Canceled Show Got Opera Pacific an NEA Grant

It would have been Opera Pacific’s largest federal grant ever. And it still could be.

The National Endowment for the Arts today announced a new round of grants, including $100,000 to the Irvine-based company to support its U.S. premiere production of Lowell Liebermann’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

The catch? Because Opera Pacific has been struggling financially, six months ago it canceled its plans to stage “Dorian Gray.”

“We are limited in the risk we can take in any area,” executive director Patrick L. Veitch said Tuesday, “and new opera is high-risk.” The premiere would have cost about $1 million, he said, so the production was put off.

Only the NEA didn’t hear about it till three weeks ago.

The troupe was between development directors when it scotched the premiere, explained Veitch, who had started his job only about three weeks earlier and said he was busy rescuing a troupe “on the verge of going under.” The company has reduced its debt by about a third but still must raise $1 million by the fall, he said.

Not to worry, NEA spokeswoman Cherie Simon said Tuesday. Such adjustments are common, and the troupe hasn’t necessarily sacrificed its grant. If it decides to do an entirely different kind of project, it may get no funding. But if it decides to premiere an opera other than “Dorian Gray,” it may still get the same $100,000, Simon said.

The troupe, however, has no plans to stage any new operas in the next two seasons, Veitch said, and has yet to decide for what to ask for funding.

“We haven’t decided what the proposal will be,” he said.

The NEA awarded a total of 736 grants totaling $67 million to institutions and individuals in 50 states and the U.S. territories in its second and final major grant announcement of this year.

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa was the only other O.C. winner in this round, landing $60,000 for its 1998 production of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.”

And “The Picture of Dorian Gray”? It received its world premiere last May in Monaco.