Photo: Ken Howard | The Santa Fe Opera’s 2016 production of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” | Set Design: Riccardo Hernandez
By James B. Mowdy
(Santa Fe, NM) - As coronavirus rockets around the planet, billions of us are grappling with a new reality, doing our best to accept the absolute disruption of life as we knew it. As this frightening new normal dawns upon us, we’re realizing that our health security has been questionable for months, and that our ability to gather in public spaces is either curtailed or outlawed, with perhaps more of the same for months or years to come.
For weeks, we’ve been isolated since no one is safe from the Great Equalizer of COVID-19, an infection with an unknowable prognosis. Some of us might already be infected, suffering mildly or acutely at home or fully asymptomatic. Cooped up, we’ve watched China, South Korea, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Louisiana, Georgia, South Dakota and New York City explode with infection, with dozens to hundreds to thousands of deaths per day. Hospitals around the world are overtaxed and undersupplied. We’re at war.
Milan’s La Scala closed on February 23rd. The Metropolitan Opera followed suit on March 12th, cancelling all of March’s performances, and then a week later cancelling what remained of the season. Opéra de Paris, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, The Royal Opera and festivals such as Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Garsington and Aix en Provence followed, as coronavirus silences live operatic performance around the globe, without any reasonable assurance of safety until a vaccine is found.
And here we are.
Since February, I’ve had in-person, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram conversations about how the world’s greatest art form could survive and flourish in the United States, including how it could evolve into a sturdier, more equitable, sustainable and transparent industry that works for all, such as soloists and musicians dealt the cruel blow of force majeure.
Opera Saratoga’s Artistic and General Director Lawrence Edelson was recently interviewed on New York’s Classical WMHT-FM. Discussing Saratoga’s cancellation of its 2019 season, Edelson touched on the challenges opera faces in a dramatically altered performance environment, as well as the need for “proactive thinking.” Citing the immediate benefits of opera’s pivot to online channels, Edelson said that streaming can’t replace live opera performance (mostly agreed on this point). Edelson also raised practical questions, too. How do opera companies enforce social distancing and remain sustainable? How are restrooms, the box office, concessions and intermissions handled? And, perhaps most critically, how do performers and musicians manage close proximity to each other? Mr. Edelson didn’t claim to have answers to these questions, but he’s in the process of bringing fellow opera professionals together for high-level discussions on “how to share the performing arts” now and post-COVID-19.
I was pleased to hear Edelson say that he and his colleagues are “ethically bound to proceed with care“ since opera and classical music audiences typically skew older. Per Edelson: “We’re talking about COVID-19 right now…we’ve been very reactive to (coronavirus) because we’ve been forced to” but “the best way to predict the future is to create it,” paraphrasing a quote by Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern business management. His closing thoughts perfectly distilled the moment. “We are going to have to create a future where there is a wider variety of ways we can enjoy live performance. And I don’t think this means that traditional theatre-going is going to disappear, I certainly hope not because I love it. But I think it would be naïve to believe that the world is not going to change as a result of what we’re living through right now. I’d rather be on the front end of that change than chasing after it from behind.”
Figuratively looking outward from the stage, Mr. Edelson says that opera must reimagine how it engages live audiences. But shouldn’t American opera also spin on its heels to honestly assess, stress-test and reimagine how it works with the armies of creatives building their careers?
I’ve often said that opera singers and classical musicians are the original gig economy. But today’s gig economy hasn’t worked out that well for millions of Americans, even before the pandemic. The “company” person of earlier generations has disappeared; loyalty is limited and ultimately not required because everyone is an independent contractor. Like classical artists, tech professionals often work without job security, jockeying from employer to employer for the best, high-value experience, hopefully trading up to achieve some sense of financial security, a modicum of professional success or renown. As in opera, some in tech become wildly successful, perhaps as a star engineer, founder or major VC. But the similarities mostly end there. Tech professionals generally maintain or improve upon the lifestyle they’ve built, with the freedom to work remotely as needed or desired. Alternatively, and with rare exception, opera singers and classical musicians must be “at the office” to earn their living i.e. performing onstage, in a recording studio or at a special event. They must also continually hone their craft via lessons, practice, and other professional training at their own expense, which could mean additional side gigs just to keep the plates of their careers spinning.
Fortunately, there are US opera companies innovating right now and/or making decisions influenced by brand values and a laudable sense of business ethics. For example, Pittsburgh Festival Opera has reimagined its summer intensive as an “Online Young Artists Program”, utilizing recordings, podcast interviews, social media, and candid videos to maintain its audience until public gatherings are once again possible. It’s also significant to note that Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, Long Beach Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis are compensating staff (with some furloughs), as well as artists to varying degrees, in spite of cancelled seasons and ongoing uncertainty. Concurrently, The AGMA Soloist Coalition, formed in early 2020, is doing an excellent job spotlighting artist-supportive efforts by various American companies, working within the AGMA union to better address concerns and issues specific to soloists, which in turn strengthens their union. The coalition’s arrival couldn’t have come at a better time. As anyone who works in opera or follows the industry knows, there have been critical, and in some cases, recent moments when US companies have operated in a somewhat secretive fashion or exercised a kind of top down decision-making reminiscent of the Hollywood studio system of the 1930-50s.
This is not a hit piece. Rather, it’s an honest look at some of American opera’s business practices and how the now, mostly discarded mantra of “move fast and break things” should be applied to opera, a shock to the system that could ultimately result in a healthier industry. Because shouldn’t American opera want to be known as an equitable workplace? A workplace with new efficiencies, increased employee/contractor/artist loyalty and productivity? Also, as an industry governed by uniform business ethics and transparency, industry-wide innovations to protect and compensate artists, as well as a sense of proactive responsiveness to impending or potential business impacts? All of these could redefine American opera, creating a new kind of 21st century success for the art form.
The AGMA Soloist Coalition’s platform details specific areas where it seeks to improve artists’ collective standing. Two of those areas are:
Pay Structures
Manager and Artist Best Practices
Pay Structures
The AGMA Soloist Coalition seeks “ways we can protect ourselves financially in future contracts” while also “implement(ing) changes in the way singers are paid industry-wide.” To say that there’s a bit to explore and improve here is an understatement. Baritone Ryan McKinney, whose artistry I’ve long admired, recently tweeted how it’s important to “support the innovations we are seeing in content being created right now” i.e. during this crisis.
McKinney’s comments were in response to a beautifully distilled thread from tenor and MiddleClassArtist.com’s Zack Finkelstein. Finkelstein was discussing the free streaming of operas as soon as the crisis hit, which I view as a lost opportunity for several companies (more on that soon). Zach’s tweets verbatim:
“For foreseeable future, online content will be critical to artist business development and revenue. Streaming premium arts productions for free hampers our ability to survive in 6 months. We're giving away the ipad and hoping people buy it later when we need the cash.”
“By broadcasting the works from the peak of our production capacity before social distancing, we are overpromising and setting ourselves up for failure with audience expectations when we try to charge something. Giving out the 2019 ipad and following it up with the 2012 ipod.”
“We are stifling innovation by giving away pre-covid entertainment online. How can we promote new work and ask people to pay $9.99 for it while competing with a limitless volume of free, flawlessly produced content? Is there room for new DIY albums in a free Met HD world?”
The obvious and easiest solution to this practice (or problem) is a paywall or digital subscription, something that works beautifully for the Medici.tv platform and app. Director David Paul saw it differently, tweeting that “some of the most successful corporations of our time” have used the free sample model to “awaken an appetite that is then worth paying to satisfy later. People are unemployed, we have the ability to give them joy,” and that this approach could “possibly generate new audiences.”
In my mind, Mr. Paul’s response only reinforced Finkelstein’s argument, so I responded, noting that opera is 1) a high-value luxury product and 2) its performance is a luxury brand experience. Why shouldn’t pay walls or monthly/annual subscription fees exist? Why is there no SAG-AFTRA-like artist residual / royalty mechanism for every download, stream or rebroadcast, based on a standard, industry pay per view model used by every American opera company? Could AGMA institute or manage something of this nature? Is a new, AGMA-affiliated body required?
But Mr. Paul stuck to his argument.
Mr. Paul also thought it was “absurd” to innovate during the pandemic. I disgreed (apologies for the typo).
I don’t know Mr. Paul and certainly have nothing against him, but I can’t think of a better time to begin serious discussions on how to restructure the ways American opera compensates creatives, when its way of doing business is forever changed (why I’m glad the AGMA Soloist Coalition is on the case). Apologies to Mr. Paul, but “down the road” just doesn’t fly. The expectation that artists and musicians can simply hang on for an indeterminate amount of time isn’t workable, all the more so during this crisis.
Back to the pink elephant in the room. Why does the Mecca of American Opera - a bonafide luxury brand - stream its operas for free, the equivalent of leaving money on the table? What luxury brand does that? To be fair, a $14.99/month on-demand video offer is found just below free streaming content, but why make viewers scroll down to pay for this service when the page leads with content that’s free of charge? A compelling, of the moment call to action for purchase is missing. Ultimately, the decision to give away high-value content devalues this company’s one-of-a-kind, high-value work product, as well as the skills of highly-trained, best-in-world artists and musicians who perform live onstage and in perpetuity via free stream, a stream this company’s national and global audience would certainly purchase, just like MetHD. It’s not rocket science to see how pay wall/subscription fees could directly compensate soloists and musicians who lost their incomes when the remainder of the 2019/20 season was cancelled; many of us would be all the more inclined to purchase a streaming subscription if we knew funds were directly helping artists and musicians. A company-wide fundraising appeal could be added, as well, creating an innovative, almost corporate social responsibility-like initiative as PR campaign, publicly demonstrating The Met’s care and concern for the most critically important individuals in its employ, acting as American opera’s flag bearer, bar none. Of course, this could all still happen, so please feel free to forward this blog vers Lincoln Center!
Opera will continue being performed in this county, but what will it look like? Like the global aviation industry, a new and unknown business environment awaits. As previewed earlier by Mr. Edelson, how can the performance business model remain feasible in the age of social distancing? That factor alone changes the dynamic between audiences and performers. How many small to medium companies will fold? If the business of American opera stays the same, what happens when the next crisis arrives, artists and musicians once again holding an even emptier bag?
Manager and Artist Best Practices
Mr. Edelson proposed action steps during his interview, many of which dovetail nicely into the AGMA Soloist Coaltion’s action plan regarding Manager and Artist Best Practices:
The Manager & Artist Best Practices group has been discussing the many issues facing managers and soloists, so we can support each other’s livelihoods as the classical music world rebuilds. We are currently most focused on topics that address immediate concerns in our contracts that have come to light in the midst of the global pandemic.
As the SC takes the lead on advocating and creating change for opera soloists, in concert with the greater AGMA union, the lynchpin dialogue is between soloists and their managers and/or management firms. The more aligned these respective parties become, the more powerful their lobbying abilities will become.
The need for proactive thinking
Mr. Edelson advocated proactive thinking, not reactivity. The SC had already started to think of ways to improve their members’ standing in their industry, prior to the pandemic. My suggestions regarding pay walls, subscriptions, residuals and royalties may not be new, but they should be considered for the benefit of all who work in and profit from opera in the United States. I referenced the Hollywood studio system of the mid-20th century, but perhaps AGMA and the SC could look at today’s Hollywood, the filmmaking industry, unions like SAG-AFTRA and entertainment agencies like CAA, ICM, WME et al to model new structures that compensate and protect artist IP, as well as management firms. When and if these structures come to exist in opera, contracts will evolve to make space for them i.e. business innovation and evolution.
Ethically bound to proceed with care
Bringing opera professionals together
The SC is bringing soloists together to begin working on collective goals with opera companies and their managers, but is this considered a brave or bold move? Are there soloists who are concerned about being associated with this group? Is it considered “activist”? In light of where we are, none of that really matters anymore. Just like Mr. Edelson brainstorms with his opera colleagues, it’s important that the SC and other coalitions in AGMA, as well as other parties across the American opera universe (company leadership, composers, conductors, etc), unify as one to seek common goals that shore up and solidify American opera, institute greater employee/contractor protections and better compensation models. Opera America is already an established, unifying body in American opera. Perhaps OA could become a powerful leader and partner in this effort as well?
Accepting change and leading
Predicting the future by creating it
The SC’s platform and videos already demonstrate a group of talented individuals in full awareness of how their livelihoods are consistently at risk, COVID-19 has only heightened this awareness and acceptance. But this level of acceptance is something everyone who works in opera must find, sooner than not, which includes management, leadership of every American opera company, Opera America and, perhaps most critically, the American opera-going public.
Most movements begin at the grassroots level. The SC is clearly playing that role, but it can’t create lasting change alone. SC’s increased union and management support is key. But US opera’s standard operating procedures will only improve when the opera-going public becomes fully aware of the multiple challenges most artists and musicians face, raising our voice en masse for the “essential workers” of opera, and using our considerable purchasing power and influence to uniformly demand change for the most important people in the room. There will be pain. The meteor of coronavirus will force some companies to shutter. Some might lose their relevancy if they’re unable - or unwilling - to powerfully meet the moment. More nimble organizations could become digital and/or socially-distanced companies or some interesting hybrid of the pre-COVID model and something altogether new, defining opera’s new normal. American Opera 2.0 has already begun its countdown to launch. The trick is not getting left behind.
JM