Opera Center Fine-Tuning Balanced Budget, Season

Los Angeles Music Center Opera is projecting for 1989-90 its first balanced budget, following three years of accumulating deficits. Company officials announced details of the new season, featuring three new productions, at a press conference Thursday, stressing solidarity behind current management and the conviction that its years of deficits are over.

The major changes in the season are the elimination of “Orlando Furioso” (a new production from San Francisco Opera) and the replacement of a new “Idomeneo” by a borrowed “Le Nozze di Figaro.” Additions are a double bill of the Oliver Knussen/Maurice Sendak works, “Where the Wild Things Are” and “Higglety, Pigglety, Pop!,” and “Oklahoma!,” ending the season in June.

Although expenses are slightly more and earned income less than predicted for the current season, the deficit for this year will be substantially less, thanks to an increase of $1.5 million in contributed income. The season deficit is now listed at $807,959, creating a cumulative total of $3.1 million.

Addressing the deficit problem, board chairman Roy Ash insisted that these first three seasons of productions should be considered start-up years, and that the company now considers its initial investment to be complete. The next step, he said, “starts by operating on balanced budgets from here on out.”

Ash also said that the board has obtained commitments for individual gifts totaling more than $6 million, earmarked for a much-deferred and still not clearly formulated capital fund. The company projects applying $1.2 million from this fund toward deficit reduction for 1989-90, bringing the accumulated deficit under $2 million by June, 1990.

Publicity about the MCO deficits and widely bruited rumors about possible new executive leadership when general director Peter Hemmings’ contract expires seemed to be behind the unusual presence all chief company officers. Ash and board president Bernard Greenberg both stressed their support for Hemmings’ work, and Greenberg announced that they are discussing a new contract with Hemmings. “We want to be able to assure ourselves that he will be here for the next five years,” Greenberg said.

Hemmings said that the company has no plans to appoint a music director, though he also is projecting an increased season and presence for the company when the completion of Disney Hall opens dates in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Changes to the Pavilion and its operation that the company is considering or proposing include the addition of standing room at the back of the orchestra seating section.

Artistic personnel for the new season remains largely as previously announced. The new “Tosca,” which opens the season Sept. 6, will be staged by Elijah Moshinsky, however, rather than Peter Hall. Hemmings described the production as a vehicle for Maria Ewing, singing her first Tosca.

The newly unveiled portion of the season continues what Hemmings considers a company tradition of ending with an operetta or musical, a spot occupied in prior years by “Porgy and Bess,” “The Mikado” and “Orpheus in the Underworld.” The Kussen/Sendak works also figure in the company’s outreach plans.

A production of “Le Nozze di Figaro” from Chicago replaces “Idomeneo” as a fiscal concession to deficit reduction. Hemmings pointed out that a borrowed “Figaro” would be cheaper and expected to sell more tickets than the home-produced, less popular “Idomeneo.”

“Idomeneo,” however, has only been deferred until the following year. Other highlights of the 1990-91 season are new productions of “Fidelio,” directed by Gotz Friedrich; “Elektra,” directed by Hall, and “Hansel and Gretel,” designed and staged by Sendak and Frank Corsaro.

Other works for 1990-91 are “Aida,” with Leona Mitchell and Placido Domingo in the production that opened the new opera house in Houston this season, and “Nixon in China,” getting its much anticipated West Coast premiere in association with the 1990 Los Angeles Festival.

The MCO schedule:

“Tosca” by Giacomo Puccini. A new production conducted by Placido Domingo, directed by Elijah Moshinsky. Tosca: Maria Ewing, Cavaradossi: Neil Shicoff, Scarpia: Justino Diaz. Sept. 6, 9, 12, 15, 18.

“The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny” by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill. A new production conducted by Kent Nagano, directed by Jonathan Miller, designed by Robert Israel. Jenny: Anna Steiger, Begbick: Marvellee Cariaga, Jimmy: Gary Bachlund. Sept. 10, 13, 14, 16, 17.

“Le Nozze di Fiagaro.” Production from the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducted by Lawrence Foster, directed by Sir Peter Hall. Countess: Arleen Auger, Susanna: Angela Blasi Cherubino: Frederica von Stade, Figaro: Rodney Gilfry, Count: to be announced. Jan. 21, 14, 18, 30. “Falstaff” by Giuseppe Verdi, Production from the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, conducted by Lawrence Foster, directed by Jeannette Aster. Mistress Ford: Karan Armstrong, Mistress Quickly: Helga Dernesch, Falstaff: Ingvar Wixell Ford: Rodney Gilfry, Bardolph: Greg Fedderly. Feb. 16, 20, 25, 27 .

“Queen of Spades” by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Premiere of co-production with La Scala, Milan, conducted by Yuri Simonov, directed by Andrei Konchalowsky. Lisa: Natalia Troitskaya Countess: Evelyn Lear, Gherman: Placido Domingo, Tomsky: Thomas Stewart. April, 20, 22, 25, 28 .

“Where the Wild Things Are” and “Higglety, Pigglety, Pop!” by Oliver Knussen and Maurice Sendak, conducted by Oliver Knussen/Randall Behr, directed by Frank Corsaro, designed by Maurice Sendak. “Where the Wild Things Are” production from the Minnesota Opera. Max: Karen Beardsley, Mother: Stephanie Vlahos. “Higglety, Pigglety, Pop!” production from the Glyndebourne Opera, The Child: Cynthia Buchan. June 7-17 .

“Oklahoma!” by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. June 22-July 1 .