Familiarity breeds confusion between opera companies

Operas often thrive on confusion among their characters — the disguised lovers of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” or the mistakenly jealous title character in Verdi’s “Otello.” But when it comes to its own brand, Pittsburgh Opera, the city’s largest opera company, would prefer that things remain as clear as possible.

In February, the company formerly known as Opera Theater of Pittsburgh SummerFest announced that it had rebranded as Pittsburgh Festival Opera. For Pittsburgh Opera, the new name of its operatic neighbor sounded a bit too familiar.

“Our anxiety really stems primarily about the possibility of audience confusion,” Pittsburgh Opera general director Christopher Hahn said.

Michele Fabrizi, the board chair of Pittsburgh Opera, said

two ads in an opera program book this winter — one for Pittsburgh Opera, one for Pittsburgh Festival Opera — made the issue clear to her.

“I couldn’t tell the difference, because the logo was red, our logo is red,” said Ms. Fabrizi, the president and CEO of the marketing agency MARC USA. “I could not tell the difference between the logos, and I could not tell the difference between the ads. It looks like our ad.”

Pittsburgh Opera hopes Pittsburgh Festival Opera will reconsider the name change after the summertime company’s season wraps up this weekend. Pittsburgh Festival Opera has no plansto do so.

“Our board thinks the name is perfectly lovely, and we plan to stick with it,” Pittsburgh Festival Opera general and artistic director Jonathan Eaton said.

Last year, a marketing consultant in town for a SummerFest production offered to help the company reimagine its brand. The organization’s long-winded name had created brand inconsistency — it didn’t know whether to call itself Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, OT SummerFest, SummerFest and so on, Mr. Eaton said.

The company contemplated edgy alternatives such as Confluence Opera and Indie Opera. But the consultant thought transitioning to one of those names would require a larger marketing budget and, in any case, the company thought Pittsburgh Festival Opera would be less alienating to audiences.

“There was something sort of regal, almost royal, about it,” said Gene Myers, Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s board president. “It just had a great ring to it.”

The companies have different missions and approaches to opera: Pittsburgh Opera’s four mainstage productions are performed at the Benedum Center during the school year, while Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s smallerscale shows, all sung in English, take place over the summer at Winchester Thurston School.

Although the companies have had their issues in the past, and there was talk years ago of combining the two groups, both sides said the current disagreement did not arise from any lingering tensions. Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s founder, Mildred Miller Posvar, serves on the boards of both organizations.

Even before this latest rebranding, the two names already caused the occasional confused caller or donor.

But only Pittsburgh Opera worries that the rebrand will further muddy the operatic waters.

In Mr. Hahn’s view, Pittsburgh Festival Opera sounds like the summertime festival for Pittsburgh Opera. He also worries that Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s look — including its sans serif typeface and coloration — closely resembles Pittsburgh Opera’s.

Those similarities, he believes, could confuse ticketholders, donors and vendors who meant to subscribe to, donate to or bill a different company. Ms. Fabrizi said one upset donor, who is involved with Pittsburgh Opera, withdrew support for Pittsburgh Festival Opera in part because of the name change.

Needless to say, Pittsburgh Festival Opera isn’t concerned that the confusion will rise, and the company ran its new name past Visit Pittsburgh and local consultants, Mr. Eaton said.

“In a way, it’s complete common sense,” he said. “So here we are in Pittsburgh, we run a festival, and we do opera. Hence, Pittsburgh Festival Opera.”

The two sides met shortly after Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s announcement, and the latter agreed to change some of its marketing colors to differentiate from Pittsburgh Opera’s red logo.

At Pittsburgh Opera’s request, it also has appended a disclaimer, “Pittsburgh Festival Opera is not affiliated with Pittsburgh Opera,” on itswebsite and elsewhere.

This isn’t Pittsburgh Festival Opera’s first foray into rebranding. Mrs. Posvar founded the organization in 1978 as Pittsburgh Chamber Opera Theater, which she changed to Pittsburgh Opera Theater two years later.

That, too, created confusion with the larger company. Some time in the 1990s — no one remembers exactly when — it became Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. In 2012, it became a summer festival and added the word SummerFest.

“We keep changing our name, and this last name bothered me because I knew that — and I’m on the board of Pittsburgh Opera — that Pittsburgh Opera would have issues with it,” Mrs. Posvar said. “I was overruled in the board meeting, and I think if we just add Festival Opera Theater that that would take care of it.”

She’s gotten used to the name, which she does feel is more dignified than its predecessor. Mr. Eaton expects others to follow suit.

“It will blow over,” Mr. Eaton said. “I don’t think there’s much to blow over, but I’m sure it won’t maintain people’s interest for too long.”