cert” that has been devised under Spano’s tenure: “This encompasses opera, oratorio, and even occasional symphonic evenings, and refers to the desire to present a musical experience that’s visually as well as aurally stimulating to engage the audience.” Along with concert presentations of both familiar and contemporary operas, “theater of a concert” has been applied to works such as Bach’s B minor Mass and Górecki’s Third Symphony (the latter accompanied by Anne Patterson’s videographic images). “It’s become an imperative of our incredibly visual age to engage audiences, especially younger ones,” Mirageas says. “That doesn’t mean putting up pretty pictures when playing the Beethoven Fifth. But it does mean that when you have opportunity to present works with visual accompaniment for which it is appropriate, you should do it.” Allison Vulgamore, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was part of the team that helped develop the model of “theater of a concert” when she held the same position with the Atlanta Symphony. Since taking the reins in Philadelphia, she has continued to explore concert formats that are theatrically enhanced, even if, as she points out, the work being performed isn’t an opera, such as the past spring’s performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with staging by James Alexander, which paired vocal soloists in “duets” with the obbligato instruments in the arias. Vulgamore is especially intrigued by the orchestra’s new partnership with Opera Philadelphia, set to debut in May 2014 with a co-production of Strauss’s Salome—a score
she says was selected “because the writing calls for the Philadelphia sound.” Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin drew on his experience and contacts in the opera world for the casting, while Opera Philadelphia will be responsible for the staging elements. “We don’t know yet what shape these scenic pieces will take,” says Vulgamore. “It’s like having a creative tool chest that includes sculpture, costumes, potential ramps, lighting. All of this will come alive on the stage of Verizon Hall, the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as executed by Opera Philadelphia. We don’t want to do predictable.” Even more, the opportunity for a “collaborative co-production partnership”—as Vulgamore terms the dynamic between the two entities—will entail several layers of learning: “musical, theatrical, managerial, and fundraising” in order to build “something we can revisit, in a way that leverages each other’s audiences, rather than just an impromptu collaboration.” Vulgamore points out that disappointment over the box-office results of last year’s concert performance of Elektra marking the end of Charles Dutoit’s tenure helped inspire this innovative approach. And already there’s a payoff: Vulgamore says the number of performances originally scheduled has already proved inadequate to meet demand. Another experiment in collaboration has been underway in Salt Lake City since 2002, when Utah Symphony and Utah Opera took the unusual step of merging. “Doing semi-staged opera is something of a signature event, yet since we’re also an opera company it’s not as exceptional as it might
Todd Rosenberg
Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Verdi’s Otello, April 2011, at Symphony Center.
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be elsewhere,” explains Melia Tourangeau, president and CEO of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera. Tourangeau points out that a presentation of Leonard Bernstein’s rockinfused Mass sold out two nights in a row “in a very conservative state.” “Our orchestra really enjoys playing opera—it’s the same ensemble for the opera company—and so they already get that experience in the opera house,” says Tourangeau. “At the same time, the symphony and the opera company each has its own identity, so it’s been a real challenge to merge those identities. In a sense it’s become more of a challenge to try to unmerge them, especially when it comes to planning. For opera you’re planning many years out, versus two years for the symphony.” (For more on mergers and creative partnerships, see “Allied Forces” in Symphony’s Summer 2013 issue.) The Event Business
The initiative to rethink the orchestra’s role and identity as an institution has also been attracting major foundation support, with results directly impacting the presentation of opera in the concert hall. In 2011, for example, the Akron Symphony was able to perform Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess under Music Director Christopher Wilkins after receiving a $150,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. For that production, auditions for the chorus as well as many of the solo roles were limited to local residents. In April 2013 the Cleveland Orchestra received a $2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to underwrite “artistically ambitious programming,” which singled out new approaches involving opera and ballet. Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson says the Mellon grant “is a reflection of our focus in many areas of programming, including opera, where there’s a direct relationship between enhancing artistic excellence and what is understood to have value for the community.” On the artistic side, Hanson says, “Franz [Welser-Möst] believes that an orchestra’s performance of a Mozart symphony or a Strauss tone poem is made better if that orchestra has had direct and significant experience performing the operas of Mozart and Strauss.” Performances of opera in Severance Hall have also been generating interest among new concertgoers who, Hanson
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