Following a period of uncertainty for San Diego Opera given potential financial troubles, the company was able to secure public funding and support to stay open and continue on with its 2014–2015 50th anniversary season. The company announced in March that David Bennett of Gotham Chamber Opera would be the new general director. In advance of officially jumping into the position on June 15, Bennett spoke with Classical Singer about what he looks forward to doing in San Diego.
What will be some of your duties as general director?
As general director I will have complete oversight of all things artistic and administrative. I will be responsible for all the artistic planning, casting, choice of directors and designers, and also season planning and overseeing all the administrative staff—overseeing development, marketing, they have a scenic shop.
Given the events of the past couple of years, do you, the board, and the rest of the staff see this as a fresh start for San Diego Opera?
Absolutely. I think everyone sees it as an opportunity to build on the legacy of the company, which is a significant legacy of artistic achievement, but also to move partially in other directions. Not completely, because the company will always continue to produce traditional opera in a very large space (we have a 3,000-seat house―it’s a big theater), and so that will continue to be part of the activity of the company.
But trying to figure out what other kinds of presentations and modes of presentation and styles will be right for the community of San Diego is what’s exciting. In some regards, it’s not a break with the past, but it’s a reimagining of the legacy of the company.
Will this come with a new branding and new vision?
Yes, absolutely. There’s a lot to do once I begin. There is already a little bit of a fresher look this season with visual marketing materials. I think we’ll see an update on the website. Those are things that the staff had already initiated.
The good thing is I’m coming in building on some terrific work that has been done in the past year, and all of that is based in an enthusiasm from the existing staff to start moving in a new direction.
What would you say are San Diego Opera’s responsibilities to San Diego and to the art form?
That’s a big question. It’s a question and an issue that the entire industry is dealing with. How can we engage more deeply with today’s community and have more civic impact? Obviously, Verdi and Puccini and Mozart and grand opera are going to be part of what drives this industry forward. But we are also thinking of ways to take that kind of repertoire and other kinds of repertoire and present it in companies’ individual communities in ways that have resonance there. So the solution is different in San Diego than in New York City, because what you have to do is make things vital in that community. It’s a particularly interesting puzzle, because there’s a whole lot of opportunities and also challenges.
One of the things that’s great about San Diego is that a big part of that challenge is trying to dig deep within each individual community and find ways to make the company have resonance. And in San Diego, the community spoke very loudly and clearly last year that they wanted the company to remain, so finding out what will make the company particularly compelling for San Diego will be interesting.
What about the company’s responsibility to artists?
I think that we have a responsibility for engaging American artists and I’m looking forward to doing that. American artists on all levels—conductors, singers, designers, librettists, and composers. I look forward to doing that and trying to create work that speaks to today’s community.
How do you see what you did at Gotham Chamber Opera transferring to San Diego?
I think part of the reason why the San Diego Opera was interested in me particularly was because of the things we did at Gotham Chamber Opera with chamber opera as a medium, but then also with nontraditional spaces. Before they had done a search for a general director, the board and staff together had already created a new mission statement that embraced traditional opera but also opera presented in nontraditional spaces—opera presented in different modes, like traditional works presented in a less traditional way—and chamber opera, concert opera, zarzuela. All of that was addressed by the board.
What might you approach differently at San Diego Opera?
Clearly, the difference is going to be Gotham does not present anything that’s grand opera or standard repertoire, because Gotham’s mission is to produce work that’s meant for intimate spaces. And as a sort of by-product of being committed to that mission, you find you skip the 19th century. Those works were by and large written for theaters that were larger than what they are committed to at Gotham.
That’s actually a great opportunity for me as an artist myself and as a leader to begin to embrace standard repertory, which I have not been able to do as an administrator. I did as a singer before, but I want to reconnect with some of the things we all love about opera with Aida and Turandot and Ariadne auf Naxos—all of those things I’m itching to get my hands on in a way I was not able to at Gotham.
What have you done already and what do you plan to do to introduce yourself as a member of the San Diego arts community?
I’ve already made inroads with other arts leaders within the community. There’s a lot of new energy and new leadership in the arts community in San Diego. There’s new leadership at the symphony, at the La Jolla Playhouse, and at the Old Globe. I’ve begun having meetings with all them, and we’ve had significant conversations about ways that we might be able to work together as co-creators of artistic products as opposed to competitors.
There’s a history of engaging the symphony as the orchestra in the pit but not thinking of how we think artistically together as partners. Those conversations are already started, and I’m really looking forward to picking those conversations up and starting to run with them, because that’s also something we did at Gotham: a lot of co-producing with organizations as wide ranging as the American Museum of National History and Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and Tectonic Theater Project. We co-produced with all of them, so we imagined these productions together as cultural institutions. I’m looking forward to having that opportunity in San Diego.
The bigger picture is just to be able to become known to all areas of the community―which means the Latino community, African-American community, and the gay and lesbian community―and trying to find ways that the company can have resonance with all of them as well as the existing audience of San Diego Opera.
What do you feel you have offered as an administrator, given your background as a baritone?
I was a voice teacher, also, so I have a sense of what I like and a strongly defined artistic sense myself. I think that there are some people who are administrators in the opera field that have that but don’t also have a sense of business, so I bring both of those, which is a benefit. I also have an MBA; I went back to school to study arts management where I got a business degree. That gives me the balance of actually being able to see how decisions made on the artistic side influence the administrative side, and vice versa, and how they really are webbed together.
Most people who work within the opera industry—it doesn’t matter whether you’re working in the finance office or the production office—all of us do it because we love the art form, so everyone likes to feel like they are contributing in some way to the artistic product. It doesn’t matter which role you’re playing within the industry. I think that having someone with an artistic background at the top will help get everyone in each area of the administration feeling like they also can have an artistic voice.
How do you think San Diego’s proximity to Los Angeles (about a two-hour drive) might affect where you lead this company?
I think that’s yet to be determined. Both companies have distinct legacies that are different from each other. I think there are things that San Diego can learn from Los Angeles. And I have the generosity of the leaders of Los Angeles Opera, who are saying that whatever I need, they stand ready to help. So I think that there are definitely things to learn from Los Angeles, such as ways to engage with the Latino community, that I hope to bring to San Diego.
But I don’t know in terms of repertoire if it’s going to be competitive. That’s yet to be learned. I think the audiences at this point are distinct enough, but they’ve also been very different companies, so I think as we grow and become a different kind of company that’s something we have to nuance to a certain degree.
The upcoming season was planned by Ian Campbell. What might we expect from the first season you plan?
It’s actually the next two seasons: next season entirely except for one recital that was just added from René Barbera. The following season, 2016–17, the three main productions were planned already, but there’s nothing else planned in that season in terms of what else is offered. So in that season you’ll see an impact of my artistic voice on the other things outside of the three main productions. We’re already talking about perhaps a co-production with the symphony that season and perhaps a chamber opera―and then the following season is when you’ll see my artistic decisions on the mainstage at the San Diego Civic Theater as well as shaping how those are related to other offerings.
What do you look for in singers?
I like to see singers who are authentic—well trained, with great technique and honest acting, but most importantly have a sense of their own unique qualities. Sometimes I find young singers come out of training with good technique, but with their own unique qualities ironed out.
What is the biggest audition faux pas you see?
Offering inappropriate repertoire—either for their voice or for what the company is casting.
Any other thoughts as you prepare to officially become general director?
It’s a great opportunity, and I’m excited about it. Typically when you’re looking at a company that’s making transitions, there are a series of challenges that you’re faced with, and you have to look a little deeper for the opportunities. I think that the opportunities in San Diego are as great as―perhaps even greater than―the challenges, so it’s really exciting to see a community embrace this company like this and to come in at a moment where opportunity just seems to abound.
