UPDATED at 2:45 p.m. May 13 with the cancellation of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s Concerts in the Garden outdoor series.
Santa Fe Opera, a popular summer destination for North Texas opera lovers, has canceled its 2020 festival due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The five productions scheduled in July and August were to have included composer Huang Ruo’s operatic adaptation of David Henry Hwang’s Broadway hit M. Butterfly and the festival’s first-ever production of Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
With performances shut down around the world, and ticket purchases and donations drying up, the pandemic has been catastrophic for performing arts organizations — and the people they employ. Making the best of challenging circumstances, though, the Mimir Chamber Music Festival, held each July at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, will be a “virtual festival" this time.
“We have some interesting things planned,” says Mimir director Curt Thompson, “including a cooking show [with pianist Alessio Bax] and featuring Mimir regulars alongside some past Mimir alumni in prerecorded concerts that the festival is commissioning. We’ll be running from July 5 to 11 via a YouTube link with some Zoom intermissions, receptions, etc.”
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra recently canceled this summer’s Concerts in the Garden, a popular outdoor series at Fort Worth Botanic Garden.
Another summer draw in Fort Worth, the PianoTexas International Festival and Academy, combining public concerts with training for young and amateur pianists and piano teachers, will not happen this year. The Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, originally set for May, has been postponed until 2022.
Santa Fe Opera, along with many other performing-arts organizations, is asking advance ticket buyers to donate the cost of their tickets to help support the company and its personnel.
“Each year at this time,” Santa Fe Opera general director Robert K. Meya writes in a letter to ticket holders, “we begin to welcome over 600 additional staff members in preparation for our summer performances. Many of them now face an extremely difficult and uncertain future. It is with their welfare in mind that I announce our commitment to providing a level of compensation to all artists, musicians, artisans and seasonal staff who were engaged for the 2020 season.”
With more than $5 million in advance sales, the company says donated ticket values will be matched by a group of supporters up to $3 million.
Two other Santa Fe attractions, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Santa Fe Desert Chorale, also have canceled this summer’s offerings. The Desert Chorale, assembled each summer with top-notch professional singers from around the country, is led by Joshua Habermann, who’s also director of the Dallas Symphony Chorus.
The Dallas Symphony earlier was hit with cancellation of its weeklong July residency at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival in Colorado. The schedule there also was to include the New York Philharmonic (under former DSO music director Jaap van Zweden), the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival and School, another destination for North Texas music lovers and students, also has canceled this summer’s activities. Another important festival, Ravinia, in Illinois and summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, will not happen this year either.
The Santa Fe Opera cancellation completes a wipe out of American summer opera festivals, following previous announcements from Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, N.Y. Fort Worth Opera earlier called off its 2020 festival, which was scheduled April 17 through May 3.
As pointed out in repeated studies, the arts represent considerable economic impact. Summer festivals supply significant activities — and income — for orchestra and freelance musicians otherwise unemployed in summer months. Opera companies also employ legions of other freelancers — stage directors, set designers, costumers and stagehands — who will lose significant chunks of income from the cancellations. Add waves of economic impact on hotels and restaurants in communities around the festivals.
Dallas and Fort Worth performing arts organizations began canceling performances in March. Whether seasons can resume in September remains to be seen, especially with the potential for a second wave of coronavirus infections in the fall. The arts are heavily dependent on disposable income, hard-hit these days with many people unemployed, furloughed or affected by salary cuts.
