POWER PLAY AT L.A. OPERA: EXIT DORDICK

Not long ago, Johanna Dordick appeared to be sitting on top of the local operatic world. While the fledgling Music Center Opera Assn. had to import whole opera companies to mount its first official season here, Dordick’s Los Angeles Opera Theatre (LAOT) announced plans for its sixth season, a season of all-new productions beginning in July. And in its very own home, too--moving from the ancient, stuffy Wilshire Ebell to the newly renovated Wiltern Theatre.

What’s more, LAOT had contracted its first bona-fide star, Jon Vickers. The future looked bright for Dordick and the company she had founded and guided through a sea of skeptics.

Then, suddenly, Dordick dropped a bombshell: On April 11, she quit her post as artistic director. Even some members of the board expressed surprise.

Why did she leave? And what will happen to the company? That depends on whom you ask.

Ask Johanna Dordick what caused her to resign and she will point to Edmund Kaufman, president of LAOT’s board of directors.

“Right now, Ed Kaufman is having a great deal of fun on my blood, sweat and tears,” she said angrily.

According to the official LAOT statement, the resignation resulted from differences between Dordick and the board on policy and administration. Nonetheless, she refused to place the blame anywhere but on the board president.

“I never had differences with the board,” Dordick said. “I never disagreed with them. I always complied with what they asked.”

It was Kaufman, she insisted, who had forced the break. He had intruded on her territory, and became “belligerent” whenever she protested, she said.

The Century City-based attorney joined the company in April, 1984 (“at my invitation,” the ex-impresaria emphasized), and was elected president by the 20-member board one month later. Almost immediately, Dordick said, “he decided he wanted to become involved in the everyday running of business. This was in opposition to the terms of my contract, which clearly spell out my responsibilities.

“I (was) chief operating officer of the company, in charge of running the day-to-day activities. I’ve done that since the beginning. I tried everything I could to resolve this with him.

“He said I worked for the board. But in (non-profit) organizations, it doesn’t work that way. The board is supposed to be a partner with the director.”

Kaufman acknowledged Dordick’s dispute with him, but flatly denied her statements of disagreement.

“Her contract says she worked for the board,” Kaufman said. “I’m sorry she has taken the interpretation that she has. There is no question that, under the law, the board has the main responsibility. Whether a company is profit or non-profit, the responsibility of the board doesn’t change.

“The last time we had a king in this country was about 200 years ago.

“The problem with Johanna was that she had always been a one-person show. But the company is getting bigger, and she has to delegate. I want to make it clear that the board never questioned her in the artistic area (choosing repertory, hiring directors, singers, etc.). But she wanted absolute authority.”

Though Dordick claimed that Kaufman had told the board of his plans to become “the Otto Kahn of Los Angeles” (a reference to the Metropolitan Opera’s influential chairman of the board in the early part of the century), Kaufman dismissed such a notion: “I can’t run an opera company, and I certainly have no ambitions.”

Kaufman emphasized that it was Dordick’s choosing to create a personal conflict with him: “I suppose it’s easier to focus your troubles on one person. I’m in the unfortunate position of being the subject of her wrath.”

But he also pointed out that “she didn’t have the support of a single member of the board. We insisted on authority. And when I say ‘we,’ I don’t mean ‘me.’

Board member Warren Matthei, who runs a major investment bank, was devastated by Dordick’s departure. He spoke in cool business-like terms--despite the fact that, as he admitted, he “was viewed by the board as the one closest to her. I think it (her resignation) hit me the hardest. I was the one she called first.”

Matthei said the reason for the break is clear: “Johanna has an artistic personality. She’s not a business person.

“In the early days she was the chief cook and bottle-washer. As the company grew, she became reluctant to let other people assume the business responsibilities.

“She just had a difficult time dealing with the rapid changes. Johanna would say, during a discussion on some fiscal matter she proposed, ‘It’s not negotiable. I want to do it.’ This approach became difficult.

“A lot of it (her resistance) was ego. A lot of it was theatrics.”

Was the Dordick-Kaufman conflict a classic battle of egos? Evidently. As Matthei pointed out, “Ed is an equally driven man on the subject of opera. He’s even taking a sabbatical from his law firm to work on the next season. Yet, Johanna had shown some willingness to adapt to the changing environment” created when Kaufman took leadership of the board.

“It never crossed my mind that she might leave,” Matthei confessed.

“She had told me early on, ‘I have an artistic temperament,’ and I think we understood that,” he said. “Still, it was incomprehensible to her that LAOT could exist without her. She felt she embodied the company.

“She brought us to a certain level,” Matthei noted. “But we have a vision of making this one of the leading artistic institutions in California.”

Another member of the board, David Anderson, president of General Telephone of California, viewed the occasional disagreements between Dordick and the board as minor--and quite normal. “I didn’t feel the differences were of that magnitude (to cause her resignation). She seemed supportive of Kaufman. When the board nominated him, she was comfortable with the decision.”

Since Dordick said that she had never disclosed her unhappiness to any members of the board, that perhaps explains why no one expected her resignation. “I didn’t want to dampen their enthusiasm,” she claimed. When she finally broached the subject, “they were not aware I was having differences with Mr. Kaufman.

“I never wanted to have a confrontational session. Mr. Kaufman told me that if I took (our dispute) before the board, he had the votes and he would bury me.

“If I have to fight for my position, I don’t want it.”

Though he was critical of the way Dordick did business with the board, Kaufman expressed admiration for the manner in which the company had grown under her leadership. In 1980, the company (then known as Los Angeles Opera Repertory Theatre) launched its first season with an evening of opera excerpts and three performances of “Albert Herring” at the Wilshire Ebell. The budget that first year was $155,000. The budget for 1985 is approximately $1.8 million.

“I don’t want to take anything away from her. She is entitled to credit for the ’85 season,” Kaufman noted.

“But we are not going to shut down just because she is gone.”

Dordick is succeeded by Henry Holt, the company’s music director who last week accepted a one-year contract as artistic director.

Holt is a logical choice. For 17 years he served as music director and conductor of Seattle Opera. That’s where he met Dordick, an aspiring soprano in the mid-’70s. In fact, it was Holt, he is quick to point out, who encouraged her to give up singing and follow her secret dream of forming a company in Los Angeles. Holt was an honorary board member of LAOT from its inception. As a confidante, he said he heard Dordick express her unhappiness on more than one occasion.

“She would tell me, ‘I’m wearing out on the job.’ The concept of her resigning had been in our conversations for years,” he said. “This was part of her technique of dealing with the board.”

But when the real resignation came, Holt was left in the dark: Dordick had not discussed her plans with him. “I was shocked at the news,” he said.

The subject of Holt’s hiring uncovered yet another area of disagreement between Dordick and Kaufman. “I thought Henry was my friend,” Dordick commented bitterly, “but he didn’t have the decency to say to the board (when offered the post of artistic director), ‘I want to talk to Johanna first.’ ” Yet, Kaufman and Holt said she had encouraged Holt’s promotion to the top job.

Holt said, “The day after Johanna resigned, she told me--in a calm, cool, pleasant voice--’I think it’s time this happened. Now, let’s see what you can do.’ ” Kaufman read from Dordick’s letter of resignation. Referring to unfinished business for the upcoming season, Dordick wrote, “I would think that Henry Holt would be helpful in these areas.”

“I’m concerned about the season, now that I’m not there to guide (LAOT) through,” Dordick confessed. “There is no spiritual leader there. I was the heart and soul of the company.

“Mr. Kaufman doesn’t realize that his first responsibility is to be the keeper of the flame.”

The future remains clouded on both sides. “The dust has to settle,” Kaufman said. “I’ll think about the future in a month or two.”

And what lies ahead for Dordick? “I’ve been working like a crazy person for 6 1/2 years. I need time to get the cobwebs out of my head.”