Arts donor’s N.Y. woes felt in L.A.

In the latest round of woes for Alberto Vilar, once considered the opera world’s largest donor, the high-tech mogul’s name has been removed from the Grand Tier at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera because of Vilar’s failure to meet his financial commitments to the company.

In a statement Friday, the Metropolitan said: “We can confirm that the sign bearing Alberto Vilar’s name has been removed from the Grand Tier. It had been placed there in anticipation of funding commitments which have not been met.”

Vilar could not be reached for comment.

The decision by the Met follows more than a year of reports from various arts institutions and performing arts companies that Vilar has not been fulfilling his financial commitments.

That list includes the New York Philharmonic, Washington Opera and Los Angeles Opera, led by Vilar’s longtime friend Placido Domingo. In September 2002, Los Angeles Opera confirmed that Vilar -- whose New York company, Amerindo Investments Inc., has suffered deep stock losses -- had not paid the final $500,000 installment of the $1 million the donor and board member had committed to a production of Wagner’s “Lohengrin” the previous season.

Because of the Metropolitan Opera’s decision to go on record with the reason that Vilar’s name has been removed from the Grand Tier, Domingo’s publicist, Nancy Seltzer, said the tenor decided to make public the fact that he had advanced money to Vilar to make good on $1.3 million in recent commitments to Los Angeles Opera.

The letter also stated that Domingo had advanced about $700,000 to Washington Opera. Domingo is general director of both companies.

Domingo had written about the money issue in a letter to Vilar dated Oct. 8, 2002. Some members of the Los Angeles Opera’s board of directors were aware of the letter, as were some members of the press, but in a statement provided by Seltzer, Domingo said that until Friday, he had asked that the contents of that letter “not be made public unless it was part of a bigger story about Mr. Vilar’s pledges” because of his desire not to embarrass Vilar.

Domingo felt that the decision by Metropolitan Opera made the letter part of a larger story, Seltzer said.

Los Angeles Opera Chairman Marc Stern confirmed Friday that some members of the board of directors were aware of the existence of a letter saying that “money we thought had been advanced to us by Alberto had been loaned to Alberto by Placido.” Stern said that the opera company accepted Domingo’s decision not to make the letter public in order not to embarrass his friend.

“I don’t want to say that nobody told me the letter was sent, but all that was important to me was that Placido had advanced the $1.3 million, he was hopeful that Alberto would pay him, and any issue about it would become moot,” Stern said.