Mr. Rudolph Rauch is the managing director of the Metropolitan Opera Guild as well as the editor and publisher of Opera News. His extensive international experience as a correspondent for Time magazine and his love of opera have proven essential in increasing the readership of Opera News as well as the outreach of the Guild’s educational department, with a wonderful mission at heart: to ensure the future of opera and the growth of its audience.
Tell me about the Metropolitan Opera Guild.
It started out largely composed of wealthy women, but from the beginning, it had a serious mission: providing a base of support for the Met to help get through the Depression. Mrs. Belmont’s famous dictum was: “The cathedrals are built by the pennies of the people.” She felt that since the Met was a national institution, its support should be national in scope. This was the original idea about 60 years ago, from which everything developed.
What are your responsibilities as the Guild’s managing director?
What I am responsible for is acquiring, servicing, and keeping the direct members of Opera News.
There are four major parts to the Guild: education, Opera News, the merchandising program, and the membership program. My responsibilities include running the magazine and the merchandising department, including the Met gift shop and the art gallery downstairs.
Then, there is the formal education department that reaches about 1250 schools around the country with its various programs. We’re always out there, promoting the cause of opera to ensure its future. We want young people to learn that opera is not just a form of entertainment for rich, old people, but it is a very vital art form.
Twenty years ago, the membership program went over to the Met organization, because they wanted to integrate their fund-raising. I have very little to do with the membership program. The Met does pay a certain amount to the Guild for supplying each member with a subscription to Opera News. Originally, you had to be a member of the Guild in order to get the magazine, but when the Met took over membership, we struck an agreement that we could also try to find people who wanted the magazine but didn’t necessarily wish to be a Guild member. In addition to the roughly 50,000 members, there are direct subscribers to Opera News, about 50,000 of them, so Opera News has about 100,000 readers.
Worldwide?
It penetrates to other parts of the world, but I don’t think there’s more than 2000 readers outside the US and Canada. It’s basically a North American publication.
But to get back to my responsibilities… they are: to run the magazine and the merchandising department that includes the Met gift shop and the art gallery downstairs. The merchandising department also sends a mail-order catalog all over the country, and it provides a website where you can order recordings.
The educational value of the merchandising program is in the products we develop. We don’t produce full opera recordings, but we get a well-known expert to talk about the Opera News selections from recordings to illustrate his points. Then, there is the formal education department that reaches about 1250 schools around the country with its various programs. That department is really the kernel of the old mission in terms of not necessarily just supporting the Met, but working to be sure that there will always be an audience for opera. We’re always out there, promoting the cause of opera to ensure its future.
Young generations will get the idea early on that opera is not just a form of entertainment for rich, old people, but it is a very vital art form.
How do you raise funds? Do you organize any fundraising events?
Not that many. We do raise funds from foundations, corporations and individuals as long as we don’t clash with the Met’s efforts to raise money. There are a lot of foundations and individuals who would rather give to education than directly to the performing arts. In the past three or four years, the education department has become fairly self-supporting. We usually do two major benefits every year. One is the annual luncheon—the oldest continuing luncheon in New York—where we honor someone from the opera world.
Last year we had tenor Juan Diego Florez honoring Carlo Bergonzi. It takes place at the Waldorf, and sells anywhere from 500 to 1000 people, depending on the attraction. We usually raise about 100,000 dollars. Another event is our annual auction at Christie’s.
The magazine has changed a lot in the ten past years. Are these changes part of a plan to attract younger audiences?
Yes. We’ve been stuck at the level of 100,000 readers for quite a while. The magazine requires the reader to be a serious lover of opera in order to find it fascinating. People say they spend two hours with the magazine—that’s extraordinary, but it may be because they have to. The articles are demanding. So, our theory is that we have to provide more entry points to attract people who are busy and may not know that much about opera.
We plan to make the magazine more approachable, more visual. Opera is one of the most visual of the performing arts anyway, and one reason it’s winning over a lot of young people is that its spectacle engages all the senses.
How do you bridge the generation gap between older and younger readers?
Oh, it’s difficult. We did an issue geared toward young singers and got complaints from older readers, so then we did an issue devoted to divas, which older people would appreciate, but I’m not so sure about the younger readership. Many people don’t remember Tatyana Troyanos, even thought she died only eight years ago, so how would younger readers relate to divas like Antoinetta Stella? It’s hard to make everyone happy.
It may be that we’re oscillating too much back and forth. We may need more of a mix in each issue.
Why not make the magazine bigger?
We need more advertising. In order to have more advertising, we need more readers. You have to convince the advertisers that you’ve got an attractive magazine with readers that have the kind of demographics they want: a high income in order to be able to buy cars, perfumes or to take trips and stay in upscale hotels. This is the second reason why we are changing. We need more readers to get more advertisers, so that we don’t continually have to ask the Met for an increase in the money they give us. We want the magazine to be self-sustaining and more profitable.
Does the MOG support young singers in any way? Do you organize any events where a not so well known singer might have a chance to perform?
For about 10 years, we put on a chamber opera for schools enrolled in our education program. When we started doing it, the Met was nervous that we would become a producing organization and didn’t want their name attached to something that might not be as good as what they produce. In the initial stages, Maestro [James] Levine had to approve the conductor and the singers. But we did go out and get young singers, and we did several operas such as The Barber of Seville, Don Pasquale, some contemporary works… we had a professional union orchestra. But it became more and more expensive, and on top of everything, the Met titles made opera more accessible to people, so the attraction to our productions in English dimmed and we shelved the program.
Now we have two small productions designed to teach the initial components of opera. They are skits that allow you to demonstrate rhythm, melody, etc. Young singers are cast in these and go into schools. We did about 200 last year. But honestly, the principal objective here is to teach opera, not to give work to young singers. We’re not really into the producing business.
Why does the “dateline” at the end of Opera News give only the names of singers who perform in American opera houses? A lot of readers would be curious to know who is singing where in Europe.
Space. We don’t really want to take a page away from the editorial for that. Especially when we give the web addresses of the opera company, so readers could find out on the web who is singing where. In fact, there is some question whether it’s necessary to even supply the names of the operas being performed.
How do you see the future of opera?
I think the future of opera is extremely bright as long as the economy is bright. The local opera company is becoming a respected and important part of the community culture scene. Of course, the struggle for funding is as arduous as ever, but there’s been a tremendous success in many cities. Stars that sell out the house at the Met are being hired by houses around the country—Chicago, Dallas, Houston—and I think it’s going to keep growing.
