ENTERTAINMENT
April 18, 2014 | By David Ng
San Diego Opera set a new deadline of May 19 to obtain new funding or close down after the resignation Thursday of 13 members of its board of directors, including President Karen Cohn. The new deadline will give the reconstituted board time to raise money to keep the company alive -- though what form it might take is uncertain. Under discussion at Thursday's meeting was a motion that stated in part that "additional information has come to the attention of the board regarding the prospects of new funding.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 18, 2014 | By David Ng
The president of San Diego Opera's board of directors resigned Thursday and walked out of an afternoon board meeting, deepening the uncertainty surrounding the troubled company. A number of other board members also resigned Thursday, though it remained unclear how many of the nearly 60 members have officially stepped down. Karen Cohn had served as the board president and has been acting as the public voice of the company during much of the tumult following its March announcement that it was closing.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 14, 2014 | By David Ng
The Sunday matinee of "Don Quixote" officially was San Diego Opera's final staging after five decades in existence, but the fate of the company still hangs in the balance as supporters fight to keep the opera afloat. The company's board of directors met Friday afternoon and voted to keep an April 29 deadline for the opera's closure. But the board also formed a special committee of six members to explore alternatives to shutting down. In a letter sent to employees on Sunday, Karen Cohn, the board president, said the meeting included a discussion of a reduced 2015 season, but that the board concluded that such an option would be viable only if staff cuts were made and if "we could raise substantial bridge funding for the summer.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 11, 2014 | By David Ng
San Diego Opera has enlisted the spin expertise of Mark Fabiani -- the former deputy mayor of Los Angeles and former special counsel to President Bill Clinton -- to handle the company's public relations as it faces mounting criticism over its decision to shut down. A PR man with a long roster of prominent clients, Fabiani was an ascendant L.A. politician during the '80s. He served as the chief of staff under L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley and also took on the role of deputy mayor. Fabiani later served as special counsel to President Clinton, advising him on the Whitewater scandal and other matters.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 7, 2014 | By David Ng
SAN DIEGO - Judging by the audience's reaction, the villain at the San Diego Opera's swan-song production of "Don Quixote" may have taken the stage before the curtain was even raised. As the house lights were about to go down Saturday night, Ian Campbell made a surprise appearance on stage - to raucous boos and heckling from many in the crowd of nearly 3,000. Even so, he also managed to win applause, and at one point several dozen people stood up in his support. Campbell, the company's longtime general and artistic director, is under fire for pushing to close the opera, which has suffered from declining attendance and donations.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 5, 2014 | By David Ng and Mike Boehm
There's nothing opera buffs like better than a climactic death scene. But the one that San Diego Opera scripted for itself has gone over so badly that its leaders are now trying to write a new ending. Last month's sudden announcement that the opera would shut down just short of its 50th anniversary next year raised an outcry from patrons and company members alike, who said they didn't have any advance warning of the company's escalating financial troubles. A faction of the board, which has close to 60 members, has succeeded in getting the closure postponed by two weeks, to April 29, in hopes that last-ditch pleas for donations can keep the lights on. More than 20,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the opera to be saved.