitely a good definition of it. I think part of it is recogniz-10
ing the cultural differences and the socioeconomic diversity within a city. It is definite-11
ly, in my opinion, it has to encompass all of it, so that we are not just focusing on one 12
specific demographic area or expanding our mission only to one specific socioeconomic 13
group, but really, it is about being inclusive of all of the different ways in which a 14
community is diverse both culturally and economically. 15
CK: And would you describe it as an expansion of your mission, an add-on to your mis-16
sion or as really a part of your core mission? 17
AB: It is part of our core strategic mission here at Lyric Opera of Chicago. When An-18
thony Freud, our General Director here, came on board at Lyric, Lyric went through 19
looking at its strategic mission with the addition of Lyric Unlimited. We really hold that 20
to the core for the company as well as with this new division of Lyric Opera. 21
CK: What made you open a separate department for your Civic Impact work, Lyric Un-22
limited? 23
AB: Yeah, absolutely. As mentioned our General Director Anthony Freud, this is a big 24
passion of his, he has advocated for this kind of work in many of the companies where 25
he has been the Director. So, when he started at Walsh National Opera, he began this 26
idea of community involvement for an opera company. From there he went to Houston 27
Grand Opera and established HGOco there. So, I believe you spoke with someone there 28
200
too. So, the same thing about creating a stronger relationship with the community where 29
the company lives and thrives. So when he came to the Chicago with the same mindset 30
and really having a department that focuses on that is a matter of resources, really. We 31
are a full functioning opera house, with a very full season and a lot of activities. And so 32
by adding on to those activities by creating more community engagement programs, by 33
expanding productions to things that are offsite in communities at a smaller level, you 34
really need staff that can support this program in a way that you cannot have the entire 35
company devote all their time to. So with that Lyric Unlimited was created, and Lyric 36
Unlimited really was an expansion of the longstanding Education program here at Lyric 37
Opera of Chicago. So this department encompasses those Education programs that Lyric 38
has done for many years and that is Education programs for students and adults and then 39
adding on to it this new, more in-depths community engagement programs, these new 40
artistic productions that are aimed to be much more community focused. 41
CK: And do you feel creating this new brand or name for it is an advantage? 42
AB: That is a really great question and “I don’t know,” is the answer. That is a conver-43
sation that I have had with my colleagues here and elsewhere. It brings a new light to it. 44
In one way it takes away the stigma of the perceived barriers towards opera, one might 45
say Lyric Opera Chicago and already has in mind the grand building, the folks who 46
come in very well dressed, that it seems to be for the elite. The new branding of Lyric 47
Unlimited helps sort of pull away from that a little bit. Is it wholly necessary? I am not 48
sure. I think a lot of companies throughout the U.S. and internationally, do a lot of that 49
type of programming without devoting an entire division to it and without rebranding 50
and I think they do it successfully and they do it well. I don’t know if there is a very 51
strong yes or no to whether it needs to be branded as its own specific thing. It helps say-52
ing: “Here is what is happening on our main stage and here is what is happening out in 53
the city.” But like I said, I see it work in both ways successfully and so I don’t know 54
there is a right or wrong answer to that. 55
CK: How has the reaction been within your company, having these two divisions, your 56
main stage work and your Civic Impact work? 57
AB: So, what we try to do here at Lyric Opera is actually for it not to be divided. 58
Though we have a separate division, we rely heavily on collaboration with the other 59
departments in our company. So our Marketing time who spends the majority of their 60
time promoting events that are on the main stage, they are also paying attention to our 61
201
events and they are also helping to promote our productions here. Alike are our Tech 62
and Production teams, our Artistic team, we work a lot with them in producing these 63
shows and these performances. We are also extremely involved with our Development 64
team as they do the fundraising that supports our programs. So, really everybody in the 65
company does have a piece in this Civic Impact work that we are doing. So really all of 66
Lyric Opera is behind this movement, not just separated out to Lyric Unlimited. 67
CK: How is the perceived value of your Lyric Unlimited work versus your main stage 68
season? Is there a difference in importance? 69
AB: Sure. Yes and no. We strive for excellence in what we do. Highest artistic quality 70
that is our main core mission for Lyric Opera Chicago and for Lyric Unlimited. The 71
difference really is in the size and scope of the productions. So it is really achieving the 72
highest artistic quality within the scope of that production. We don’t have the same 73
sized budget as for our main stage shows, that purposeful, so that we are able to then 74
produce these shows and charge very low ticket prizes for them, in some cases, com-75
pletely free. So the scope may be smaller but within that scope, within that smaller 76
budget frame, we still strive to produce the best and highest quality work that we can do 77
and that we are accustomed to at Lyric Opera. 78
CK: And do you feel like you are producing Civic Impact with your main stage work as 79
well? 80
AB: With our main stage? I think that there are ways in which we do, so for instance a 81
couple of examples of that, we do and this goes back to how do you define Civic Im-82
pact, which really is pretty multi-layered in the depths of participation for the work that 83
you are doing. At the broadest level of just providing accessibility to all Chicagoans, we 84
like many opera companies throughout the U.S. provide a free concert at Millennium 85
Park, it is a big kick-off to our season, and we present main stage artists with our or-86
chestra on the stage. It is free and it is tons of people who come to the concert. So that is 87
providing something in a very broad sense, just absolute accessibility. This past season 88
we were able to do a program that centered around one of our productions on the main 89
stage, which was The Passenger, what we did was we created a story of ideas around it, 90
that was chamber music works, movie screenings, talks and so that really allowed us to 91
host this smaller events and sessions in different venues throughout the city collaborat-92
ing with smaller organizations throughout Chicago but still tied into the work that we 93
are doing on our main stage. Again, those are ways that I feel absolutely, we take the 94
202
opportunity to share what we are doing on the main stage and be able to connect it with 95
our fellow Chicagoans. 96
CK: Awesome. Thank you. And how do you create Civic Impact? 97
AB: That is a great question. I am sure you have been hearing a lot of great responses to 98
how one creates Civic Impact. I think everybody has their own idea of what that means. 99
At its core it is really building a relationship with your community, with the citizens 100
where you live. And so we try to create that in a variety of different ways. We try to, 101
you know, everybody wants to experience things in very different ways, so we do things 102
that are broad in general, such as a free concert, we do things that are much more cul-103
turally specific, we have an audience development program that is very much steered 104
towards the Latino audiences here in Chicago and the Latin American community here 105
in Chicago that is so diverse and so strong but there we are focusing specifically on a 106
group, right? We also provide events and programs in different locations throughout 107
Chicago and that is providing Civic Impact by moving outside of our location that not 108
everybody can come to, which can definitely be a barrier for folks, and providing oppor-109
tunities in different venues to be able to participate with our neighbors, with our com-110
munities but not having for them to always come to us, we can go to them. So we try to 111
find different ways in which to interact with our communities here in Chicago in ways 112
that will speak to them and see what is of value to them and of interest to them and see 113
how can we be a part of that. 114
CK: Awesome, great. Do you know what initiated Lyric Opera’s focus on Civic Im-115
pact? 116
AB: Sure and again that goes back to our General Director, Anthony Freud, this has just 117
been a long term passion for him, to be not solely focused on the works inside the thea-118
ter and on the stage but to really be a part of the fabric of the city, to be engaged in what 119
is going on with our communities around us, so that really is what has driven this, the 120
creation of Lyric Unlimited and the initiation of all of this. 121
CK: My next question would be: What were or are challenges? 122
AB: What are the challenges? You know, some of the challenges that we face is of 123
course we are adding on a lot of new activities, so that can definitely be a challenge. 124
Like I mentioned we are a very busy company with just our main stage, so adding on all 125
203
these extra activities and new productions, it can be a challenge. It can definitely start to 126
spin at times. But that is kind of expected when you are trying something new. 127
Sometimes it takes a little bit of time for folks to wrap their head around why we are 128
interested in doing this kind of work. I think especially when in a city like Chicago 129
where there is so many arts organizations that have often been so closely entwined with 130
the pulse of the city, for Lyric to be only three years in on that can seem a little confus-131
ing for some of the folks that we meet with here. But I will say that overall the responds 132
is always really welcoming and heartwarming from folks throughout the city that we 133
connect with when we go knock on their doors and say: “How can we collaborate? Can 134
we do something together?” They have been absolutely receptive. 135
CK: Awesome, that is wonderful to hear. What would you name as positive, what 136
would you name as negative sides to Lyric Opera’s Civic Impact work? 137
AB: The positives are endless. The positives are just absolutely endless. For me, per-138
sonally, just getting Lyric Opera into part of the vocabulary of Chicagoans is a really 139
thrilling thing and that is looking at it with a selfish lens of course. The positive is also 140
that we get to be a part of what is going on in the city and sometimes what we do here is 141
just so new to people, they just haven’t been able to experience it for themselves in our 142
theatre because of whatever the barrier might be for them, whether it is “I can’t get to 143
your location, I don’t have money for tickets. I was kind of interested but not interested 144
enough to go through the effort.” Whatever that may be, I think, one of the real posi-145
tives of Lyric wanting to go beyond our doors is that we are then able to say: “Ok, how 146
can we remove this barrier for you. Maybe in the end this whole thing is not for you but 147
as a first step, how do we remove the barrier?” Which I think is really a great and posi-148
tive thing because it allows us to really and know what is of interest to Chicagoans. As 149
a negative, I was going to say maybe funding but people are so eager to fund these pro-150
grams too, that it is kind of awesome! You know, cause you have all these ideas and 151
you say: “And it is all free or it is all cheap.” And who is going to pay for it? But fun-152
ders are just so eager to allow for these experiences to happen and to make them hap-153
pen. So I guess maybe the only negative again is it adds an extra layer of activities for 154
the company, so it does make some work days a little bit harder, but that is the burden 155
we bare here. 156
CK: Awesome. And getting back to one of your positives what are you getting in touch 157
with the community with? What part of opera? 158
204
AB: One of the things that we really find to be a hallmark of opera and one of the things 159
that Lyric Unlimited really backs and Lyric as well, is that really the core of opera is 160
storytelling through song. And so when we go and do a new production out in our 161
communities or any presentations or anything, we are really focused on the human voice 162
and telling a story, cause really at the end of the day that is what we are putting up on 163
our stage. We are telling stories that are relevant in some ways to our lives. Of course, it 164
is hard to see that sometimes when you are looking at works that are really old, in a dif-165
ferent language from a different time period, it is hard to see that. So as Lyric Unlimited 166
what we like to do is make sure that we are sharing stories that are relevant that remove 167
that barrier of time, location, language and make it really something that people will 168
easily know, and grasp and understand, and then tell them that story through song or 169
allow them to experience what that is like, to be able to see a story through song. 170
CK: Awesome. What are your lessons learned? 171
AB: We learn lessons every day. One of the big lessons for us has been to learn how to 172
communicate, how to listen to our community. We can not ever assume what a commu-173
nity wants, we can not assume that we know what any individual wants and so for us, 174
we really have heard from our partners, we have heard from our community members, 175
folks who attend things that we put on that we need to really listen and understand what 176
it is that they need, what it is that they are looking for and that is the best way in which 177
we can really be effective in the Civic Impact that we are discussing. You can not go out 178
and say this is what I think you need, we can not say I am going to help you, we can not 179
say I am going to make your life better, because we don’t know, we have no clue. Be-180
cause maybe the person is like “I am fine. I really don’t need your help. All I wanted 181
was to hear some great tunes.” So we have to be really responsive to that and really 182
have to listen and be able to have our community members be the ones that share what 183
it is that they want and see how we as Lyric Opera of Chicago are able to serve that 184
need. 185
CK: Awesome. Any other lessons learned? 186
AB: Oh, the rest of them are just logistical lessons. 187
CK: And what would you say is your core mission for Lyric Opera? 188
AB: So, like I said, Lyric Opera really strives to offer high artistic excellence. It is defi-189
nitely one of the things we really like to focus on, we want to be one of the leading 190
North American opera companies with a very diverse audience and we want to be rele-191
205
vant to our audiences. That really is one of the key visions for the company. We want to 192
be able to contribute to the longevity of the art form as well. 193
CK: What would you describe as the foundation of successful Civic Impact? 194
AB: That is a really good question. Listening to the needs of your community that really 195
can’t be ignored and you cannot emphasize that enough. I think that is how you will be 196
successful in achieving Civic Impact, will be to listen to the needs of your community. 197
To ask what need is there, and how can we meet that need. You just can’t make assump-198
tions about what people want, we don’t know, we are not mind readers; we don’t know 199
what people want. So the best thing we can do is ask and then listen. 200
CK: Awesome. Do you feel Civic Impact has a positive impact towards Lyric Opera’s 201
bottom line? If yes, why? 202
AB: You know, not directly. I think it would be really ignorant to say: “Yes, absolutely. 203
Every person who hears opera will or witnesses it for the first time will become a ticket 204
buyer always and forever.” It is not what we are here to do, I think, it is not the point of 205
Civic Impact. I think that should never really be the main purpose. Can it affect the bot-206
tom line in the long term? Absolutely, it sure can. Like I mentioned we do get a lot of 207
new funders, who are advocates of the kind of work that we do and who are willing to 208
fund the opera company because we are doing this type of work. We may stumble up on 209
folks who from seeing a couple of performances that we do out in the community, think: 210
“You know what this stuff looks really interesting. Let’s go to the opera house. Let’s 211
see an opera on the main stage.” So, in little ways it absolutely can add to the bottom 212
line but I don’t think that should ever be first and foremost when you are talking about 213
Civic Impact. I think one would really miss the mark if you approach it from that end. 214
CK. Awesome, thank you. Do you feel Civic Impact could work positive towards Lyric 215
Opera’s long-term sustainability? If yes, in which regard? 216
AB: Absolutely! One of the main challenges with opera now is that it has become large-217
ly irrelevant, for a large majority of the population it has become irrelevant. So doing 218
the kind of work that we are doing, allows us to become again part of the vocabulary. It 219
allows us to be able to, it forces us actually, to find ways in which opera can be relevant. 220
And if it is not currently relevant then how are we going to create something that is rel-221
evant. And having that connection and allowing for that absolutely has positive rewards 222
for long-term sustainability. That I think following up to your previous question, that is 223
206
much more important if we are looking at what do we get out of it in the long-term, you 224
know, at the end of the day, I think, what we get most is the idea of long-term sustaina-225
bility. 226
CK: Awesome, thank you. How do you measure successful Civic Impact or if your 227
work is successful? 228
AB: We measure each program differently and we measure our successes in different 229
ways. You can certainly do measurement of number and look at number of participants 230
and programs, number of people served throughout the city, how many people engaged 231
with us at any given moment, that is definitely one of the ways that you can measure 232
that. And you can of course look at that over the course of a year and say: “We have 233
grown in our civic footprint. We have been able to have more people involved and par-234
ticipate in our programs.“ I think another interesting way to look at it too is to see how 235
many people are returning. It is not just a one-off thing, it is really important to have 236
continued relationships and that actually might be a point that is also very important is 237
that one-off events in a community are not going to get you anywhere. That is not what 238
we are here for, we are here to build lasting relationships. So being able to see these 239
participants to continue in our programs, to continue to come to events, that I think is 240
how you can best measure if the work that you are doing is successful, if you have real-241
ly created a long-lasting relationship with that person. It is kind of like dating. 242
CK: Awesome. Ok. And do you measure it in any other way? 243
AB: That is mostly how we measure it. It gets a little tricky. We do with some of our 244
Education programs do some post-program surveys where we do ask teachers for feed-245
back. We get some feedback from some of our activities about how did you hear about 246
this?, how willing are you to come back?, do you feel like it was worth your time?, does 247
it make you want to go pursue more music or art or performing arts? So some surveys 248
like that. Those, we don’t do too often. The can get a little fuzzy in the feel good area, 249
which is hard to measure. Most of our measurements really just come from different 250
folks and our partners too. We measure it through the amount of partnerships that we 251
create with organizations throughout the city. We have, each time we work with a new 252
community as I mentioned before, we really like to touch base with an organization that 253
are already deeply engrained with the community and are strong participants of that 254
local community. So as we continue to build these relationships and grow that is another 255
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great way to measure is how many organizations who are already serving their local 256
communities we are connecting with and we are having a relationship with. 257
CK: Awesome. How do you come up with programs and themes and communities? 258
AB: How do we come up with them? Oh in a number of different ways. Like I said An-259
thony Freud, our General Director, this is really his baby. So every once in a while 260
things will come from him as ideas that he would like to test out. They come from a 261
variety of folks here in the department who will look at: “Ok, here is what we have 262
coming up this season, are there activities that we can do around it to engage people we 263
maybe don’t have a current program for?” Last season, I mentioned, we had a lot of 264
activities around one of our main stage productions The Passenger and so as we were 265
thinking of what are different ways in which we can engage new audiences, new people 266
to participate in the art with us. “Hey, let’s tap into people who are much more interest-267
ed in orchestral work by presenting chamber music performances.” “Hey, there is a 268
movie related to the opera, let’s go to our local film buff organization, institute and see 269
if those would be interested in doing something.” So, we look at areas where we might 270
have some traction in ways in which we can engage with a variety of people who have 271
varying interest level in the art form. 272
CK: Great. How would you describe your process of developing programs? 273
AB: The process is different for all of them some of them can be so easy as saying: “Ok, 274
we want to do activities around this opera. What are some options? Ok, we have activi-275
ties A through D. Ok. Which ones...” And from there it is just do we have a partner? 276
Another organization that we can partner with, that we could collaborate with? So then, 277
that becomes the next step. We often like to have partners and collaborators in these 278
events. Like I said that is really what allows us to really get into these specific commu-279
nities here in Chicago. They are defined in a variety of different ways, they don’t neces-280
sarily mean geographic communities, but self defined communities. And from there it 281
just becomes the logistics of making it happen. 282
There are some other, when we are talking about larger initiatives, programs that are 283
meant to be ongoing, multi-year programs that start with a big, vague idea and that idea 284
might come from Cayenne who is the Director of Lyric Unlimited, it might come from 285
Anthony Freud, it might come from Renee Fleming, our Creative Consultant. It can 286
come from a variety of people and then sometimes it is a really lengthy process of say-287
ing: “Ok, here is this idea. How does it serve what we do? How does it serve what Lyric 288
208
Opera is about? Is there a community out there for whom we think this would be a good 289
fit? Ok. Let’s go to a partner organization. Let’s see if they think this is a good idea.” 290
So, we have these conversations: “We have this idea, we think it might work. What do 291
you think?” Get their feedback on it and then from there it goes into laying out the de-292
tails of what the program would look like and really, that will take form in whatever 293
way it does, you know, it is just this general brainstorming of making an idea into a 294
program. For example, just to give you something a little bit more tangible, two years 295
ago we had a break with our, we had been doing a lot of work with the Mexican Ameri-296
can community here in Chicago, and the first year working with them we had presented 297
an opera that was already fully fledged, fully staged kind of thing, we did not have to do 298
much but just present it. And then the following year we did not have anything but 299
knew we would have something in a future season, so we said: “Ok, what can we do 300
this season? We know that we want to continue our relationship. We know, that this 301
performance of opera and mariachi worked really well, what can we do?” And we 302
thought, something that is not a fully formed opera, maybe something like a concert. 303
“Ok, concert sounds pretty cool. But what are we really doing? Are we doing a mariachi 304
concert or are we going to put on an opera?” “Oh, well let’s do both.” And so then from 305
there we created this whole concept of a script that tells the history of mariachi music 306
alongside with opera in Mexico and how that was sort of flourishing at the time. And 307
thinking about “Ok, what kind of artists does this involve? What kid of music does this 308
involve?” And so on and so forth, just to give you a better idea of how that sort of large 309
idea then finally becomes detailed into a final thing. So, the answer is no, there is no 310
process. Each one has a sole process. 311
CK: Yeah. But the important part seems to be dialogue, communication, finding out 312
what needs are. 313
AB: Absolutely. 314
CK: Awesome. If you start at a new opera company with no Civic Impact, strategy or 315
focus on it, would you strive to create it and how? 316
AB: Absolutely, yes. I think you have to. It has to be part of every opera company; it 317
has to be a part of every arts organization. It has to be a part of anyone who is a business 318
in a community, I think. We cannot afford in this day in age to be siloed into our own 319
world and expect people to just come to us. Like we will just be here and won’t do any-320
thing. We expect people to come to us that is not how our world works anymore. I think 321
the younger generations, myself included and you too, I think we are looking for com-322
209
panies, for businesses, for organizations who want to get to know us, who want to be 323
part of our lives, who want to be in the mix of things. And so I think it would be foolish 324
for any opera company to not have Civic Impact as part of their mission, as part of their 325
goals. And you know, it does not have to be as intense as something like Lyric Unlim-326
ited, like I said, there are a lot of opera companies throughout the U.S. who already do 327
this kind of work, they do what they can within their means but it absolutely has to be a 328
part of every company. 329
CK: But you would say it is a part of your company but it is not what you are mainly 330
about? 331
AB: If I understand the question correctly, yes. Not that this is our main focus but it is 332
what we are about. Is that what you are asking? 333
CK: Yes. So, your main focus is still producing opera and making the art form strive? 334
AB: Yes, absolutely. I mean, at the end of the day our product is the opera that is on 335
stage. Just like Facebook, their main product at the end of the day is the social media 336
platform, but Facebook does a lot within its surrounding communities and nationally 337
creating Civic Impact. Corporations do this all the time. Our main product is still the 338
opera that is on stage but it does not mean that just because that is what we do well and 339
what we do best that we can ignore our communities. 340
CK: What is a successful season for Lyric Opera? 341
AB: A successful season, everything sells out. I think a successful season, sure, it does 342
mean of course that we have audiences clamoring to come through the doors to see our 343
shows, but more than that I think it means that we have audiences who are talking about 344
Lyric, who are sharing positive experiences with the company, who feel like they are 345
part of something, you know, that they don’t just come in, experience something and 346
that’s it, but that they walk away and think: “Jeez, Lyric really cares.” I think if we had 347
a full season where every person who leaves our house feels that way, feels good, feels 348
like their life was for that moment that they were in our house that they were able to let 349
go and just transcend with an opera, I think that would be the ideal perfect season. 350
CK: Awesome and how do you show your community that you care? 351
AB: That is actually a really good question. I would love to hear what everybody else 352
says about that. We do a lot for our ticket buyers to welcome them back and let them 353
know that we want them back. This summer we just launched an After Hour Series. 354
210
Which opens up our lobby, we have a beautiful large lobby here; we have opened it up 355
for commuters heading home, to stop in, take a look around, have a drink, listen to a 356
band, meet some new folks, … So, doing things like that with our more specific com-357
munities, it is going back to those communities and saying: “hey, what are you guys 358
working on? Can we help out? If we can’t, we want to come and see what you are do-359
ing.” Showing up for things that they have as well. That is I think how we show that we 360
care and that we are invested in the long-term relationships. Is to even if we don’t have 361
a specific program, a specific production to how that we are at least picking up the 362
phone and saying: “Hey, what is going on? How are you doing?” I think that does really 363
speak volumes. 364
CK: Awesome. What I forgot to ask you earlier is how would you create Civic Impact? 365
How would you go about it if you would start at a new company? 366
AB: I would go about it in the same kind of ways that most companies do, which is 367
again looking at what are the barriers within your community that are preventing some 368
of the community members to partake in what you are offering. And how can you re-369
move those? And to me that is the first step in the Civic Impact work. Does that mean: 370
“Hey, we have an area here in this part of the city that would really love to have some 371
connection with the performing arts, with music, but they just cannot get to where you 372
are.” “Alright, can we get over there? What can we bring to them, what can we show 373
them?” or if it is “Hey, we’ve got the bus, we’ve got the interest, we don’t have the 374
money.” “Alright, well, can we find the money? Can we find a way to get you in and 375
give you the opportunity that you are seeking?” One great example here in Chicago is 376
Chicago has a really big push right now for implementing mariachi programs into the 377
public school system. Again, there is a very large Mexican population in Chicago, of the 378
one third of the population that is Latino, about eighty per cent of that are Mexican and 379
so there is a really big push about mariachi music. So one of the things that we were 380
able to do is to say: “Well, we are not a mariachi band, we don’t do the mariachi but we 381
have these operas, so we can help that way because we will present it and then you can 382
showcase your students who are studying mariachi before and after the performances 383
and the people can see the value of the work that you are doing.” So, we were able to 384
create Civic Impact that way. 385
CK: Awesome. Great; and what is your communities’ reaction to your Lyric Unlimited 386
work? 387
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AB: I think the reaction so far has been really positive. We have had really, it is kind of 388
phenomenal how warmly we have been embraced, how willing organizations have been 389
to work with us, to partner with us, to help us any time that we are saying: “We like to 390
do this but we are not sure how?” And even community members outside of these or-391
ganizations I think once they recognized what is going on, there is always that look of 392
“Hey, thanks, that is awesome.” So it has been pretty phenomenal how well received the 393
work that we have been doing has been. Part of that is that we have been fortunate, part 394
of that is that we have had a good approach and I will absolutely credit Cayenne for 395
that, she is just so intelligent and intuitive when it comes to community relationship 396
building and so she has really taken the great first approach with all of these different 397
communities and partners that we have been establishing relationships with and I think 398
that is what feeds into the positive reaction from the community members. 399
CK: Awesome. Is there anything else you would like to add? 400
AB: No, I think we have covered a lot of ground here. These are really great questions. 401
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9.4. Video Reference Transcripts San Diego Opera Moves Forward – Alternative Models of Opera in America
Source: University of California Television (2014).
9.4.1. Part 1: Marc A. Scorca
The State of Opera in 2014: The best of times, the worst of times.
Speaker: Marc A. Scorca, President, Opera America (9:35 - 34:15)
(9:35) Thank you. Thank you very much, ladies and gentleman. Thank you, Nic, for
organizing this wonderful town meeting, for all of your interest in being here this after-
noon, your care, concern about the future of San Diego Opera. I like to thank the media
for their coverage of this and I hope you keep it up even when there isn’t controversy.
The arts are media worthy, even when it’s just good news. I would like to thank all of
my Opera America colleagues who have come together here in San Diego, in Dallas for
a meeting, the number of people who have offered their assistance to the company, to
me personally, it’s been a community responds to try to help here in San Diego. I also
like to thank all of the artists and administrators of San Diego Opera who for so many
years have brought great performances to the city. I am going to chat with you and keep
my eye on my clock. I am going to chat with you a little bit about the challenges and
opportunities that are facing opera currently. I want to talk about the state of the field
and I am going to highlight some success stories of how opera companies have thrived
over the challenges that have faced them. One of the great examples is Opera Philadel-
phia and normally when i make speeches like this I talk a lot about David’s work. So, it
is nice to have David here, so I don’t have to talk about his work, he can do that. But
first, what are some of the challenges that every opera company is facing?
(11:07) I would not be fair or honest if I didn’t confirm that (11:14) these
are challenging times for opera companies. It has been a very difficult 10 years, 12
years since 2000/01 and the recession of that part of the decade, then of course 2008/09
made it more difficult. But there are a lot of factors at hand, that I’ll talk about, that
have made the last ten or twelve years particularly difficult for opera companies.
(11:36)We have of course the pressure of increased cost. Opera America tracks data of
all of our members and we have done it for over 30 years and looking at any standard
group of companies producing the same amount of productions and performances each
year, we find that the cost of producing opera goes up roughly two to two and a half
213
times the cost of living. 2- 2,5 times the CPI is what we call the OPI, the Opera Price
Index. You know, in opera you can’t achieve the efficiencies through technology that
they achieve in industry. You can build a car now with four people running the comput-
ers that run the factory (12:15) but it still takes as many people to perform a Verdi opera
today as it did in the 19th Century, probably even more. We have the cost pressure of
hiring talented artists who are in demand around the world. We also have the internal
pressure to be better next year than we were the year before. All of that costs money and
the cost of producing opera has risen steadily.
(12:40) There are other challenges. Audience attendance has decreased for tickets, main
stage tickets, staged opera tickets, in the opera house. Over the last ten years according
to our data the level one companies, which are our largest companies, and San Diego
Opera is one of them, paid attendance at our largest companies has decreased by 24%.
This is a number that is reported by San Diego Opera, some companies have decreased
a little bit less, some a little bit more, the average of level one companies over the last
ten years is a decrease in paid attendance of 24 percent.
(13:15) Now there are also changes in audience behaviors, resistance to subscription,
that used to be such a sustaining source of revenue. People who are buying tickets much
later in the sales cycle, so opera companies have to spent more and more money on ad-
vertisement to make sure people show up on Friday night or Sunday afternoon.
(13:35) And audience sensibilities are becoming evermore sophisticated. People who do
want to see Carmen again, people who hope never to see Carmen again. People who
love new opera or operas who have conceptual approaches versus traditional approach-
es. (13:52) The opera audience is not a monolith and part of the art of running an opera
company is to put together seasons that appeal to as many people as possible.
(14:00) Opera companies exist in a very, very competitive environment. We are com-
peting for time. People work more. People are more connected all the time, in the office
and at home. People have so many other recreational and cultural opportunities within
their communities.
(14:15) So, we are competing for time, we are competing for the entertainment dollar,
we are also competing for the philanthropic dollar. As more and more worthy organiza-
tions establish themselves and grow in the areas of health care, education, social ser-
vices and the environment.
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(14:35) Opera companies exist in an evermore competitive world and it puts pressure on
us to hire more staff, do more mailings and special events. Again, pushing that cost ever
higher.
(14:48) We also are existing in a diminished supportive infrastructure. There is less arts
media coverage. And this not withstanding all the cameras here today. It is more and
more difficult to get reviews, to get featured stories in the newspapers, newspapers are
smaller and fewer people read them. There are fewer classical radio stations in which
we can advertise or have interviews before opening night. (15:12) There is a diminished
recording industry. The recording industry use to be a real partner helping to produce
stars and promote them with their posters in record stores or cd stores. They don’t exist
anymore. (15:27) There is decreased arts education in the schools. So that children and
their families aren’t introduced to opera as readily as they used to be. (15:35) There is
diminished coverage or diminished integration of the arts into the popular culture when
we think back to the way the three tenors crossed over into the world of the popular
world, Beverly Sills hosting The Johnny Carston Show, and go back further to the Ed
Sullivan Show where I first discovered opera. (15:55) So there are so many ways in
which the support system around opera companies has become more fragile, contrib-
uting to the fragility of opera companies themselves.
(16:06) There have also been societal changes. I clip articles back in my office about
some of these factors. The tremendous increase in student loans and the impact on
young professionals, you wish to have in your audience. They are paying student loans,
they are paying more money for housing and other essential services. There is
the uncertainty of the economy and lingering unemployment at very, very high levels.
(16:32) The middle class is a worried middle class these days and if you follow articles
about the retail industry, we learn, that, well, the high end stores seem to be doing well
and the very low end stores are doing well, it is those middle ground department stores
that have been struggling for years, they are the Macy’s and the Sears and others like
that. (16:53) A lot of that is our audience. They are worried about the economy, they are
worried about their jobs.
(16:58) We have a challenge communicating our civic value across the community and
we also have to admit that with demographic changes our links as a country to our Eu-
ropean culture roots becoming more distant. (17:12) So opera companies are facing real
challenges and I don’t want to minimize those because then the hard work our opera
215
companies are doing, like Opera Philadelphia wouldn’t be grounded in the reality.
(17:26) But despite all these challenges, there are intrinsic advantages. It’s the good
news about opera. The fact that we are a multimedia art form in a multimedia world.
People are accustomed now to listening, looking, reading all at the same time and that is
opera. It is images, sounds and words all at the same time. (17:46) We have a rich
American repertoire now that demonstrates opera can tell American sto-
ries, contemporary stories in operatic terms.
(17:56) Companies are increasingly discovering ways to have impact inside the opera
house and outside the opera house in the community. Not only in schools but in parks
and stadiums and other venues around town. (18:09) Opera companies do offer where
they are invited to, wonderful Education programs. Opera is an incredible portal into
learning about history and literature, the arts, theatre, music. It is a wonderful educa-
tional portal. Opera also still has the sizzle, the excitement of a special event. Even here
a few years ago you were doing five productions a year. It is not many, now you are
only doing four. Each one a special event. (18:35) The rarity of opera increases
the interest and curiosity about it. (18:40) And we have as a fuel for opera the passion of
the opera audience. There is no art form that is as sustained by knowledgeable enthusi-
asts as opera. It is a great asset for us.
(18:53) So, there are challenges, there are intrinsic assets that we have. (18:58) In terms
of creativity, and there are three dimensions by which I look at the state of the field.
One is creativity, one is the audience appetite for opera, and the third is the condition of
our opera companies. (19:09) In terms of creativity, opera is in the best shape it has ever
been in in the United States. We have more young artists, singers, directors, designers,
composers and librettists coming out of conservatories and universities than ever before.
(19:26) Thousands of young artists want to express themselves through opera. (19:31)
Many of these artists are hungry to perform recruiting their own opera companies. We
see it all over the country. In New York, we have the New York Opera Alliance that has
over thirty smaller opera companies and ensembles. There are more than twenty in
Northern California, a dozen in the Boston area, a handful in the Washington DC area
and in Chicago. (19:54) Where artists who want to perform using all of the social media
that you know about are finding an audiences, finding donors to support their work that
takes place in church basements and lofts, in clubs, they do old works and new works or
traditional works in completely unusual way. (20:11) These people are defining the 21st
216
century American opera that isn’t just opera on a grand scale or grand opera but opera
of an inventive scale, opera of an inventive nature.
(20:23) More new works, as I said, are being commissioned and performed than ever
before. Some of them by our traditional new works originators like Houston Grand
Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera or the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, but
there are a lot of Opera companies that are new to the realm of new works like Floren-
tine Opera in Milwaukee, Virginia Opera, Arizona Opera, Nashville Opera, Fort Worth
Opera, Opera Philadelphia. There are more new works producers than ever before,
companies dedicated to creating new works: American Lyric Theatre, American Opera
Projects, Music Theatre Group, Beth Morrison Productions, Peer Performing Arts Cen-
ter and many, many more. (21:06) There are a number of wonderful specialty compa-
nies, I call them. Companies like Gotham Chamber Opera, that perform smaller scale
works frequently in different venues around the city of New York. Opera Lafayette in
Washington D.C. that only performs French Baroque Opera. Urban Arias, a small com-
pany outside of Washington DC that only performs operas that are newer than 40 years
and shorter than 90 minutes. It’s true.
(21:31) Opera is that varied. We see a lot of our opera companies now that are do-
ing classics from the American Musical Literature like Lyric Opera Chicago or San
Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, to name just a few. And I know this year,
Lyric Opera of Chicago is doing four weeks of performances in their opera house of the
Sound of Music. Last year in their annual report between their musical and their new
partnership with Second City Comedy Troupe, Second City Comedy Troupe does sort
of cabaret evenings on the stage of the opera house where the subject matter on which
they joke is opera itself. 25,000 new people in the opera house last season alone.
(22:18) In terms of audiences, I know that our opera companies have reached hundreds
of new ticket buyers using Groupon, Living Social, ad other Social Media. For Virginia
Opera it was hundreds of tickets to Butterfly, but for Dallas Opera it was hundreds of
tickets to Anna Bolena, here in San Diego, Murder in the Cathedral. (22:39) There are
lots of people who are still very curious about opera and at the right prize are prepared
to come to the opera house. (22:48) A number of our opera companies
are experimenting with HD transmissions to the local sports stadiums. Dallas Opera
now transmitting to Cowboy Stadium, Washington National Opera to National Park,
Opera Philadelphia to Independence Mall. David will tell you a little bit about that. The
217
San Francisco Opera to AT&T Park, the Baseball Stadium. When the
San Francisco Opera transmits to the baseball park, they get each year between 25,000
and 30,000 people who come to this wonderful event and using certain strategies they
capture between 5,000 and 10,000 new email addresses of people who are interested in
opera but haven’t yet been to the opera house.” (23:28, N. Reveles) “And that’s a free
event.” (23:29) ”It’s a free event. Absolutely. Same at Cowboy Stadium
and Independence Mall, they are all free events and people get to come and it’s a way of
changing the narrative of opera. That opera doesn’t just take place in the opera house in
black tie but Opera can take place in other ways using electronic media. Can become a
civic event that is free and friendly to all. (25:55) We have any number now of universi-
ties and conservatories that have paying audiences for what they are doing on campus.
(24:03) When the Metropolitan Opera has 20$ and 25$ tickets the line goes out of the
door on some evenings. And certainly what wonderful evidence in the interest of opera
than three million tickets were sold last year to the Met HD transmissions.
(24:16) There is an audience for opera. It may not be an audience always for the grand
opera experience in the opera house but there are lots of audiences in ways that compa-
nies can reach audiences and David will tell you more about that.
(24:35) Our festivals are relatively healthy because what we have found is
that audiences are interested in more than just the opera performance but in an expanded
experience. So our festivals were people go away for a weekend, take a trip and go see
three and four operas while they are also going to museums or art galleries or have
wonderful dinners. These larger experiences are sustaining the festival companies, Santa
Fe, Saint Louis, Des Moines, Central City, Colorado, and the Glimmerglass Festival in
Coopers Town, NY. And I would note that in St. Louis, Des Moines, Central City and
Glimmerglass, none of those theatre is more than 1.000 seats. (25:12) Intimate opera
can have more of an impact that even the grandest grand opera. (25:19) A number of
our opera companies are experimenting with site specific opera where they chose the
venue depending on the nature of the work. Gotham Chamber Opera does that. When
they did, Rappaccini’s Daughter they did it in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. They just
did a wonderful Baroque Opera that depicts a fight among medieval warriors and they
did it in the Armor Gallery of the Metropolitan Museum. Just go up the road to Long
Beach Opera and some of the performances that they do or Boston’s Opera Annex.
When Boston Lyric Opera cut back from four productions to three, they found a way to
218
restore a fourth productions but instead of doing a forth production in the opera house,
they started what’s called the opera annex where one opera a year is in a venue, whether
it is, they did one the Lighthouse, in the Rotunda of the Kennedy Library, they did the
Turn of the Screw and more recently Lizzie Borden in the Armory, Downtown. So they
expanded back to four productions but the forth production is in a found space. (26:22)
There is a company in New York now called On Site Opera and of course there is The
Industry, a new opera company in Los Angeles, that is also doing sort of onsite art in-
stallations.
(26:35) Some of our companies have actually branded these subsidiary kind of produc-
ing divisions, HGO, Houston Grand Opera, HGOco, LA Opera Off-Grand, Lyric Un-
limited, are the names of some of these programs that consolidate those kind
of wonderful activity.
(26:50) But as I say, the audience for our main stage productions has diminished and for
level one companies, it has diminished quite significantly. Box office income as the
percentage of overall income has continued to shrink. It’s now barely over 30% of what
a company needs to put on its entire season. Down from 40% percent 10 years ago and
50% 25 years ago.
(27:15) This places tremendous pressure on philanthropy. Corporate contributions are
fairly flat, foundation gifts are fairly flat as well. Government support is down slightly.
Now, it has never been a big part of the picture but it is down. The increase in reliance
for every opera company is on individual gifts, on donors small and large who believe
in the opera enterprise and in some cities they are being wonderfully successful in at-
tracting new donors and continuing the support of traditional donors.
(27:48) Now, with all of this difficulty, we have lost opera companies. Connecticut
Opera in Hartford closed and we have no indication of a new opera company replacing
it. The same is the case at Opera Pacific. In Orlando the failure of that opera company
has been sort of compensated for at Orlando Symphony who is doing a number of semi
staged, concert staged operas. In Baltimore, the company closed but a new company
Lyric Opera Baltimore has sprung up and is doing well. Of course, you have lost Lyric
Opera San Diego here several years ago. Some companies are on hiatus, they have cho-
sen to just stop for a while, regroup, re-strategies and think about how they can go for-
ward. Cleveland Opera, Indianapolis Opera are a couple of those. (28:31) But a number
219
of Opera companies have really triumphed over these challenges and I think our mes-
sage today is despite the difficulty, there are themes you’ll find in our presentations that
suggest there is a way forward. Some of the themes: Board that are focused on the opera
companies future not the past. In workshops I talk about Opera boards of the future. If
you are a board of the past, you’ll spent all your time trying to cut costs. If you are a
board of the future, you are going to spent your time doing creative reinvention of what
an opera company can be in the 21st century. These companies that have triumphed
have a strong staff and strong board leadership that work well in partnership. They do
thorough financial analysis, an analysis of current programs and future possibilities.
They are strong and steady communicators to all the stakeholders. The are bold, some-
times making high-risk decisions. They also generally invest heavily in organizational
partnerships and cooperation with all stakeholders that include staff and unions, venues
and vendors.
(29:50) So, I have a few examples. My first example would have been Opera Philadel-
phia. I also talk a lot about Dallas Opera because in the case of the San Diego Opera,
Dallas Opera is most analogues in terms of a budget size and difficulties it had over the
last decade. Dallas Opera went through a decade of leadership transition,
they accumulated big deficits, they maxed out their lines of credit and had virtually no
cash on hand when the new general director started. But he was a brilliant analyzer of
the situation, a wonderful communicator; he had and build a strong board. They cut
back to three productions from five productions in order to reduce cost in the short term
while they mounted several campaigns to raise case for immediate payables, to reduce
the deficit, to establish a working cash reserve. In the same season that they cut back to
three productions, they launched an HD transmission to Cowboy Stadium. And just to
digress one second, when using a certain technology that we’ve introduced into the
field, if they map the area were their subscribers and single ticket buyers live its one site
of the Metroplex, when they map the residences of the 15,000 to 20,000 people who
attend cowboy stadium, thy live in a different part of the Metroplex. The new map
changes the narrative about Dallas Opera in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. (31:14)
They returned this year to four productions. One of which they did in a live simulcast to
nine locations around the world and next year they are going back to five productions,
including a world premiere. Dallas Opera turned the corner.
(31:29) Fort Worth Opera. Fort Worth Opera had a change in leadership. They had a big
220
deficit to reduce. They had no cash. Mounted several special campaigns. But in Fort
Worth Opera, they decided to condense their operation and to become a festival. Be-
cause the Dallas Opera performed once a months through the winter/spring, you know
what that's like. And Fort Worth Opera thought to do the same was silly. So they creat-
ed contrast within their community by becoming a festival that attracts media attention
and travelers from out of town.
(32:02) Austin Lyric Opera facing great financial difficulty. Again, a huge cash short-
age. They owned a building, they sold it. They brought in an outside consultant. The
board made the difficult decision to sell the office rehearsal center that they build and it
was an award wining building. They sold it, paid off the deficit, have new leadership
and the company is going forward very, very well.
(32:24) Palm Beach Opera, again, excellent staff/board partnership. You would think
that it would be easy to fundraise in Palm Beach but it is not. They were facing the same
difficulties. They had several special campaigns to raise cash to pay tomorrows payroll
but they reduced to three productions. They reduced the number of performances. They
introduced community performances in different venues around the city. They intro-
duced a park concert which now performs right down by the water and they’ll have a
new app where people will get plot information, bio information while they are there in
the park this coming year. Very skilled use of social media and they are looking at their
first world premiere production next season in February.
(33:09) So there are wonderful examples of companies that have faced very sev-
er financial problems, where they had however unified staff and board determined to
rise to the challenge. They involved all their stakeholders, everyone from again staff,
unions, vendors, and venues to find a way to make the companies return to stability
and actually to set the way for future growth and innovation.
33:37 So, I could paint a dire picture. I could bring you stories of why Baltimore Opera
or Connecticut Opera closed. But I prefer to focus on the companies that have had suc-
cess. That have found a way forward using creativity and commitment, good communi-
cation, organizational partnership, and stakeholder participation. There is a way forward
for these companies and for San Diego Opera.
34:03 So, without further a-due, why don’t you hear from a real general director not me,
[…] my very, very good colleague and very dear friend, David Devan. (34:15)
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9.4.2. Part 2: David Devan
The Philadelphia plan
Speaker: David Devan, General Director, Opera Philadelphia (34:25 – 55:35)
(34:25) Thank you. Thank you so much. It is awesome to see this many people come to 1
a meeting to care about opera in their community. I am just so happy I got on the plane 2
and I haven’t even started talking yet. (…) You know, I came for a number of reasons. 3
In our lives we all face challenges, in our personal lives, in our opera lives, and when 4
that happens, family shows up. And we have in this country one of the best families that 5
a sector of arts could ask for. So it is in that spirit that I come today. Because this is real-6
ly hard. It is hard, there is a lot of change. Marc just walked us through just to many 7
variables to write it down on one piece of paper. And so we just need to hang together. 8
We need to share. We need to push each other a little bit, when appropriate, to find the 9
right answers. 10
(35:16) We need to find our own right answers. I am not here today to share with you 11
the Philadelphia plan to sell the Philadelphia plan. I am hoping that I can share 12
the Philadelphia plan to give you some ideas and points of conversation to come up with 13
the San Diego plan. Your plan is going to be different. And with all the proliferation of 14
media, choices, fragmenting of the audiences, what’s happening is, which Nic has 15
talked about in the beginning, 16
(35:44) Each community is being able to define opera in its own terms. And that is the 17
path forward. You have to look deep inside with what’s important to you and what you 18
care about. I also come from a city that is a little bit south from a major metropolitan 19
center. So, I am from the wrong coast but I have a little bit of proximity issues like you 20
all have. And you know, we had the Mini-Met issue too. I had a donor just introduce me 21
at a party on Sunday saying: “This is David Devan and he came and he changed things 22
at Opera Philadelphia. They were trying to do the Mini-Met on a Dollar Ninety-Eight. 23
It wasn’t working.” Cause just the reality is that that is one model and it is great and its 24
fantastic and I am a big supporter of the Met. But Philadelphia is not New York and San 25
Diego is not LA. And we are not any other city than the ones that we are from, or the 26
ones that we live in. I am going to share with you our plans and some things that we did, 27
so that you can hopefully have a conversation. 28
(36:44) Like Marc I want to talk about challenges first. The first challenge that I have 29
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faced since being there is consumer trends with our audience, its turn and the waning 30
popularity of subscriptions. And there is good news and bad news in that. The good 31
news is through some fancy transactional analysis, we have more people seeing opera in 32
Philadelphia than have ever seen opera before. More households are buying tickets than 33
in 40 years of history of opera in our city. Awesome! 34
(37:19) There is bad news though. They are not buying at the same frequency because 35
subscription is a waning model. And in fact we attract 3,000 new households every 36
year and the following year only 300 of them will come back. Now those people, they’ll 37
all come back but someone can come back within five years and still consider them-38
selves to be part of the Opera Philadelphia family. So that changes the math of things 39
pretty substantially. it also changes what we offer and how we offer it. 40
(37:58) The other big challenge that all big companies face and ours is absolutely in-41
cluded in this, is fundraising going beyond today and actually adding money for cash 42
reserves and for capital for innovation, and even paying for innovation today. We are 43
always on a treadmill to catch up and we are always looking for that all important 44
change capital. 45
(28:20) And the third big challenge that keeps me awake at night is managing the pace 46
of change. And if you are not ready to manage the pace of change, then you just gotta 47
go do something else. Because, I mean, it is everywhere. I am competing with Netflix. I 48
gotta change. 49
(38:40) Now the good news to all these challenges is, we got lots of assets. Certainly 50
relative to many of our other colleagues in many other arts fields, we have a lot of toys. 51
We have a lot of things going on on stage, we have a lot of artists, we have a lot of peo-52
ple making this happen. Everything from stage crews through to the orchestras and the 53
pit. 54
(39:00) So let’s focus on those assets. I am going to start at our turnaround. In 2006 I 55
was hired and we started on a precautionary strategy cause we were seeing strains 56
in competition for philanthropic dollars. So we set a strategy in place that was going to 57
have a slowly change. And then this thing called the recession hit in 2008 and our nice 58
little plan turned into a crisis. 59
(39:29) And so what happened, the board leadership, the officers of the corporation met 60
223
in my office at 2pm on Thursday for three months. Because these things, you can’t 61
change them over night. There is a lot of introspection and thought and you need 62
to understand all these variables and you are not going to do it at one board meeting. So 63
what we learned through that or what we determined was that we had to stick with our 64
long-term strategy but we had to change our tactics. And tactics is something that you 65
can change a lot easier but you need to have a good strategic plan; and that we all had to 66
face the facts and be forever optimistic - simultaneously. So that’s what we did. And we 67
learned some things. We learned that it was too costly to keep on doing what we were 68
doing. In 2004, we did five productions, six performances. By the time I got there it was 69
four productions and even that was too costly. 70
(40:36) That if we were going to survive, we needed to be part of the city, not above 71
it. And following from that, - this is important, that our civic footprint was as important 72
as our product footprint. So what I mean is that what we do and how we connect has to 73
exceed the opera house. That means we need diversity of operatic experiences and at the 74
same time we had to increase overall quality in everything we did, including at the big 75
old opera house. So this was a turning point. Everything set of changed there. In that 76
year, we escrowed the subscription money in a brave move, we plotted out the plan, 77
explained some changed tactics, we were going to go down to three productions in the 78
Academy of Music, the oldest opera house in America, 2,700 seats, and we were going 79
to introduce a chamber series in the Perlman Theater, the 550 seat theatre. But we could 80
only do that if we raised a million dollars in cash in six weeks, which we did. Because 81
we had a plan, and it looked different and we were really committed to it. And it was 82
thoughtful because those three months of sitting down with the senior board members in 83
my office every Thursday at 2 o’clock paid off. We were living it, we were breathing it, 84
we had all the answers. So we thought. Everything changes. 85
(42:15) So what that did was started us on a new path. We retired the deficit and we 86
could then start moving forward. And what do we look like now? 87
(42:22) Our products have changed. We have three product lines, - we actually talk 88
about product lines in opera, imagine. We have Opera at the Academy, which 89
is our large opera house, which does things on grand scale. We have our Aurora Series 90
for Chamber Opera at the Perlman. It’s a 550 seats theater, two operas a year. We also 91
have our Opera in the City, which is a work that we produce in sight-specific places 92
with a community partner every year. So for example this current season, there are sev-93
224
en opera offerings. We have Nabucco, a little grand, we had Ainadamar by Golijov in 94
the large opera house, amazing, amazing opera, which everyone loved, You’ll read 95
about it in Opera News. They loved it too. Don Giovanni, which we are opening next 96
week. But this also went with our Perlman with The Dialogue of Carmelites, which we 97
produced with the Curtis Institute of Music, one of the great conservatories in 98
our country. And we are going to open in June Coffin in Egypt, a new work specifically 99
written for Frederica von Stade by Ricky Ian Gordon co-commissioned with HGO in 100
Houston and The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills. In 101
addition, on May 8, we will be opening a co-production of Salome with the Philadelphia 102
Orchestra. Get this in the concert hall with a theatrical set. So it is a theatrical mash-up, 103
co-production with the Philadelphia Orchestra. They are on the stage and we build a set 104
surrounding them for this crazy mash-up experience. 105
(44:01) And speaking of crazy, in November we launched our Opera in the City initia-106
tive. And we launched it with an opera called Svadba, a wedding. And it is Serbian, it’s 107
acapella, six women singing before the night one of them gets married, straight tone, 108
extended vocal technique, no instrumentation, 50 minutes, but then thankfully this great 109
Balkan band came up during curtain call, moved everybody to another part of the build-110
ing and we had a complete wedding cake, beer-cags, and a dance floor and everyone 111
stayed and got drunk. The run was sold out. It was at an old pump station, below the 112
Ben Franklin Bridge that we co-produced with the Fringe Arts. 50 percent of the people 113
were new to file, had never been to anything we had ever done. It was like the Hipsters 114
meet the Tiara crowd all together. It was great. 115
(45:03) Also this year, we have three composers in Residence. This is the program that 116
Nic talked about, funded by Andrew Mallon: Lembit Beecher, Missy Mazola and An-117
drew Norman. Each are in three year residencies, developing their opera craft and 118
communicating with our community and we are getting to see the inside of what it’s 119
like to write an opera. So, that. We went from four opera to seven happenings and three 120
composers in residence in the course of about four years. And our annual budget is 10.5 121
Million. (Nic Reveles: "Think about that.”) I’m going to tell you in a bit how we do it. 122
There’s a little secret sauce there. 123
(45:50) The other thing we have been involved in is electronic media. So, our Broadcast 124
on Independence Mall is free and like the situation in Dallas, it is bringing a whole new 125
demographic. And we have just done all this branding research and our community 126
225
work, according to the researchers, is actually the greatest source of our brand equity. 127
Brand equity is what the stickiness is in your brand that allow your consumers to really 128
highly value it. So, the community work, the free performances that we do there, our 129
Random Acts of Culture that we did in Macy’s and at Reading Terminal, thirteen mil-130
lion YouTube views later by Chronicle Philadelphia Places, those things actually add 131
more value to your brand equity cause they have broader reach than what you do in the 132
opera house. Amazing. 133
(46:37) Annual contributed income has increased 85 percent from 4 millions to 7.8 mil-134
lions since 2006. This is because we had a number of, and we are off to get several sev-135
en figure national grants for much of the new work we are doing. And we have also 136
build a solid base of operation of new gifts above 25,000 from local individuals. All the 137
way from 25,000 to 1,000,000 dollars. Our largest annual gift is a million dollars. Our 138
average ticket yield has increased 24 percent. So we too have seen the same sort of ero-139
sion in terms of the volume but our income has remained flat because we have been able 140
to make up for that in yield. Another amazing statistic, we just got this data in last 141
month. Our largest single ticket buying demographic, 27 percent of our ticket buyers are 142
25 to 34. Amazing. Amazing! And it is amazing but careful what you wish for cause 143
they ain’t gonna subscribe. Gotta find another way to keep them involved. 144
(47:47) So what are the underpinnings of this work. First of all, you have to embody the 145
spirit of the city, we believe, in everything you do. You have to have a love affair with 146
the place that you live in. Two, partnerships, partnerships, partnerships, partnerships. 147
Three, consumer choice, embrace it, don’t fight it. And third, venture philanthropy. 148
Think like someone looking for venture capital and find the donors that think the same 149
way. 150
(48:10) So, embody the spirit of our city. I believe it is our responsibility to earn the 151
love and the trust of our city that we live in and that the character of the city has to live 152
in everything we do. And we do that by busting out of the opera house a lot. Philadelph-153
ia is the birthplace of our nation. It’s the place of first, first everything. And it is the city 154
of brotherly love. So, everything we need to do needs to be innovative. it has to have 155
that American innovative edge. It has to propel our genre forward. It has to embody the 156
American ideals of progress. We need to have the character with a streak of independ-157
ence cause that’s Philly and love of our city. And we actually talk about that at our artis-158
tic planning meetings. What we are producing does it have that vibe, does it have that 159
226
feeling? 160
(48:58) So, as you guys start your conversation. What’s San Diego’s soul? What does it 161
mean about living here? Spent some time chewing on that. And you’ll come up with 162
your own answers and it’ll be authentic and it’ll be real. And people will care. You just 163
need to figure out what that is you are going to uncap. 164
(49:15) Partnerships. Everything we do is in partnership. We have eight new works in 165
development, in addition to the three that Nic talked about, everyone with a co-166
commissioner. We have the Curtis Institute of Music, we are truly blessed by having 167
them, we have co-produced Wozzeck, Cunning Little Vixen, Antony & Cleopatra and 168
Dialogues of the Carmelites with them. We have got The Composer in Residence pro-169
gram which we partner with people in the big city up the highway, Gotham Chamber 170
Opera and Music Theater Group from New York. Great ways to bring the cities togeth-171
er and we just did joined work where we produce something in Philadelphia and then 172
we did it at the Opera Center in New York. The Barnes Foundation, we have a recital 173
and lecture series there, it’s a pretty important place. Fringe Arts is bringing in all that 174
Hipster crowd and with our Opera in the City and we also do our Composer in Resi-175
dence performances there. The Philadelphia Orchestra producing in their concert hall. 176
This is what makes our output really, - our output is at what a 15 Million dollar compa-177
ny is for then million. Cause we are using the assets of other institutions to fulfill our 178
mission while we fulfill their mission at the same time and finding that win-win. The 179
trick to partnerships I think cause you just kind of got to leave your ego at the door. Be-180
cause you need to actually embrace what everyone else wants. 181
(50:45) Consumer choice. You can’t force your customers to do what you want them to 182
do. The days of buying these five operas that include the three that you really want to 183
see are over. It’s true. They get to pick. So, progress needs to be elective. What we have 184
done with our product lines is think about different types of opera presentations and we 185
have separated them out so none has to take anything they don’t want. Everything we do 186
at the Perlman is very contemporary. We have done Henze’s Phaedra, all sorts of crazy 187
stuff and it is elective. You don’t have to come to it if you don’t want to. And I think the 188
idea that one size fits all is a danger. And that is why I think different venues, different 189
experiences, and decoupling what you do is so important. Because it puts the consumer 190
in charge. New markets and new customers are good but they are probably not going to 191
look how you look and they are not going to want what you want necessarily and that is 192
227
ok. It’s a multichannel universe. Our opera companies have to be multi-channel offer-193
ings. They have to live like that and behave like that because that’s the world we live 194
in. 195
(52:03) And finally venture philanthropy. I love this term. It is our chairman’s term, Dr. 196
Dan Meyer, who considers himself a venture philanthropist. And I love that cause I 197
need philanthropy. Most organizations are undercapitalized, so that means that we don’t 198
have enough liquidity to fuel what we do and we certainly don’t have enough money to 199
fuel innovation. Cause we don’t actually have strong current positions on our balance 200
sheet. What we have come to do is start thinking a bit like the venture capital model. If I 201
was a startup and if I needed venture capital how would I describe that? What would be 202
the returns on investment? And that’s where I am asking people to commit to. Not to the 203
status quo or how they need to turn on the electrical bill or pay the electrical bill. I want 204
people that, I need to find new money to invest in new ideas and that will keep the sta-205
tus quo in play as well as moving forward. So, progress looks like being able to talk 206
about it and then seeking philanthropy that is looking for return on investment in terms 207
of community good for that. So, The Composer in Residence program got a 1.4 million 208
dollar grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation. It is their first grant with us but it was 209
because we proposed a program that didn’t look like any other program that was hap-210
pening that had real returns on the ecology of our field. 211
(53:32) I think the only other thing I didn’t have in my notes but want to talk about, I 212
was standing out there and we were talking about, the stage hands and I were hanging 213
out there, and I want to talk about labor. Because we are all in this together. And we 214
have IATSE, AFFM and AGMA, we work with them and what’s been amazing about 215
this, is we have all worked together for all these changes. Because we came to the part 216
and said we want to preserve employment, we don’t want to hurt it and we were able to 217
have a real life conversation and everybody that is on the deck, every stage hand, they 218
are here, they care. The musicians care, the singers care, and this can’t be a conversation 219
that happens with just the audience and just the board. It is all going to be something 220
that happens together. 221
(54:50) Awesome. (Applause & cheer) That’s awesome. 222
(55:10) Thank you very, very much. I hope I have given you lots to think about, lots to 223
talk about. Like I said we are all in this together. From everybody in Philadelphia, we 224
228
just all wish you the very, very best here in San Diego and we feel confident that one 225
way or another you’ll plot a course forward and I’ll be looking forward to coming back 226
and seeing you in your new version 2.0 (55:35). 227
229
Sworn
Statement
I,
born on
hereby declare that I have prepared this Bachelor’s thesis inde-
pendently and without external assistance. In doing so, I have
not used any aids other than those mentioned in the enclosed
list of sources.
All points that have been taken from publications literally or
adapted form have been identified as such by me.
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[Place] [Date] [Signature]