Opera League Begins New Life of Arias for the People

Opera League of Laguna Beach, the granddaddy of Opera Pacific, begins a new life with a program of opera arias and ensembles on Sunday at the Forum Theatre in Laguna Beach.

The move marks a return to the league’s earlier function before it underwent a metamorphosis from a presenting to a producing organization in 1984, which led to the creation of Opera Pacific.

“Opera League was started in 1963,” said President Tom O’Keefe in a recent phone interview. “We’ve always been instrumental in bringing opera to this area and, back in 1963, to all of Orange County. . . . But when Opera Pacific took off, it took off with a lot of our members, which created a void in the opera world of Laguna Beach.”

“We’ve been fairly static over the last four years,” he added. “But last year, we started to get back into gear.”

Opera League now has about 75 members, O’Keefe said.

“We operate not as grand opera, but as opera for the people,” he said. “In the past, we would give probably two or three mini-operas a year at the local high school.”

What is mini-opera?

“Mainly, just the arias. We would get some excellent singers. We would have a pianist. Sometimes in costume, sometimes not. They would go through the opera. . . .

“It was very low-key--strictly the arias, the most popular part. It was very easy to fall in love with opera that way. People were not overwhelmed by (having to encounter) grand operas. That was basically how I fell in love with opera. I went to their productions in the late ‘70s.”

On Sunday five singers--sopranos Kimberly Allman, Laura Fries and Molly Minor, tenor Mark Saltzman and baritone David Ludwig--will sing excerpts from Verdi’s “La Traviata,” Puccini’s “Turandot,” Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni,” among other works. Stephen Sivcovich will be accompanist.

The concert will be at 4:30 p.m. at the Forum Theatre on the Festival of the Arts grounds in Laguna Beach.

The singers are members of the Overture Company, Opera Pacific’s community outreach program.

In addition to its own activities, the league functions as one of the independent guilds of Opera Pacific. “We have our own treasury, our own rules and regulations,” O’Keefe said. “We do contribute to Opera Pacific each year. It’s a nominal sum.” He declined to name the figure.

He did say, however, that the budget for the organization is roughly $14,000 to $16,000 a year, raised through social functions for its members.

O’Keefe does not expect the Sunday concert to be one of the moneymakers.

“We will lose money on this,” he said. “There will be the champagne reception. We have to pay for the singers and the rental of the theater.

“Our basic role is to provide a grass-roots-level opera for this general south-coast area and to provide some sort of membership guild for Opera Pacific.”

His goal is to present three operas a year in Laguna Beach.

Opera League of Laguna Beach will offer excerpts from works by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and other composers at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday at the Forum Theatre, 650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. A post-concert champagne reception will be held at the Firenze Hotel, 1289 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach. Tickets: $12.50, in advance; $15 at the door. Children under 12 will be admitted free. For information, write Opera League, P.O. Box 4316, Laguna Beach, Calif. 92652; or call(714) 494-0802.

A LATE DOCKING: Meanwhile, Opera Pacific has announced that it is postponing its run of Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat” to the July 3-to-22 period, one week later than originally announced, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The reason: The company needs more time to “transport, clean and alter 330 costumes” that will be used by the Portland Opera preceding the local run, according to a company spokesperson.

Opera Pacific also has added a matinee performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata” on Jan. 21 at the Center.

LIFE IN THE MEADOWS: The Pacific Symphony will continue its summer series at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in 1990, according to executive director Louis Spisto.

“We’re planning five concerts for next season and have, in fact, already selected our dates,” Spisto said. He declined, however, to give the dates, pending signing of contracts.

Financially, last season was a success. The orchestra brought in more than its original budget of $425,000. “We went over it by about $3,000 from ticket sales and another $18,500 in concert sponsorship and table patronage,” Spisto said.

It also was a popular success. The orchestra drew about 2,500 more people to its summer series this year than it did last year. Totals were 37,282 for the series that ended Saturday, up from 34,736 for last summer.

The summer season had 2,700 subscribers, about 1,500 of which were renewals from last summer, Spisto said.

Only about 180 individuals subscribe to both the orchestra’s summer series and regular yearly series at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, according to Spisto.

“They’re very distinct groups,” he said.

Results of a marketing questionnaire distributed at Saturday’s concert were not yet tabulated, Spisto said.

“Our hope is that over time we can introduce people to the orchestra through the summer program and perhaps they will also subscribe to the winter season at the Center. That remains to be seen--whether that is doable or even desirable. There may be very different kinds of classical music audiences.”

But Spisto believes that the orchestra has hit on the secret of a successful summer series.

“We’ve learned that keeping the programs very popular is the key,” he said. “We moved in that direction this season and are going to stay there. You won’t see any world premieres at a summer season. People are going to hear a lot of classical music that they love. And the picnicking will continue.”