In the opening hours of Opera Conference 2022, a panel of distinguished speakers debated whether the mission of an opera company should be centered exclusively on the production of art or civic engagement through art. There is often a pull to do one or the other, said moderator Torrie Allen, president and CEO of Arts Midwest. “In my experience as an opera producer, there are folks who are completely unconcerned about civic responsibility. They want ‘pure’ opera, as I’ve heard it described before. Others want the polar opposite — they want you to get into the mix.” How can companies balance the two?
Khori Dastoor, general director and CEO of Houston Grand Opera, was the first to call this choice a false dichotomy. Some of the greatest operas ever written are about individuals who are at odds with their communities or fighting oppression, she pointed out. They use the art form for its powerful ability to help people move past black-and-white thinking and explore life’s shades of gray in a way that highlights our shared humanity. People still want to hear these stories. If companies refuse to present works that highlight social justice issues, Khori said, “we are ignoring the majority of our community to our own detriment. What’s necessary artistically is also what’s necessary for the business model and the survival of the art form itself.”
Eric Jolly, president and CEO of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, underscored that company leaders must find ways to blend art and service. As they consider the stories they will tell, they must ask themselves, “Who do we engage? Who are our storytellers? Do the storytellers look like our community, or do they look like our history, and whose history?” There is a time and place for both “pure” opera and opera with a social mission, he noted. “There’s something wrong when one is to the exclusion of the other.”
The question of whether art and social justice are two different things is not relevant to everyone, soprano and executive coach Jayme Alilaw pointed out. “I show up in the space and I’m a Black soprano. That carries its own social responsibility, especially being one of very few in the space, that we go in not just as ourselves but with a responsibility to our community.” The ability to separate the two is a privilege.
This is an incredible time to present art that addresses social issues because of the ability to work with living composers and librettists, said Kelly Kuo, associate artistic director for American Lyric Theater. “The idea of working with living composers means we’re living in reality; we’re looking at the people who surround us in our communities and allowing their stories to be heard. The more we’re able to represent on our stages and normalize on our stage what we’re seeing all around us, the more we will expect that.”
Increasingly, Dastoor is finding that her partners are excited to make art and public service one. “Our board members come to their service with the idea of civic engagement. Even our funders do,” she said.
Sessions Online
Recordings of this and other sessions from Opera Conference 2022 are available at operaamerica.org/OperaCon2022.
