Opera’s Archangel Gives $24 Million

Alberto Vilar, billionaire opera donor and new board member of Los Angeles Opera, announced at a Beverly Hills press conference Tuesday a gift of $24 million to the classical music world. L.A. Opera will receive $10 million of that sum--the company’s largest single donation in its 15-year history. The Kirov Opera and Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, will receive $14 million.

Vilar’s L.A. Opera donation breaks down into two parts--$6 million will go for new productions over three years, starting in 2001. One million dollars a year over the next four years will support and expand the company’s training and coaching program for young singers.

These donations come on the heels of a separate Vilar pledge to L.A. Opera of $2 million, announced by its new artistic director Placido Domingo on Monday. And just after joining the board of Los Angeles Opera in July, Vilar made a $400,000 contribution to “Aida,” which opened the company’s season last Wednesday.

At the press conference, Domingo thanked Vilar, who is a longtime friend, for the donation. “With all the projects we have, this makes life easier for the company,” he said. “It will encourage the board, and many new people, to make wonderful things happen at L.A. Opera.”

“Placido and I have [only] begun discussions,” Vilar told The Times. “I tend to give some [money] at the beginning and a lot more over time, if the relationship works.”

Vilar’s donation to the Kirov Opera and Ballet also represents the largest private gift in that institution’s history. Although Vilar didn’t give specific breakdowns, part of the Kirov money will go toward at least two major operas or ballets a year over the next three years. And part will fund co-productions that will originate in Russia and travel to Los Angeles and other opera houses worldwide.

Vilar additionally has targeted part of his Kirov gift to establish a New York-based executive management office. That group, Vilar says, will help Kirov Opera and Ballet artistic director Valery Gergiev oversee the company’s domestic and international activities. Under Gergiev’s direction, the Kirov companies have toured extensively.

“There are some wealthy people in Russia,” Gergiev said at the press conference. “But they’re not thinking of Russian culture. With this gift, I can plan and keep the [Kirov] Opera and Ballet in good shape. And we can share with the international public what is so interesting and mysterious about our culture.”

All three men spoke about their evolving relationship. “It’s not contractual,” said Vilar. “We know each other and like working together.”

Among the fruits of that networking, Domingo said, will be the appearance of the Kirov Ballet in Los Angeles, under the auspices of L.A. Opera, in July 2002, at the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.

Vilar told The Times he considers himself a “facilitator”--especially between the Kirov and Domingo and the rest of the world.

“At least half the operas I support will be co-productions,” Vilar told The Times. “There’s no reason for major companies to shell out $2 [million] to $3 million each for the same piece. I also believe in recycling existing operas to make them available to wider audiences at a reasonable cost. This year, I’m bringing ‘Queen of Spades’ from the Glyndebourne Festival to Chicago [Lyric Opera] and it will open the 2001-2 season here [in L.A.].”

Vilar, 59, is president of New York-based Amerindo Investment Advisors, a 21-year-old technology investment firm that was one of the first to buy into Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Yahoo!. A devout classical music aficionado, he attends 100 operas and 50 concerts annually and--with $150 million, in his estimation, of contributions over the last few years--is said to be the biggest patron of classical performing arts worldwide.

The son of a sugar magnate, Vilar was raised in Cuba and Puerto Rico. In 1959, he headed to the U.S. to study economics at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa. Not long after his arrival, his father lost his fortune in the Cuban Revolution, leaving the family nearly penniless.

At Los Angeles Opera, Vilar’s support has already helped in broader fund-raising efforts, according to Mark I. Stern, a board member who is overseeing Placido’s Angels, a new campaign in which donors pledge a total of $1 million to the company over four years. Ten “angels” have signed up so far.

“Vilar is making my job easier,” Stern told The Times. “I can point to him as an ‘outsider,’ and argue that we [Angelenos] should be doing our part.”