What is it about opera in Chicago and a dollar bill? In the last year, two companies there have used the buck as a way to draw in people and raise some money at the same time.
Last year, the Chicago Opera Theater set up a six-week “People’s Opera” contest, asking people to choose the opera, out of three, that they wanted to see produced — for $1 a vote. They selected Mosè in Egitto by Gioachino Rossini, which will open the 2010 Spring Festival Season in Millennium Park next April. Chicago Opera Theater, run creatively by Brian Dickie, raised $40,000 from the voting (including a $16,000 matching grant). Voters chose a work — chronicling Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt — that hadn’t been seen in Chicago since Abraham Lincoln’s days. Britten’s Paul Bunyan came in second; Mozart’s La finta giardiniera placed third.
I was reminded of this yesterday, when I received an email…
from Eric Reda, the artistic
director of the Chicago Opera Vanguard. I’d never heard of the company, so I looked it up and discovered that it’s new, described in this article in New City Stage as about to launch its first season. “Opera on the Edge” it’s been tagged.
Reda described his fund-raising initiative:
For our next production, the Chicago Premiere of GREEK by Mark-Anthony Turnage, we have taken our fundraising and design efforts to the people. …We have established the “GREEK Graffiti Wall!” For a contribution as small as $1, patrons are invited to add any uploadable image to our website and be entered in a drawing for an exclusive VIP opening night package. The resulting “wall” of images will then be incorporated into the set and video design of the production.
GREEK, described as a “modern Oedipus myth” that takes place in London’s East End, premiered in Munich in 1988. At Chicago Vanguard, it runs for five performances beginning May 28.
I don’t know if Reda’s ploy will work, but give both companies credit for involving people without stooping to conquer.
Photo: Courtesty Chicago Opera Vanguard