[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/operade.mp3|titles= Delaware Public Media's Cathy Carter interviews Opera Delaware general director Brendan Cooke.]
New York City Opera made its final curtain call last year and in March, the San Diego Opera announced it will cease operations at the end of its current season.
Here in the First State, Opera Delaware announced in January that the company was cancelling its scheduled May production of IL Travatore, noting the full scale production was simply to expensive to launch.
Dwindling donor support and the economic downturn are just two contributing factors to the closings and cancellations.
Opera Delaware's General Director Brendan Cooke confirms that times are tough for opera and other cultural organizations.
“Over the past decade we’ve seen an 87 percent collapse in corporate support and that’s not unique to Opera Delaware and it’s not unique to opera. A lot of the arts are struggling with this same, trying to replace these collapsed sources of revenue,” said Cooke.
[caption id="attachment_59280" align="alignright" width="300"]https://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/spring-sings.jpgSpring Sings performers Timothy Mix, Victoria Cannizzo, Kirk Doughterty (l-r) performing together at Baltimore Concert Opera (photo courtesy: Angela Ferguson)[/caption]
But Cooke adds he remains optimistic about Opera Delaware's future. The company points to their sold out March opera as evidence that the genre remains a popular draw. Ticket sales however account for just a fraction of the cost of a large scale production.
As a replacement for the larger Il Trovatore production it cancelled, Opera Delaware is presenting a series of smaller concerts with some of opera's rising stars. The production, "Spring Sings," will be presented at three different venues in downtown Wilmington through the end of next week.
[audio:http://www.wdde.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Spring-Sings1.mp3|titles= A sneak peek at Opera Delaware's "Spring Sings" program.]
Cooke says he hopes the concerts will keep the current patron base engaged and attract new fans as well.
"I’m sort of viewing them as the gateway drug to opera. There’s a little bit of this, a little bit of that," said Cooke. "It’s a great way for people to get a little taste of what we can do. This is sort of our petition to the state of Delaware saying that we’re going to continue to bring you this magnificent music but we need support.”
Cooke says "Spring Sings" is part of the effort to revamp the Wilmington based company's and offer scaled down productions while seeking corporate sponsorship and community support.
Complete information on "Spring Sings," including how to purchase tickets for one of the three events, can be found at Opera Delaware's website.
This piece is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.