Opera is dying. Or so it has been said for the past 283 years. In 1730, a friend of George Frederic Handel wrote a letter stating bluntly, “Opera is dying, to my great mortification.”
Not much has changed. Today classical singers, opera lovers, and critics alike continue to lament the death of the beloved art form. But according to Madison Opera General Director Kathryn Smith, opera might not be the fragile, demure Mimì centuries have taken her to be.
“If opera has been dying since before the birth of Mozart, I’d say it’s been a pretty healthy death,” Smith says. “I believe the art form has changed. But so have the people who attend it. And to each person, opera matters for a different reason. I don’t believe opera will ever go away. Future audiences will still love Le nozze di Figaro as much as yesterday’s audiences. Opera transcends. It continues to serve all.”
In the face of economic challenges, a technological revolution, and an evolving landscape of performance-goers, plenty of opera companies across the country have felt the scourge of the age-old plight regarding the future of opera. Countless opera houses have been forced to alter their programming, cut back on performances and other offerings, or close their doors altogether.
But a small regional opera company located in the unlikely location of Madison, Wis., continues to prove the exception—not only bucking the trend, but growing by leaps and bounds. That company is Madison Opera.
“When you look at the size of Madison Opera compared to the size of the Madison population, our audience base is quite large,” Smith says. “Madison is a community that very generously supports its arts. They take pride in them. When people say that it’s unusual for Madison to have such a great opera company, the opinion of residents is that we should have a great opera company. Often, in smaller communities, you’ll have opera-goers who pride themselves in going to the big city for their opera. Here, we have many patrons who subscribe to Lyric Opera of Chicago—but they’re also Madison Opera subscribers.”
“That Plucky Little Company that Dared to Take a Risk”
The mission of Madison Opera is not unlike that of other opera companies. Its objective is to spread the appreciation of opera to a wide audience, to use the nature of the art form to enrich the culture of the Madison community, to provide audiences with new and culturally diverse works, and to ensure the company’s present and future.
To understand just how remarkable the company’s poise for the future is, one must first understand where it has come from. Its carefully calculated mission has been in the making since its founding in 1961, under the Madison Civic Music Association, according to Trustee and Madison Opera Foundation President Martin Barrett.
Before taking his current role within the company, Barrett sang with the Madison Opera Chorus—another facet within the organization that has continued to grow in both size and quality—from 1979 through 2006. During that time, Barrett says he noted a boost in everything from the company’s performance quality to audience attendance, revenue, and budget.
“I think to understand our success, you have to take a look at our history,” he suggests. “It’s been a unique combination of luck and skill. Madison Opera came at just the right time.”
Originally dubbed The Opera Workshop, the company was rechristened the Madison Civic Opera Guild in 1962. It soon joined forces with the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Madison Symphony Chorus, under Music Director Roland Johnson. He and his wife, Stage Director Arline Johnson, sought to inspire Madison’s music community to birth what would become a fully fledged opera company.
Early on, one opera was staged per year and featured Madison-based vocalists, operating its production expenses with a shy budget of $6,000. Its debut production was Puccini’s classic La bohème. In the 1980s, after years of work as the company’s pianist and chorus master, Ann Stanke became the company’s first general director.
In 1993, Madison Opera achieved what was arguably its most significant milestone, one that put the once-grassroots company on the map. It commissioned its first world premiere, Shining Brow, composed by Daron Aric Hagen, with libretto by Irish poet Paul Muldoon. The opera was based on a period in the life of Wisconsin-born architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Not only was the work deemed an important 20th century opera, but Madison Opera received countless national accolades, including from the New York Times, which dubbed the organization “that plucky little company that dared to take a risk.” In addition, the premiere attracted an audience from far reaches.
“It brought the world to our stage,” Barrett says. “It also marked a significant turning point for the company in drawing professional singers. We’ve had a lot of up-and-coming young singers that love performing with us and return frequently. They get an opportunity to make their mark in Madison.”
In 1994, Maestro John DeMain, a world-renowned conductor, became the music director of the Madison Symphony Orchestra and artistic director of Madison Opera upon the retirement of Johnson. The involvement of DeMain proved another pivotal moment for Madison Opera.
“We’ve had many fine guest directors,” Barrett notes. “But to have a good general director and a well-established conductor—that’s very important to the success of a company.”
Under the slow and steady development of Stanke and DeMain, more good things continued to propel the company forward, including enormous strides in its operating budget.
It reached another significant growth spurt in 2004, when it once again stepped out, this time onto a new stage with the opening of the Overture Center for the Arts, which has become home to the company. Madison Opera’s first fully staged production in Overture Hall was its most lavish yet: a sold-out production of Turandot that wowed the crowd and gave both singers and audiences the chance to experience opera on a whole new level—in a first-rate hall with acoustic brilliance.
Upon the 2005 retirement of Stanke, Allan Naplan, a former professional opera singer and artistic administrator, became the company’s general director. After his departure to assume the reigns at Minnesota Opera in 2011, Smith became third to take command at the helm of Madison Opera. She came to Madison after seven years as general director of Tacoma Opera. Prior to that, she was the assistant artistic administrator at the Metropolitan Opera.
“We’ve had a legacy of great general directors at Madison Opera,” Barrett acknowledges.
Today, Madison produces three operas annually plus a free concert in the summer, Opera in the Park, which reaches 14,000 people and has become a favorite event in the community.
The company also has established a reputation for hiring singers that grace the stages of some of the world’s leading opera houses. It has taken on greater artistic challenges with its repertoire, including its first Wagner production, The Flying Dutchman; its first Russian opera, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; its first early opera, Handel’s Acis and Galatea; and its first Philip Glass opera, Galileo Galilei.
“I see opera everywhere in the world,” Barrett says, “so I know how good we have become. It’s unusual for a company our size to produce some of the productions we have. But they have really been first rate. A long time ago, I looked at companies like Chicago and Santa Fe and thought, ‘How can we ever become that good?’ And I think now sometimes we are.”
Education and Outreach
Madison Opera offers education and outreach opportunities for both children and adults, designed to enhance audience knowledge, educate Madison and its surrounding communities, and provide training opportunities for young singers.
Its Opera Up Close preview series provides audiences the rare opportunity to get up close with the stars of Madison Opera productions and take in an in-depth look at each opera. Pre-opera talks and post-opera Q&A sessions provide an immediate insight into the opera for audiences at performances.
The Student Matinee program offers thousands of middle and high school students the chance to experience opera through performances of one to two operas each season. A Night at the Opera partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters to bring the operatic experience to those that might not have the opportunity to take in such a performance, or those taking in opera for the first time. The company’s High School Apprenticeship Program offers talented Madison-area students the opportunity to enter the world of opera for a year. And the latest offering is the company’s Studio Artist Program, a training ground for emerging young artists to gain valuable professional experience.
What the Future Has in Store
Not one to rest on its laurels, Madison Opera continues to strive toward its ambitions. Its 2013–14 season, which marks DeMain’s 20th season with the company, will open with Puccini’s classic Tosca. The company premiere of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment follows in February. Another predicted landmark will be its third production, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking—and a number of special outreach events and partnerships are planned in conjunction with this modern masterpiece. The season closes in July with the company’s annual Opera in the Park.
Continuing to broaden its audience horizons is a major goal for the company. “There will always be a place for the classics,” Smith says. “I think when you’re drawing new patrons in, that is what they want to see. Not many people who see opera for the first time are going to go to something like Elektra and fall in love with the art form—although some do, of course. We have to remember that for people who saw Don Giovanni for the first time at our recent production, that might as well have been a world premiere. But there is also a place for what I’d call the modern classics, like Dead Man Walking.”
In addition to its continued artistic growth and eclectic offerings, Madison Opera is finishing up the construction of the Madison Opera Center, which will officially open in September 2013. The Center will not only house the company’s administrative offices, but it will offer a rehearsal hall, a costume shop, and more.
Barrett says it’s a cost-effective measure to consolidate the company’s operations and simultaneously meet its artistic needs while adding to the heart of downtown Madison’s cultural landscape. It ties into part of the mission of Madison Opera—to continue providing the Madison community with great performances and engaging educational programming for the future.
“Audience development is a key factor,” Barrett adds. “The community supports us because I think they realize that we have a good thing here. We have people coming to our productions from Chicago that love Madison Opera, so it’s catching on that this is a worthwhile place to come based on the high quality of our productions.”
And, while Madison Opera has had an impressive string of good fortune, there always are challenges.
“Many people don’t know that ticket sales cover only about 30 percent of a performance budget,” Smith notes. “Plus we have to pay for much of the production costs before rehearsals begin. We never have a guarantee of how many tickets are going to sell or how well the production is going to do, so it’s always a leap of faith.”
Madison Opera has branched out even further to engage audiences and makes the operas it produces more accessible through Wisconsin Public Radio and online streaming. Opera Up Close is televised on the Madison City Channel and online. Through social media, Madison Opera audiences also can learn about the music and production process with looks behind the scenes—all the while helping to bring the next generation of opera lovers into the theater.
“I don’t see opera as dying at all,” Barrett concludes. “The advantage it has is that it is an art of storytelling, and storytelling will never go away.”
