In Wednesday’s (5/13) Miami Herald, Daniel Chang reports, “The Florida Grand Opera’s Superstar Concert Series, launched under the creative direction of longtime South Florida arts presenter Judy Drucker, will not return for a second season. Robert Heuer, the opera’s general director, says the three-concert series—headlined by luminaries Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Marcello Giordani, and Bryn Terfel—lost more than $250,000, mostly to low ticket sales and weak fundraising. The cancellation follows Heuer’s January announcement that the opera will shed 30 percent of its $14 million budget for next season by presenting four operas instead of the usual five, freezing wages and discontinuing contributions to employee retirement plans. … Heuer says the Superstar Concerts cost $740,000 to present and lost $268,000. Paid attendance at the 2,200-seat Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts averaged 750. … The loss of the Superstar Series further contracts the area’s number of classical music performances. … But longtime watchers of South Florida’s classical music scene say the region is still rich in cultural resources.”
Posted May 13, 2009
