Metropolitan Opera guild annual report

Abstract

Special Events is concluding a successful season as well. Under the tireless leadership of our development director, Lucinda Frame, Guild members were afforded opportunities to attend theater benefits and opera in Central Park.

The Guild's sixty-fifth-anniversary year closed on June 30, 2000. As many of you know, I was elected president of the Guild on June 24 a year ago, in sad and difficult circumstances. Our president of thirteen years, Alton Peters, died prematurely on May 30, 1999. Alton was a superb leader, a man of strong purpose and irrepressible warmth. He embodied a combination of qualities few possess but many admire, and he left us with innumerable tangible proofs of his successful leadership. One of his most enduring legacies is the Guild's strong community of board and staff, which he put in place; it has enabled me to undertake the daunting challenge of following him as president.

I know that Alton would be pleased to know what a successful year the Guild has had. Led by our managing director, Rudolph Rauch, and carefully tended by Brendan Gannon, our finance director, the Guild ended the year with a small surplus and increased our donation to the Metropolitan Opera Association to $4.7 million.

Our Education Department, under the dedicated and effective guidance of its director, David Dik, is reaching more teachers and students of all ages than ever before. We have programs in 1,175 schools in forty-one states and twenty-five foreign countries. Aided by five Annenberg grants, the Guild-trained teaching artists taught more than 1,400 in-school classes in New York City's public schools. We are also very proud of a Creating Original Opera program we developed for the foster children of the city's Administration of Children's Services. In addition, more than 28,000 students from the northeast region attended a rehearsal or a performance at the Met as part of an opera study program, which prepared them for the performance and provided follow-up work after they visited the Met. Our Creating Original Opera Teacher Training Programs are underway, training 200 teachers this year in five sites: Montgomery, Cincinnati, Boston, Phoenix and New York. The training they receive will allow them to return to help their students create and perform an original opera. This year, performances took place in more than 644 schools worldwide. One of the highlights of this year's educational program was a student version of Texaco's Opera Quiz, created in celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of Texaco's sponsorship of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts. Our initiative was undertaken in partnership with the Washington, D.C. and Houston opera companies. The three finalists competed on the air during the second intermission of Die Walkure on April 1. We are all looking forward to planning next year's student quiz, which will include six regions, doubling the number of participants in the project. Another successful cooperative venture was our series of Ring Symposium lectures. These fully subscribed lectures resulted from a cooperative effort of the Guild's associate director of education, Clarie Freimann, and Met assistant managers Sarah Billinghurst and Stewart Pearce, along with the Association's Development and Special Events Departments. We are grateful for their continued assistance.

Our Merchandising Department has had strong results this year as well. The Guild's merchandising program is now focused on the Metropolitan Opera Shop, the Gallery at Lincoln Center, the Lincoln Center Theatre Shop and our mail-order program. The shops ended the season with sales of $3,505,000, an increase in sales of 22 percent. Paul Gruber deserves much credit for improved sales; besides managing the retail operations, he produced his usual crop of eagerly awaited proprietary products: two Met Legends CDs (Victoria de los Angeles and Sherrill Milnes), another Met Christmas celebration and a first, a co-production with the Education Department, "Growing Up With Opera" - a runaway best-seller, with the cover designed by one of our students, Bradley Portella, from PS. 314 in Brooklyn.

OPERA NEWS, in the second year of its monthly format, opened the season last September by asking the intriguing question "What's the greatest voice you ever heard?" Playwright Albert Innaurato wrote an insightful, often irreverent report on Milan's La Scala, stretching over two summer issues. We ended the season with an issue concentrating on an important star of the art form today, the stage director. Most of these special issues were the products of the fertile imagination of the magazine's executive editor, Brian Kellow All were guided from conception to fruition by his sure hand.

Special Events is concluding a successful season as well. Under the tireless leadership of our development director, Lucinda Frame, Guild members were afforded opportunities to attend theater benefits and opera in Central Park. Other highlights included the seventh annual Guild Auction - chaired by Maisie Houghton, Beth Tunick and Anna Mann, as well as our dynamic junior chairmen, Lisa Freylinghuysen and Kelly McNamara - and the sixty-fifth-anniversary Guild Luncheon, once again led by Mary Gene Sondericker. Our luncheon this year honored two of our board members, Anna Moffo and Roberta Peters. Joining us as a special surprise orchestrated by the Met's General Manager, Joseph Volpe, was New York City Mayor Giuliani, who delivered three proclamations: one in honor of each diva, and one in honor of the Guild's contributions to the Met. The luncheon was dedicated to the memory of Alton Peters.

Our most significant tribute to Alton was the creation of a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Grand Finals Award of $15,000 in his name. This will be presented annually to one of the audition's finalists. This first year, it was awarded to a striking young mezzo, Elizabeth Batton, who performed at the 2000 Utah Summer Festival. A Memorial Committee chaired by Guild Vice President Glen Bowersock chose this as a fitting tribute to a man who had a lifelong passion for good singing. And, as it involves both the Met and the Guild, it underscores his commitment to both institutions.

At our annual meeting in May, we elected one new director, Theodore A. Kurz. A partner at the New York City law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, he is a director of the Penates Foundation. At this same meeting, Maisie Houghton was elected to a three-year term as vice president. She is succeeding Beth Tunick, who is stepping down after her three-year term, and joining Glen Bowersock and Mrs. Peter Nicholas, who serve as the Guild's other vice presidents.

Once again, I would like to thank MOA President Paul Montrone, General Manager Joseph Volpe and the Metropolitan Opera staff for the warm welcome and enthusiastic assistance they have provided during my first year. Certainly, one of my priorities this year was to continue to strengthen the relationship between the Guild and the Association. To give added impetus to this effort, Paul Montrone proposed the creation of a joint MOA/MOG Operations Oversight Committee, a suggestion I welcomed with enthusiasm. Chaired by MOA Managing Director Marvin Schein and MOG Director Patricia Sullivan, the new committee will provide a useful forum for an exchange of ideas and a clarification of the Guild's role. Our mission is to win new audiences for the art form and build support for the Metropolitan Opera as a national asset. The Guild has always stood for the democratization of opera. Today, with opera audiences growing as never before, we must find new ways to reach all segments of American society.

Clearly, I have benefited enormously this year from the advice, friendship and support I have received from so many of our staff and board. Chairman of the Board Tom Hubbard's vision and experience have been invaluable. Without Ru Rauch's guidance and encouragement, the Guild would not be in the promising position it is in today. Building on the Guild's proud history is a labor of love for us all.