Skirball Aids Opera Artists’ Program : Donation: The gift to the Music Center Opera, totaling $1 million during four years, will support local singers at the beginning of their careers.

A $1-million donation by the Skirball Foundation to the Los Angeles Music Center Opera will be announced today. The gift, in four annual installments beginning in February, will be earmarked for the MCO’s Resident Artists Program, which supports local singers at the beginning of their careers.

“The Resident Artists Program represents a commitment to the future of opera in Los Angeles, and we are very pleased to contribute to the mission of this exciting and wonderful company,” Skirball Foundation president Morris Bergreen said in a prepared statement.

“This is the first large, long-term commitment that enables us to think about our goal to train young artists,” said Mac Henderson, a Music Center Opera spokesman.

The training program, which puts Southern California singers on salary, includes John Atkins, Richard Bernstein, Greg Fedderly, Jennifer Trost and Stephanie Vlahos, all of whom had roles in the recent “Idomeneo,” as well as numerous other MCO productions. Eight singers are currently on annual contracts of 10 to 30 weeks.

The grant adds the Skirball Foundation to the Founding Angels, a roster of seven individuals and foundations that have donated $1 million or more in the last two years.

Monies from the other Angels are to be paid during a five-year period in unspecified amounts and go toward general operating expenses and reducing the MCO’s deficit. The current shortfall is about $2 million, according to Henderson, who added that an endowment fund is the ultimate goal.

Other Angels are Mr. and Mrs. Roy Ash (he is chairman of the Music Center Opera board and a founder and former president of Litton Industries); Mr. and Mrs. Warner W. Henry (he owns a Los Angeles wine distribution company and is vice chair of the MCO board; she is a former president of the Opera League and vice president of the board); the Forman Family Fund, established by Dorothy Forman, long an advocate of opera education; Flora Thornton, longtime arts patron; the Leonard & Emese Green Foundation, established by businessman Leonard Green; Mr. and Mrs. Richard Colburn (he is a local arts philanthropist); and the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation, established by arts philanthropist and composer Gordon Getty.

Budgeted at about $13 million, the 1990/91 season encompasses eight operas in 36 performances. Still to come are Richard Strauss’ “Elektra,” Mozart’s “Cosi fan Tutte,” Puccini’s “Girl of the Golden West” and Benjamin Britten’s “Turn of the Screw.”