Opera Pacific Staging Overhaul to Cut Costs

The new director of Opera Pacific said Thursday that the company is facing significant financial problems and that its cancellation of the long-promised American premiere of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (story, F39) is just one of the steps it is taking in response.

“We’re operating in an extremely tight cash situation, to the point where I’m now having to fund-raise by saying, ‘Not only do I need your gift, but I need it tomorrow. Can I come around and pick up the check?,’ ” said Patrick L. Veitch, who was appointed director last month.

“My first week, I had to scramble to meet the payroll,” Veitch said. He estimated that the company, which presents operas at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa on an annual budget of $5.5 million, needs a “$2.5-million infusion.”

In addition to canceling “Dorian Gray,” an opera by Lowell Leibermann that was to have been staged here in 1998, Opera Pacific will:

* Start its seasons later in the year.

* Cut back the number of performances of each opera in future seasons, from six to four.

* Eliminate the company’s policy of “double casting,” where singers alternate in major roles.

* Significantly reorganize its board of directors, which now includes 79 members (“almost the size of the U.S. Senate,” Veitch said).

* Beef up its fund-raising staff.

However, he said the repertory for next season will include only one opera previously staged by the company and that despite the problems, the new works will “stretch the audience’s understanding.” Opera Pacific has been criticized for relying on tried-and-true works.

Veitch said he and the board will decide Nov. 1 whether to cut any performances of “Rigoletto” and “Don Giovanni,” scheduled later this season.

Performances of “Die Fledermaus,” which opens Nov. 16, will not be affected, he said.

Veitch inherited a deficit of $1.1 million. “I don’t really have an opinion [on the deficit]. I wasn’t here,” he said. “I’m just taking it from where I got it.

“We’re cutting back for three reasons,” he continued. “First is to bring the supply of seats in closer line with the demand. Second is obvious, to reduce costs. The third is a critical-artistic one that I’ve been aiming at since I arrived, which is to eliminate double casting.”

Major companies use double casts to let singers rest between performances and to give audiences a chance to hear different interpretations of a role. But “there are only so many rehearsal hours,” Veitch said. “There are only so many people to conduct rehearsals and if you’re dividing that by two, you are just dividing the end result. I hope this will lead ultimately to a tighter ensemble feeling to our productions.”

The board needs to be reduced to make decisions easier, Veitch said. And “they need to meet more frequently. They need to have a stronger information base. I fervently believe that any arts institution is never going to be any greater than the board of directors.”

A management committee will consist of five or six directors who will “essentially take charge of the organization. They’ll be meeting every week for the duration of the problems. And we expect to restore democracy as soon as we can.”

Meanwhile, a development committee has been formed. “Yesterday, a development committee met--for the first time in the history of the opera,” he said.

He said he is considering staff cutbacks as well, but nothing is definite.

An infusion of $2.5 million “would pay off the accumulated deficiency, make sure that we balance our budget this year and take care of some smaller items like a special investment in the development staff.

“My attitude at the moment is that we should attempt to raise the $2.5 million by the end of the fiscal year. That gives us 10 months. The faster we can do it, frankly, the sooner we put the problems behind us, and the sooner we get back to the work of an opera company, which is building audiences and making operas.”