Operatic Life and Death in Boston

Boston now has three opera companies--one rising, one moribund and one newly born--as the historic city closes this decade.

Newly born is Boston Opera Theater, a company established in the spring of 1989 by some former leaders of Sarah Caldwell’s still-embattled Opera Company of Boston, and now raising money and support for a 1990-91 season expected to begin in December of next year.

“It would be misleading to characterize our group as just disgruntled,” says Opera Theater executive director Robert Cannon, who at one time was president of Caldwell’s company.

“Simply, we felt that the time had come to establish a new and dynamic opera producing company to take Boston into the next century. Our assessment of the previous company was that it could not be reorganized.”

Among the national and international artists who will work with the new company, Cannon says, are stage director Peter Sellars and his artistic associate, Craig Smith. (In Los Angeles, Sellars declined to say more to The Times beyond confirming that he would be involved with Opera Theater.)

“But this will be more than a company for Peter, who, after all, has a contract in Los Angeles. It will be a broad-based company with an international outlook, and one that will bring in important productions from the outside, as well as mount its own, new work.

“What we are doing now is raising money and putting the pieces together. We expect to make a major announcement of our plans in January.”

Moribund is Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston, which has yet to announce its artistic plans for 1989-90, and is beset by a deficit reportedly in the neighborhood of $7 million. Repeated calls to the company netted no one willing to speak to The Times.

Rising out of academia is Boston Lyric Opera. Formerly connected with Northeastern University, but recently broken off from that connection, Lyric Opera opened its 16th season in a new theater, and with high hopes, last month.

According to general director Justin Moss, a Californian who came to Massachusetts from Baltimore Opera, “We have taken a whole new direction with this season.”

He says two performances of Puccini’s “Tosca” in September were sold out and artistically successful; yet to come are concert performances of Wagner’s “Fliegende Hollander” in January and staged “Traviatas” in March. Is there room for three opera companies in Boston?

“Definitely. As a theater town, for instance, Boston has audiences for everything. Opera is no different. We have a very educated and discerning population.”

JOFFREY CHANGES: Gerald Arpino, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet, has announced the promotions of Scott Barnard to assistant artistic director and Barbara Forbes to ballet mistress, plus the addition of seven new dancers to the 1989-90 roster.

New members are: Daniel Baudendistel, who rejoins the Joffrey after dancing with American Ballet Theatre and the Lar Lubovitch Company; Pascal Benichou, formerly of the San Francisco Ballet; Alexander Brady, formerly with the 1988-89 Joffrey II Dancers; James Conlin, who has danced with the companies of San Francisco and Berkeley; Pierre Lockett, formerly of Dance Theatre of Harlem; Jacob Rice, who has performed with companies in Washington State, Connecticut and Virginia, and Amanda Smith, a member of Joffrey II Dancers from 1987 to 1989.

CELEBRATING: American Music Week, this year scheduled for Nov. 6-12, will be noted locally in different ways:

KUSC-FM (91.5) will present “American Mavericks,” a three-part series of hourlong sound portraits. The featured music makers are CalArts composer Mel Powell (see article on Page 75) Nov. 6 at 8 p.m., Frank Zappa Nov. 7 at the same hour and David Byrne Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. In addition, KUSC will host a tribute to the music of Duke Ellington, “My Sparkling Parade,” to be broadcast at 8 p.m Nov. 9. During the same week, KUSC will carry a four-part series on the career of composer Cole Porter, to be broadcast at 7 p.m. nightly, Nov. 6 through 9.

A 10-year anniversary celebration of the alternative music festival “New Music America” will broadcast live from the Brooklyn Academy of Music at 8 p.m. Nov. 10. This “New Music America Gala” will feature Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

“Music in the Present Tense--The American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall,” is a four-part series, including the world premiere of Tania Leon’s “Kabiosile,” plus music of Kurt Weill, John Adams, Earl Kim, Duke Ellington, Rand Steiger, William Bolcom, Lou Harrison and Elliott Carter. Broadcast times are 9-10 p.m. Nov. 6-9.

The music department at the County Museum of Art will launch its special programming Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. with “The Ear and the Eye: An Aural/Visual Celebration of American Music,” in the Robert O. Anderson Building. Musicians, including trombonist Miles Anderson, violinist Paul Castellanos and cellist James Hoskins will be placed at different spots in the building to improvise, “as inspired by the Robert Longo exhibit.” Information: (213) 857-6010.

At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Chamber Music Society will offer a concert, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. in Gindi Auditorium at the University of Judaism, featuring music by Dvorak, Lou Harrison and Ingolf Dahl.

PEOPLE: Violinist Nina Bodnar has been appointed concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony, effective in January. Winner of several prestigious international competitions, including the Jacques Thibaud competition in Paris, the California-born violinist, 28, has been concertmaster of the Santa Barbara Symphony in recent seasons. . . . Dancemaker Lucas Hoving is in residence at Pomona College in Claremont this week, teaching modern dance and acting classes and, Friday night at 8 in the Mudd Theater, giving a three-part concert recalling his life in dance. . . . Michael Vargas has been appointed general manager of the 1990 Los Angeles Festival. In his new post, Vargas will oversee production of the three-week festival, beginning in September, and plan all performance schedules, as well as housing and local and international transportation. Vargas has been associated with the San Bernardino Museum and City Theatre Company in Pittsburgh. . . . Milton Salkind, president of the San Francisco Conservatory since 1966, will retire at the end of June, 1990. In his 24-year tenure as head of the conservatory, Salkind has overseen growth and development of the institution from a 42-student school of limited resources to its present size as a 250-student, degree-granting college with a $9-million endowment. . . . Sylvia Kunin, originator of the Musical Encounter television series and founder of Young Musicians Foundation, will be honored this week at the 52nd annual conference of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, meeting in Las Vegas, Friday through Nov. 6. Kunin will receive the 1989 Colonel Samuel Rosenbaum Memorial Award, given for “exemplifying and promoting the ideals to which the guild and its membership are dedicated.”

Calendar intern Mary Helen Berg contributed to the research for this column.