US opera company shuts down
NewsMaryland Lyric Opera is no more. The company, which served the Washington DC region since 2014, was founded and directed by Brad Clark, son of a construction billionaire. From his statement, and its his decision alone, it looks like they’re clean out of bricks.
I am writing to let you know that I have made the difficult decision to end the operations of Maryland Lyric Opera, effective immediately. I will always be enormously proud of all that we have achieved together in bringing more opera to the region. Since I founded MDLO in 2014, we have presented many memorable performances of opera — from the three fully staged productions at The Clarice in College Park to the four operas in our thrilling 2022-23 Season of Verdi at Strathmore — in addition to many concerts in venues all across the region. Plus, we have introduced thousands of local students to our beloved art form through our programs in local schools, and nurtured the careers of emerging artists with the MDLO Institute. I am especially proud of the fine work of our Orchestra and Chorus throughout our seasons together, and that we were able to attract so many star soloists and gifted designers to our stages. I am grateful to the work of our dedicated staff and generous donor family who have helped to make all of our pursuits possible. In addition, I am thankful for the audiences who came to our events and supported our mission. It has been a tremendous joy to share my passion for opera with so many other music lovers. Thank you for going on this journey with me, and I look forward to seeing you in the future.
Brad Clark, Founder and Artistic Director, Maryland Lyric Opera
This is a great loss. First-class semi-staged performances, vocal competition, master classes, charity events. The retirement of Louis Salermo as Music Director was difficult.
Opera is in bad shape in the vicinity. The liquidation of the storied Baltimore Lyric Opera in 2009 was a portent. (There are several small operations that continue in Baltimore.)
The Washington National Opera is apparently being squeezed by The Kennedy Center (Washington Classical Review calls it a “famine”) to make room for second, third, fourth returns of the same old musicals. Only WNO three productions in 2023-24 –though well thought-out choices.
Salemno didn’t really retire. He was very difficult and singers were turning down MDLO contracts because of him, so they reached an agreement and he was basically forced to leave.
They didn’t close because opera is failing, they closed because it was a very badly run company.
It is so sad to see this happen,I know how I felt when New York city opera closed,it is was heart breaking for me!
So sad to hear this. Baltimore NEEDS an opera company.
Melissa, Baltimore *has* an opera company. Opera Baltimore is putting on a fully-staged production of Rigoletto on October 20 and 21 in Stephen’s Hall at Towson University. It will be our third production, following on our successful fully-staged Traviata and Barber of Seville in 2021 and 2022. These productions are in addition to our semi-staged concert operas (that *always* sell out!) This year, we’ve expanded our concert opera offerings from two to three performances of each opera. Opera Baltimore (formerly Baltimore Concert Opera) has been gradually building our artistic quality, our audiences and our community outreach for 15 years now and we are at a pivotal growth phase. If you want opera in Baltimore, join us! operabaltimore.org
Opera Baltimore barely pays its artists. MDLO paid a real living wage for singers, so it’s a real heartbreak that Mr. Clark has just decided to end the entire operation. Opera Baltimore claims to be growing and expanding (financially as well)… but they most certainly haven’t raised fees for artists in years, nor made many efforts to actually hire *local* artists to help foster careers of lesser known -but equally talented- singers. We have seen a lot of their education outreach expansion, (also for shockingly little pay) as well as diversity and inclusion visibility, which seem to be very important for the director of the company. As a member of the board, perhaps you can mention this in your next meeting, as it’s become plain knowledge in the singer community how poorly Opera Baltimore treats its artists and has consequently made people not want to work with them.
We appreciate your input.
Paying within budget is not mistreatment. If there is abuse or other dysfunction, that’s a different story.
It takes many years and many committed people who put in work for no pay on the founder/admin side to bring a company to life and make sure the patient survives, let alone thrives. Until you’ve done it I wouldn’t cast stones.
A company funded by one person’s wealth is eventually going to fold. That happened after basically 3 seasons, and no arts admins anywhere were surprised. Saddened, yes, but not surprised.
It’s true. MDLO payed decently, but nothing close to a living wage. But the singers weren’t on AGMA contracts and payments were sometimes short and were almost always late. The admin side was a mess. Performances were very poorly attended but they kept on producing shows that required hiring 200 musicians.
It’s also telling that Mr. Clark waited until the performance season should have already started to make the announcement that they‘ve shut down.
Washington D.C., the most powerful capital in history, does not even rank in the top 100 cities for opera performances per year. As far as opera goes, the Kennedy Center Opera house is vastly under used–mostly an opera house in name only.
OTH, if any country dares cross Washington, they risk having the holy crap bombed out of them by a large fleet of B-52s, F-35s etc., kept on the ready at nearby Andrews Airforce Base manned by 60,000 airmen of the 316th Wing. The American political system does not give its citizens any choice in changing this excessive militarism that has led to a continual state of war and which leaves little money for things like funding the arts or even maintaining our basic infrastructure. .
The budget of the Defense Department is about 3.5% of GDP, a hair over the 3% of the post-war low and a third of what it was in the early 1960s.
Is that too much? It’s debatable – I’d love to see Europe face the consequences of its foreign policy – but there’s no question that national defense is a Constitutional function of the Federal government. Funding the arts isn’t and never has been.
Meanwhile, transfer payments have ballooned from 6% of GDP in the early 1960’s to 18% today. Is that too much? We don’t get to debate it. The American political system does not give its citizens any choice in changing this.
Or any spending since we stopped having a rational budget and appropriation process long ago. Unfortunately, anyone who wants to return to discussion and debate about how tax dollars are spent is denounced as a fascist.
Semi- staged in Maryland for just over a decade? Let’s be real. There isn’t much to lament here.
We have also essentially lost all Classical coverage in the Washington Post. Dance coverage also cancelled. Things are drying up here in DC area.
Unfortunate about losing Maryland Lyric Opera and Kennedy Center bleeding the Washington Opera. We drove an hour each way to the Baltimore Opera for 34 years and really missed that company. Opera lovers should attend Bel Cantanti Opera Co., which has been performing primarily at the JCC in Rockville — terrific performances for only $40 a seat.
Audiences are down substantially since before the pandemic. Washington Opera used to sell out most performances — now most are very poorly attended. Audiences are also down at concerts and even at Bel Cantanti Opera. We still attend — you will find us behind KN-95 masks.