‘Dorian Gray’ Premiere Canceled for Lack of Cash

Opera Pacific will not present the U.S. premiere of Lowell Leibermann’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” as previously announced.

“The presentation of a new opera is the work of opera companies with greater financial strength than that of the current Opera Pacific,” newly appointed executive director Patrick L. Veitch said Thursday.

The work was originally to be co-produced with L’Opera de Monte Carlo in Monaco and staged in Costa Mesa in 1997 but then was postponed until 1998. It received its premiere in Mayin Monaco.

The Leo Freedman Foundation had pledged $150,000 to help underwrite the production in 1988, but Opera Pacific still would have needed more money from other sources. Therefore, the Irvine-based opera company declined the pledge and informed the foundation that the premiere will not take place here, Veitch said.