San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘We found a new way to be together again’
As I look back to this same time last year, I could not have imagined how different our world has become. None of us knew what the tumultuous year ahead had in store for us as we enjoyed the beginning of the 2019 holiday season.
2020 began as always, planning for a busy spring San Diego Opera season. Our January/february production of “Hansel and Gretel” went off as planned, with no big surprises. On Monday, March 22, we began the final week of technical rehearsals for the amazing chamber opera “Aging Magician,” with lighting and scenery being loaded into the Balboa Theatre.
That afternoon, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who the work was written for, withdrew due to travel concerns over the new virus that we were just beginning to face. Without them, performances were impossible — and thus, we became the first opera company in the country forced to postpone performances due to COVID-19. Within days, our entire staff began working from home, where we remain, and the remainder of our season was postponed indefinitely.
Being together is at the center of what all performing arts organizations do; suddenly, this was taken away from us. Our remarkable staff quickly shifted and developed a series of online programs meant to keep us connected to each other and to our loyal and opera-starved patrons. A new kind of content developed, and we all learned to use our computers in our homes to be together, while apart. In many ways, we see each other more than before, albeit via the Internet.
In May, as the death of George Floyd inspired protests across the world, San Diego Opera, like many companies, began to examine our role in supporting anti-racism. We recognize the need to show all residents of our community that they are welcomed by us. Together with four other opera companies across the country, we are starting the deep work of developing equity, diversity and inclusion policies that will help us better serve all of the San Diego community.
As we looked toward the fall, I knew we had to try to find a way to bring the remarkable “La Bohème” cast we had assembled to San Diego — safely — while preserving the health of our audiences and employees. Inspired by Mainly Mozart’s drive-in summer chamber music concerts, we began the arduous work of planning our drive-in production of “La Bohème.”
Our summer was filled with extensive safety planning, intense artistic and production meetings, and negotiations with labor leaders who represent our employees. We had to learn to produce opera in a whole new way. One of San Diego Opera’s core values is, “Through fiscal responsibility and nimble adaptation to the changing marketplace, we protect the future of San Diego Opera.” Each member of our staff has lived this value, daily, throughout this year, and particularly as we planned for “La Bohème.”
Now a month behind us, we can say with certainty that this production happened — with over 300 people employed and over 3,000 attending — with zero cases of COVID-19. We proved that with good, rigorous planning, live performances of high artistic quality and good public health policy can go hand in hand.
And we found a new way to be together again, albeit apart from each other in the safety of our individual cars, enjoying the communal experience of live performance.