Opera Millions Earn Gratitude With a Dash of Suspicion

High-tech investor Alberto Vilar, founder and president of Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc., has donated more than $250 million to charitable causes, with most of it going to opera companies. That makes Vilar arguably the largest opera donor in the world. He has made gifts totaling $33 million to New York’s Metropolitan Opera and $10 million to London’s Royal Opera House. He recently gave $50 million to the Kennedy Center, which includes funding annual visits of the Kirov (Maryinsky Theatre) Ballet and Opera companies of St. Petersburg, Russia.

In September, Los Angeles Opera--headed by Vilar’s friend Placido Domingo--became a new recipient of Vilar’s largess, when the 60-year-old billionaire joined the board of directors and pledged $10 million toward new productions and the development of young artists.

Vilar also reached into very deep pockets to underwrite Los Angeles Opera’s 2000-2001 season-opener, Verdi’s “Aida” ($200,000), and offered a $2-million challenge grant, to be matched by the board, when he joined it.

His latest gift: half the cost of tonight’s $500,000 “Placido Domingo and Friends: The Welcome Concert & Gala” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a sold-out fund-raiser honoring Domingo, who took over as artistic director in September.

Vilar’s far-reaching generosity has been met by some uneasiness--will opera companies begin to make artistic decisions to suit his tastes, leading to a global Vilarification of the art form?

Question: How did pop star Ricky Martin end up as the “surprise guest” at tonight’s gala?

Answer: Ricky who? [He laughs.] It’s obvious that Los Angeles Opera wants to close the cultural divide between the opera and popular singing in Hollywood. Obviously, we’re not going to change the opera to popular music, but this is an interesting olive-branch gesture.

Q: But the real purpose of this event is to bring new donors to the opera.

A: I provided a leadership gift to this gala. I do a lot of those type of gifts--$25,000, $50,000. The real number on how much I donate gets lost because I only keep track of my big gifts. But I didn’t give the whole thing because I wanted other people to step up to the plate, and they did that. Just because Placido and I have arrived doesn’t mean [L.A. Opera is] going to be swamped with money, but we’re off to a pretty good start.

Q: What about the criticism that has come your way--does your role ever cross the line into exercising artistic control?

A: I have very clear views on that, and I am going to be a little bit abrasive in saying that is not an issue. If I were very good at artistic creativity, I would be in that end of the business. What fractures me about some journalists--they imply that you can’t have me on your books and not have my long hand intervening artistically. If I gave all my money to the Metropolitan Opera, you might raise that question, but I presently support 16 opera houses.

I went to a very wonderful party in my honor in Europe last weekend, and the person who gave the party, a very dear friend of mine, had a singer there, a tenor. And another woman came up and said: “Oh, Mr. Vilar, can’t you call up Mr. Levine [James Levine, chief conductor at the Met] and tell him how much you appreciated this tenor? Well, I don’t usually use ugly words, particularly at a social occasion with women present, but can you imagine the clumsiness of that woman asking me to do that, to go to Jimmy Levine? He has his turf, and I have mine.

Now, a couple of times a year, I sit down with the likes of Jimmy Levine, or even Placido, and say, “Gee, I heard a singer today that was terrific.” But what this person asked me to do . . . I don’t even think about it.

As a donor, you really intervene in a very soft way, by what I would call a “courteous veto.” The Met will come to me and say, Alberto, here are two new productions this year, here’s who’s gonna conduct, sing, blah blah blah--and I’ll say, I’m gonna pass on this one.

I have four areas in which I am supporting the arts; this includes classical music, opera and ballet. The other area is young artists. I’m trying to replicate the enormously successful program at the Met, and I have done that successfully in Russia, at the Maryinsky. Now I want to do it at the Royal Opera House and, with Placido, in L.A. and Washington [Domingo also serves as artistic director of Washington Opera]. My guess is I will probably have a lock on most of the next generation of young singers, which I think is terrific. And again, I am not saying who can enter the program[s].

Q: You are not one to make anonymous gifts. The Met has a Vilar Tier, and a Vilar Grand Tier Restaurant.

A: I think there are two real purposes to a gift: one is to accomplish a specific goal--set up a co-production, pay for this evening’s gala. The second is to leverage the gift.

The journalist with the sharp tongue will just say the trite old story that wealthy people are on an ego trip--wrong. We had a gala at the Met where we raised an enormous amount of money, and let me tell you, hundreds of people from the highest levels of New York corporate circles read a name on the wall, Vilar’s Grand Tier--that’s got to have some positive benefit.

Q: Will the current state of the stock market interfere with your giving to the arts?

A: I have been in technology for more than 30 years, and I don’t give away money based on last year’s results. I happen to have been down last year, as was everyone else in my sector, but the prior two years, I was up 550%. My giving didn’t grow 550%--in other words, I didn’t give it all away. I give money away based on my capital, and the expected long-term growth of that capital. I think last year was an aberration; I think the next few years are going to be very positive, and if anything, I think my philanthropy will rise.

Q: What does the fact that both you and Domingo have Latin roots mean to Los Angeles?

A: I’m proud of the fact that I am Latin [Vilar is Cuban American], and I think Placido and I are a good team. I don’t want to jump the gun, but he and I have talked about bringing zarzuela [Spanish musical theater] to both Washington Opera and Los Angeles, and I’d be really confident that they would be nearly sold out in L.A., because we have so many Latin people. I would make a generalization that a far greater percentage of Hispanics have received exposure to zarzuela than have Americans to classical music.

For gala information, call (213) 365-3500.