The Business of Making an Opera : Partnerships promise to be the way expensive productions will be staged

Necessity has become the mother of practical new ways of making the business of opera run, as the artistic and financial burden has escalated in recent years. Between creating and funding a new production from scratch and booking a touring company lies a wide range of rent, trade and buy options.

Co-production partnership--in which two companies divide the costs, share creative control and future revenue--has been the producing mode of the ‘80s, and promises to continue as such, particularly for operas outside the repertory mainstream. Of Los Angeles Music Center Opera’s eight stagings this season, four are co-productions: “Kat’a Kabanova,” “Tancredi,” “Otello” (a revival of the company’s inaugural effort from 1986), and “Orpheus in the Underworld.”

“I think the thing to remember is that a co-production is not just a financial collaboration, but an artistic one as well,” says Peter Hemmings, general director of Music Center Opera. The advantage of a co-production over an entirely home-grown creation is the shared expense; the advantage over a rented production is a share in the artistic decisions, and concomitant prestige.

“Tancredi,” which opens at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Friday, is a case in point. The staging of Rossini’s opera--directed by John Copley, with sets by John Conklin, costumes by Michael Stennett and lighting by Marie Barrett--is a co-production with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

According to Hemmings, the impetus for the production was to find a vehicle for Marilyn Horne, who sings the title role. Discussions with the mezzo in 1985 revealed that she was also considering such a project in Chicago, making co-production a natural and attractive option. At one point, Hemmings says, they were talking about renting a European production, but the the expense was such that a co-production would cost very little more.

Though MCO and the Lyric Opera worked together in the selection of the director and design team, important details of the staging itself were then left to those actively involved. According to Hemmings, the choice of Rossini’s second, tragic ending for the opera was made by Horne and Copley, advised by Rossini authority Philip Gossett.

The final performance of “Tancredi” in Chicago was Feb. 3, and the physical elements--scenery, costumes and props--were immediately packed into two trucks for shipment to Los Angeles. “The curtain came down at 11, and five hours later the first truck left,” says Tom Blandford, production manager at Lyric Opera.

The price for the two truck-loads worth of “Tancredi” is $250,000, which includes the designers’ fees, but not shipping and insurance. In this case, MCO is a full partner. Of MCO’s $125,000 share, half has already been paid, with the balance due after final accounting.

That, of course, does not include the singers’ fees. Hemmings has declined to place a dollar figure on the fee ceiling for Music Center Opera, but said that it was deliberately put at the same level as Chicago and the San Francisco Opera, the principal U.S. companies outside New York.

In this case, the cast in Los Angeles and Chicago is much the same, headed by Horne and tenor Chris Merritt as Argirio. Allowing a cast to develop through added performances is another benefit of co-productions cited by Hemmings.

An additional economic advantage to co-production is co-ownership of an asset that can have a long and well-traveled life. MCO’s own “Salome,” from its initial 1986-87 season, has already been to London, Chicago, and Kentucky, and is now planned for Washington and Florence. In the process, it has paid for itself.

In a co-production, a contract is drawn up between the partners, identifying which company will be the administering company. More than two companies may be involved, not necessarily in equal shares, with any ensuing revenue divided proportionately.

Participation in a co-production can also be a source of prestige and publicity. At a recent press conference, MCO officials expressed great pride in their staging of Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades,” which will go directly to the co-producing La Scala following its premiere here in April, 1990. For them, the collaboration with La Scala was a validation of the scale and quality of their productions, and a confirmation of stature.

Hemmings also singles out this co-production as characteristic, showing the type of repertory often involved and how even the big-budget, government-supported European companies are seeking co-producing partners. It also demonstrates the importance to MCO of its artistic consultant Placido Domingo. The genesis of the effort was Domingo’s desire to sing his first Gherman, expressed here and in Milan, with a major co-production as the result.

There are other alternatives to renting besides co-production, when a company is not prepared to mount its own effort. The physical properties for the “Boheme” which began the second Music Center Opera season were purchased from the Houston Grand Opera.

“A ‘Boheme’ is a useful thing to have,” MCO deputy director Patricia Mitchell says, and in this case a bargain to boot. “The sale price was not that much more than a rental price.”

Another option is to trade productions. Next year MCO gets “Le Nozze di Figaro” from the Lyric Opera, while the following season the “Cosi fan Tutte” MCO premiered in October goes to Chicago, in what amounts to a direct trade.

“It just happened to fall into place,” Hemmings says. After chancing to see the production in Chicago, “it was an obvious thing to do.”