Arts Organizations Finances

Opera isn't supposed to be this way. In a city the size of Long Beach, sitting in the shadow of a major metropolis, the local opera company is expected to do by-the-book productions of "Carmen," "La Boheme" and "Madama Butterfly." If the city has an opera company at all, it should be renting conventional costumes and conventional sets and importing conventional singers.

Two Orange County arts organizations reported slight surpluses for the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The Irvine-based Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the county's leading presenter of touring orchestras and the presenter of the annual Eclectic Orange Festival, reported an operating surplus of $123,000.

Downstairs, scruffy musicians are picking up violins to start their daily rehearsal. Upstairs, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra's general manager, Alexander Krauter, is picking up the phone to start his daily battle--to extract money from unwilling government officials to keep the orchestra going. "If we don't get financing, the orchestra will have to close in three months," he says sadly.

Despite signs of a flagging economy, the budgetary house remained in order at the Orange County Performing Arts Center during the just concluded 2000-01 season. Center officials reported Thursday that annual spending topped $30 million for the first time at the county's biggest arts organization. The center finished with a slight surplus while presenting a record 339 performances. But there are signs that economic slowing is beginning to have an impact.

To ensure that the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Gardens remain a scholarly and botanic paradise for generations to come, the world-renowned institution will begin charging admission next month, abandoning an optional entry fee, officials said. Beginning March 19, voluntary donations will cease and adult visitors will have to pay $7.50 to see the splendor of the library, art museum and 130-acre botanic gardens in San Marino, according to officials.

Kent Hawkins, one of the founders of the scruffy Orange County Coalition for the Theatre Arts, was trying to sound cheerful about the upcoming premiere here of his latest original play, "Urban Landscapes." But he was having a hard time. "Sure, I'm happy that this black comedy is getting done. I think it's a good play that tries to say something. But I'll tell you," he continued softly, "this is probably going to be the last thing OCCTA does. . . .

The Los Angeles Philharmonic will cancel some of its programs in outlying communities and require its 70 administrative employees to take 3% to 5% pay cuts or have their wages frozen as a result of reduced financial support from the Music Center's fund-raising organization, officials said Friday. The cuts and freezes, which take effect Jan. 1, do not affect the orchestra's musicians, whose contracts are negotiated through the musicians' professional union.

These are terrible times for the prestigious Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Kent Twitchell's huge mural of its musicians may look very sturdy from the Harbor Freeway, but the organization billing itself as "the orchestra of the 21st Century" has been battered by the city's economy, riots and earthquakes alike. As the orchestra celebrates its 25th anniversary, it does so with nearly empty coffers.

Experts assessing the Orange County Performing Arts Center's ambitious expansion plans have some expensive news: It will cost twice as much as expected--$200 million or more. The first realistic price tag for the project was presented this week to center officials, who conceded Wednesday that the original estimate of $100 million, made by the center's staff, amounted to "amateurs just throwing out numbers," said Roger T. Kirwin, chairman elect of the center's board of directors.

The economic house is in order, and the public's embrace of what's presented by the Orange County Performing Arts Center remains gratifying, center leaders declared Thursday in reviewing the just-concluded fiscal year at the center's annual members' meeting. Then they turned to the imposing prospect of raising the roofs on two additional performance houses: a proposed 1,800-seat concert hall and a 500-seat theater next to the existing 3,000-capacity Segerstrom Hall.

Is it something out of Rossini's "The Thieving Magpie" or is it just "The Force of Destiny"? More and more opera companies are compelled to ask subscribers renewing prime seats to give a donation above the cost of the tickets. Opera Pacific has joined a list of prominent companies, including Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric and the Met, that observe the practice. "This is relatively common," said Joanne R.

Facing what music director Lucinda Carver calls "financial challenges," the 25-year-old Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra has canceled the last concerts of its 2000-01 season. The group's annual August appearance at the John Anson Ford Theatre has also been cut. The move, Carver said, is part of a far-reaching belt-tightening and fund-raising effort to ensure the longevity of the orchestra. Programming for next season, which begins in October, will be announced shortly.

Vanguard Theatre Ensemble will enter its tenth year in the best financial shape in its history, thanks to a five-figure corporate donation that is the largest gift the small, grass-roots company has received. In an unusual request for an arts patron, BMC Software Inc. has asked that the size of its gift to sponsor Vanguard's 2001 season be kept secret.

Officials at the Orange County Performing Arts Center have made it clear what they want for Christmas and Hanukkah: seven- and eight-figure checks to help them reach their $200-million fund-raising goal for major expansion. Commitments continue to come in. Jerry E. Mandel, the center's president and chief executive, says more than $76 million has been raised to date, including $11 million in the three months since arts patron and shopping mall mogul Henry T.

Forget taxes and road improvements, support of the arts has become one of the hot issues in this year's City Council campaign. The Yorba Linda Arts Alliance will host a candidates forum at 10 a.m. Saturday to find out where the 10 council hopefuls stand on issues related to promoting local music, dance, literature and theater programs. Discussion is bound to focus on the Forum Theater in Yorba Linda, which the North Orange County Community College District has put up for sale.

The 2000-01 state budget, signed by Gov. Gray Davis on Friday and totaling almost $100 billion, includes an increase of $12 million for the California Arts Council, the largest annual increase in the agency's 24-year history. The additional funds raise the council's annual budget from $20 million to $32 million and bring California's state arts spending to 92 cents per capita.

Two Orange County arts organizations reported slight surpluses for the 2000-2001 fiscal year. The Irvine-based Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the county's leading presenter of touring orchestras and the presenter of the annual Eclectic Orange Festival, reported an operating surplus of $123,000.

Applications are being accepted through Tuesday for $30,000 worth of performing arts grants administered by the Culver City Arts Committee, officials said. The grants, begun in 1994 as part of the city's Art in Public Places program, are for performances of theater, musical theater, dance, musical concerts or children's theater, said Dora Gallo of the city's Community Development Department.

Let's pretend we're in Medianville, U.S.A.--home of a nonprofit professional theater company called the Earnest Theater. The Earnest is working on a new musical called "12 1/2" that has attracted the attention of Broadway producers. It's a show about preteens: their hormones, their Ritalin, the divorces among their parents--the usual themes. The 16-year-old pop recording sensation Britannia Arrowwood wants to star in "12 1/2."

Citing major financial problems, the Board of Directors of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance voted Thursday to immediately cease operations of the dance company and the school that bears Graham's name. Both are based in New York City.