This business is terribly, terribly hard,” a recent post on the Classical Singer Forum said. “There are not enough jobs for all the good singers out there, and what’s more, there never will be.” It’s a harsh viewpoint. And if it’s true—what can we do about it?
I asked that question myself in 1994. I was living in Texas, and although community theater was very active in my area, and the local university staged full operatic productions at least once a year, opera as a living part of the community was sadly missing. I wanted opportunities to perform, and I also wanted to see opera grow and become a regular part of my community. So in a fit of either creative inspiration or absolute insanity, I thought, “Hey! Why not start a company?” Since then I’ve learned a great deal about the various aspects of founding and running a small opera company, and although I have many questions even now, I am nevertheless sure that one very valid and very active stance for singers to take is this: If you don’t like the opportunities out there now, or you feel there aren’t enough jobs—work to make your own. It may not always be easy, but the rewards go beyond just getting another role or two under your belt. You not only have the opportunity to add to your own experience, but to create something larger than yourself.
“You can fritter away your life, or you can put yourself out there.” Roberta Lamb is the founder and artistic director of a new Boston opera company, Opera Aperta. “I’ve had so many doors slammed in my face. It’s frustrating, because there are so many good singers, and how will they improve without performing?”
“Certainly I have a lot of singing friends in this area who are in the same boat,” said Linda Glusing, a regional singer living on the southeast coast. “We sit around and talk about putting together productions, but never make the step of actually starting. I think we’re lacking that catalyst to get everyone motivated, since we seem to have all the necessary ingredients.”
GETTING STARTED
There aren’t a lot of resources available for singers looking to start their own small company. A few publications exist, but most are geared toward community theater and not to the more demanding field of opera. Some publications, such as Opera America’s Directory of Production Materials for Rent, will help a little. You can also check out the Foundation Center (www.fdncenter.org/) for information on grants.
But for nuts and bolts on how to build your own company, you will need to dig and ask lots of questions. Here are some aspects to bear in mind when looking into founding a company, or even simply doing a one-shot production of a single show.
Study your market. It sounds simplistic, but you must understand your community’s demographics. What is selling? What isn’t?
Do some homework. Is there opera in your community? If so, how are they doing? If not, do you know why? Learning what other organizations are facing right now or have faced in the past can help you avoid mistakes and problems in your own company.
Talk to people. This means not just speaking with fellow opera singers and fans. This means talking to entrepreneurs—those who have successfully founded and/or run other organizations in your community. Would they do it all over again? What do they wish they’d known before starting?
Gather information. If you are founding a small regional opera company, do your best to get stats and information on comparably sized companies in other communities. Look at performance schedules, cost analyses if you can get them, personnel rosters, financial information and executive boards.
Decide on nonprofit. We will do another article on the ins and outs of nonprofit status because it’s a complicated issue. But do some research and find out what the benefits and disadvantages of declaring nonprofit status might be. It is much easier to switch from nonprofit to for-profit than to do the reverse. [See sidebar, this page.]
Start thinking about money NOW. Although funding is available for nonprofit institutions, you won’t be incorporated right away—and even on a small scale, projects begin to add up. If you have a limited budget or are not confident of private financial backing, think very carefully about how much you are prepared to pay.
Be prepared to WORK. This is not only an expensive undertaking, but a time-consuming one as well, and you may quickly begin referring to it as your “full-time, unpaid job.”
Last but not least, examine your own reasons for wanting to form a company or other organization for singers. Is it to give you a chance to sing lead roles? Or are your motives more altruistic and you want to create more jobs and performance opportunities for singers in your community? Is it meant to educate the community at large on this art form? Once you know what you would like to accomplish with your efforts, you will not get sidetracked.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
Much as we’d all like to think otherwise, money is the first and last thing you think of when you head up a company or other venture. You must have a viable financial plan. “Don’t be afraid to ask for money,” Ben Schuman of New York Chamber Opera said. “It won’t just fall into your lap. Make sure you have a clear budget, and stick to it.” When you plan for your company’s financial well-being, here are a few things to consider.
Prepare for the worst. You hope for the best, of course, but that doesn’t always happen. If disaster strikes, ticket sales are lousy and a benefactor who promised big bucks doesn’t come through—what will you do? If you can’t answer this yet, you have some thinking to do.
Think small at first. When we started our company in Texas, we did only one showcase production our first summer. We would have loved to do more, but we couldn’t afford it. Think carefully about a plan for company growth, and don’t try to be your city’s equivalent of the Met in the first season. Survival first—then success.
Don’t bank on ticket sales. Think of tickets as gravy: operating funds for the next production, mad money to cover last-minute unplanned expenses, and so on. Don’t think of sales as major operating capital. Bad sales can send your company to the bottom faster than you can say, “I owe the orchestra how much?”
Be aggressive in your fund-raising efforts. Your company won’t sell itself, and for a while—maybe a long while—you may have to be sales executive as well as artistic and executive director. Roll up your sleeves, work out a sales pitch based on your company’s mission statement and long-range goals (more on goals in a moment)—and go find capital. Talk to everyone you know, including people who seem to have no interest in opera or classical music. They may not know music, but it could be a feather in their cap to be associated with an opera company. Find out which companies in your community have giving records with other arts organizations, and find out who is in charge of that giving—and make an appointment. The long and the short of it is this: No one will give you money unless you ask. You may have to ask and ask and ask some more, but keep at it. The money’s there.
Be realistic about your needs. Don’t say you need less than you do, but don’t inflate your financial goals, either. You will at some point be required to account for every dollar, and toeing the line every day will only help in the long run.
BUTTERFLY OR MIKADO?
Choosing which show to perform is a huge decision, and there are many factors that come into play when looking at material.
Singers. What are your company’s performing strengths and weaknesses? You may want to do Butterfly, but if your singers can’t handle much beyond Mikado, that’s what you should do.
Venue. What is the size of the theater? How many does it seat?
Accompaniment. Can you afford a full orchestra, or will you be using a stripped-down version, or even piano accompaniment? Some shows do better with these approaches than others, so keep it in mind.
Royalties. Most operas are in the public domain—but their translations often are not. Find out how much a particular translation costs, or look into doing your own; it could turn out to be more cost-effective (and more interesting for your audiences!).
Demand. What does your community like? If you live in an area that hasn’t seen a fully staged opera in 20 years, you’re much better off starting with something relatively accessible. Which leads us to…
Projected returns. This is the last, and most important, consideration of all. It sounds terribly commercial, but that’s the way it goes. You want ticket sales, you want new benefactors, and you want repeat audiences. To get those things, you have to choose your material accordingly. One day you may be able to schedule a newly commissioned piece for your season. But you may have to stick with light opera and old standards for quite some time in order to build your audiences.
WHO AM I NOW? SINGER OR PRODUCER?
You’re both. The number of hats you’ll need to wear as time goes on will get tiring. But it’s part of the package. As the founder, until you accumulate a group of volunteers and/or can afford at least a part-time staff, there will be a lot of work to do that you won’t think of as being “operatic.” That’s because, truthfully, it ain’t.
Ben Schuman agrees. “It can be very hard to keep these aspects separate. It’s necessary to separate in your head what’s good for you as a performer and what’s good for your company.”
When I was running the company in Texas, one of the toughest aspects of our first big production was finding a rehearsal space. Fortunately a local realtor donated the use of an empty building for the entire summer. We were all set! “Just clean it out,” they told us as we left the office. “We’re not handling that.”
Well, they weren’t just talking about dusting and vacuuming. The building had been abandoned for more than 10 years, and the combination of inches of red West Texas dust and a roomful of broken floor tiles meant back-breaking labor just to make the place bearable for singers. “This wasn’t in my job description,” I griped to a colleague. But actually it was—it’s just in the fine print that we don’t want to read!
Keep projects separate. If you’re planning to sing the lead role in a particular production, try to avoid doing other jobs. Save your directing debut for a show in which you aren’t singing.
Delegate like crazy. If it doesn’t have to be done by you, try to find someone else trustworthy to do it. It may be more expedient to do it yourself—but for the sake of your own peace of mind, delegate what you can.
Study management techniques. In addition to performing and organizing all these different projects, you are also a manager. You will oversee a number of people, ranging from your performers in a show to your volunteers, your staff, and your artistic and executive boards (who don’t realize they’re being managed at all). Learn what works and what doesn’t. Motivate, delegate and inspire.
Give yourself down-time. I dearly loved the company I started, and I poured every extra hour and bit of energy into working on it—so much so that I eventually burned out. Don’t make the same mistake. Realize that you can’t maintain a 24/7 approach forever, and don’t feel guilty over doing other things. Keep performing with other groups; work on your own artistry; go out and have dinner with your family; keep up with your hobbies and other interests. The opera company won’t die just because you went to see a movie, or had to cancel a rehearsal.
Keep your perspective. It’s art. It’s beautiful, worthwhile and inspiring—but it probably won’t cure cancer. Enjoy what you do, and remember that you’re doing this because you love opera and you love singing. If and when you stop thinking about those facts, it may be time to take a step back and do some re-evaluation.
WHAT ABOUT NEXT YEAR?
Planning and goal-setting are ongoing projects, and they’re a priority. Before you ever even talk about shows, you should be thinking about where you’re starting and where you want to end up. What will your company be doing in five years? Ten? If you don’t have answers now, come up with some. You aren’t swearing a blood pact that you will be doing La Bohème in 2009. But you are looking ahead and giving your company a foundation and an underlying structure. You will find funding easier to obtain if potential benefactors know that you are organized and looking ahead to future projects as well as planning current ones.
WRAPPING IT UP
This isn’t all you need to know – consider this a launching point. Here are three words for you to keep in mind when thinking about starting your own commercial venture:
Research. Know what has come before.
Confirm. Make sure of what exists now.
Visualize. Picture what you want for the future.
It won’t be easy. You may regret at times ever even considering starting such a project. Yes, the company I ran for several years was a lot of work, and blood, sweat and tears to boot. At the same time, no other accomplishment in my life—even the early success as a solo singer—can surpass the feeling of running a company. You feel a sense of incredible pride and joy—pride that you have accomplished what you set out to do, on whatever scale you may have done it, and joy that this incredible art form to which we have each devoted our lives is reaching more people.
