AGMA MEMBERSHIP EXPANDING
AGMA recently reported that its membership has grown by 45% in the last two years. Membership in February 2000 was 4,644; it currently stands at 6,748. Choristers make up about 50% of AGMA’s members. Another 27% are soloists, 17% are dancers, and 6% are production staff and actors.
Geographically, AGMA’s membership is concentrated around New York: 40% live in or around the city, while 10% live in Southern California, 10% in the Washington, D.C., area, and 6% in Northern California. The rest are split between AGMA’s six other regions.
AGMA VS. AFTRA
In March, AGMA chief Alan Gordon wrote a letter to Greg Hessinger, the executive director of AFTRA, which was spurred by a recent incident with artists in a production of Porgy and Bess. The production was broadcast on PBS’s Live from Lincoln Center. AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) currently doesn’t represent any New York City Opera employees, so when a production like Porgy and Bess is broadcast over television—the jurisdiction of AFTRA—compensation details become tricky. A current contract between AFTRA and artists in Lincoln Center broadcasts allows the artists to receive compensation from the broadcasts, minus a 12% cut for AFTRA’s Health and Pension funds, even though AFTRA doesn’t represent these artists. Gordon first stated that AFTRA couldn’t use the contract as a bargaining tool to force artists to join AFTRA. He then asked that the 12% the NYCO is now holding from the artists’ paychecks be given back to the artists since they can’t benefit from AFTRA’s Health and Pension funds.
HEPPNER STILL BATTLES ILLNESS
When he cancelled his entire North American tour in January due to vocal trouble, Ben Heppner assured audiences that he would be able to perform as Tristan in April. Now that cancellations have extended through July, concerned fans are wondering if perhaps the vocal trouble is more serious than the laryngitis that’s still being blamed for his cancellations. When he appeared at his April recital in Vancouver, he demonstrated to the audience that he is capable of singing lighter repertoire, complete with encores. But perhaps it’ll be some time before he’s able to return to the heavy operatic roles for which he’s famous.
BEVERLY BOWER, 76, DIES
Soprano Beverly Bower died of cancer on March 24. She was 76. Bower sang on television and radio, and started singing at the New York City Opera in 1956. She also sang in the first public performance at the brand new Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, on April 11, 1966.
ARTS ORGANIZATIONS
VIE FOR GROUND ZERO
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has a long line of arts organizations that are all hoping to be included in the culture-and-arts center planned for the World Trade Center site destroyed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Crain’s New York Business reported on April 15. The LMDC is overseeing the reconstruction of the site. In addition to the New York City Opera’s proposal, LMDC has received proposals from a poetry library, the Joyce Theater and the Museum of American Financial History, among others. If NYCO is accepted into the location, it would be the anchor of a large performing arts center that also would include other surrounding dance and theater companies.
ROME INAUGURATES
PARCO DELLA MUSICA
After about ten years of construction, Rome opened the $140 million Parco della Musica (Music Park), the largest theater complex in Europe. It consists of three separate theaters around an open-aired theater, only one of which was completed for the inauguration.
PAVAROTTI REACHES
THE END
The Met may not host Pavarotti anytime soon. He was scheduled to perform in a spectacular Tosca at the Met’s Closing Gala and many had speculated that this would be his farewell operatic performance. Tickets for the sold-out Closing Gala went for as high as a non-refundable $1,500. And 3,000 people waited in Lincoln Center, where the show was to be broadcast on an outdoor screen. But Pavarotti cancelled an hour before the curtain went up for the Wednesday event, citing a sudden onset of influenza. Still, he assured the Met that he’d be able to perform in the final Saturday night event. The Met, however, opted to fly in 33-year-old Salvatore Licitra from Milan, just in case Pavarotti couldn’t appear on stage Saturday. Licitra got the call in Milan at 6pm on Thursday and immediately hopped a plane to New York. He arrived at 9am on Friday and went straight to the Met for rehearsal. Three hours before Saturday’s performance, Pavarotti announced that he’d be able to perform—but he changed his mind shortly before the event, citing congestion from the influenza. Licitra sang instead and by all accounts, he delivered a beautiful performance. Met General Director Joseph Volpe later said that the Met wouldn’t schedule any more performances with Pavarotti: “It really is the end,” Volpe said. He added, however, that the Met would be happy to have Pavarotti back for a recital. Pavarotti answered by issuing a statement to his fans the next day and in it, he maintained that his cancellation was necessary because of his illness. He didn’t mention any future appearances.
LEGAL BATTLE OVER AVERY FISHER HALL
As Lincoln Center looks to remodeling, the family of Avery Fisher has come forth to say that it will challenge any attempts to rebuild Avery Fisher Hall or to renovate it under a new name. The family noted that it wouldn’t hesitate to withdraw the $17 million endowment that Fisher established before his death in 1994 to care for the hall. While Fisher was a friend to many on the Lincoln Center Board, the board is leaning toward rebuilding the concert hall because the cost of renovating it could be higher than the cost of rebuilding it. The board is also aware that it may be easier to find funding for such an endeavor if it can include the possibility of naming rights as an incentive.
