Seeing Red at the Music Center Opera

Most reports on Los Angeles Music Center Opera have expressed gratified wonder at how much has been accomplished so quickly. But there has been a price. This June, by the end of its third season of productions, the company could face deficits totaling almost $5 million.

According to the company’s own figures, it ended the 1987-88 season with an accumulated deficit of $3 million. Even if its projections of a substantial increase in earned income and a slight reduction in operating expenses (despite a longer season) come true, the deficit at the end of the current season would be $4.75 million.

So far, the deficit has been covered by borrowing, from banks and the company’s small endowment. In documents filed in July with the California Arts Council, MCO outlined a three-part plan for retiring the deficit: (1) a “Broadway at the Bowl” benefit concert, which was held last Aug. 29; (2) marketing a limited-edition artwork by David Hockney, designer of the company’s acclaimed “Tristan und Isolde” production; (3) a special Guarantors’ Fund, for which the board of directors proposes to raise $10 million over five years, beyond its regular annual fund raising.

The Bowl benefit was held as planned but raised only $140,000 instead of the projected $500,000. Sale of a Hockney lithograph was projected to supply $200,000 toward deficit reduction for the current season, but the artwork never went on sale. The Guarantors’ Fund was expected to knock $2 million off the deficit but has not come to fruition yet, although MCO stated to the California Arts Council in July that approximately $5 million was already committed to the fund.

MCO officials declined to discuss with The Times the status of these endeavors or adjustments to next season’s schedule, pending a press conference planned for early February.

That announcement will coincide with the presentation of the company’s next financial report to the California Arts Council. The financial report also has been delayed, to accompany the company’s application for a 1989-90 grant from the arts council.

The Times also has learned that MCO has not filed its 1987-88 periodic report to the California attorney general, which was due Nov. 15.

A company spokesman said the delay in filing the report is because the 1987-88 audit is not yet complete. He said the company has submitted a request for an extension.

However, a check with the Registry of Charitable Trusts in Sacramento yielded no record of a request for an extension. The company is allowed to seek an extension until May 15, when the report is finally due--almost a full year after the end of the season.

According to Registrar Larry Campbell, such extensions are routinely requested not only by performing arts organizations but by nonprofit charities. He said the requests generally are granted.

If the final deadline is not met, the organization’s tax exemption for that year could be disallowed, leading to the imposition of a minimum tax, plus interest penalties.

Brightening the financial picture somewhat is MCO’s first National Endowment for the Arts grant, an award of $50,000 for general operating support for next season. The company was not eligible for previous NEA grants because the Endowment requires a three-year track record before it will consider an application.

William Russell, who left his job as director of finance and administration for Music Center Opera in October, has been appointed general director of Anchorage Opera. Although he acknowledged, “I certainly had to deal with a lot of financial problems in Los Angeles,” he added, “That’s why I took the job in the first place--because it seemed like a big challenge. I don’t want it to be said that that was the reason I left. The main reason was the chance to be a general director.”

Russell, 38, said that his new company has had a budget surplus the last three years. Since the crunch to the local oil economy, though, Anchorage Opera has scaled back to only two productions a year. The 14-year-old company has other activities and plans three productions for next season--”Rigoletto,” “Die Fledermaus” and “Sweeney Todd.”

“I like to think I’ve left them (MCO) with some of the tools to pull themselves out,” Russell said of the MCO deficit and his work with the company.

MCO is currently looking for a new finance director, but that vacancy has not contributed to the financial reporting delays, according to the MCO director of public affairs, John Howlett. The administrative side of Russell’s duties have been covered by Patricia Mitchell, who joined the company in September as deputy general manager.

Other new additions to the senior staff include company manager Robin Thompson--who staged the ArtPark “Ring” for Christopher Keene--and production stage manager Sheri Shanker, who joins the company next month from a similar position with Pittsburgh Opera.

MORE OPERA: A special dinner/dance at the O’Keefe Center in Toronto tonight honors Lotfi Mansouri, the outgoing general director of the Canadian Opera Company, who has moved to the same position with San Francisco Opera. Guests have been asked to dress as their favorite opera character, and performances will feature artists who have appeared with Canadian Opera during Mansouri’s 12-year tenure.

EVERYWHERE BUT IN L.A.: John Clifford’s Ballet of Los Angeles--not to be confused with his defunct Los Angeles Ballet--begins its second national spring tour this month, in Columbia, S.C. The company has not yet danced in its namesake city, however, nor will it on the coming tour, which features dancers from the Bolshoi and Kiev ballets. Ballet of Los Angeles was formed last year to fulfill booking commitments left vacant when Chicago Ballet suspended operations.

The Minnesota Opera has received $250,000 from the Northwest Area Foundation to support its New Music-Theater Ensemble. The ensemble will give fully staged performances of three new works in March, plus the premiere of William Harper’s “Snow Leopard” in November. A grant of $75,000 from the Dayton Hudson Foundation supports the premiere of Libby Larsen’s “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus” as the final production of the company’s 1989-90 subscription season.