Up North 2

In spite of all the initial problems, there are moments you can only experience when in a scenic area, like the performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance”, Eisenhauer explains it this way. “We had a backdrop only God could provide. Hundreds of people sat in the harbor to watch the production and when the red and orange sky surrounded them, they knew they were witnessing something special.”

I asked Eisenhauer why anyone would you want to schedule a vacation trip to Maine to view an opera when they could see one in their own state. “This is the area described in vacation magazines as the place where the mountains meet the sea,” she explains. “It has a beautiful harbor where you can see windjammers, schooners and yachts” in summer. And in the winter, she adds, “the scenery is breathtaking. It truly is a Hallmark Christmas card setting, especially at Christmas time. There are great restaurants and the B&B’s are some of the most famous in the country, and everything is within walking distance – with skiing and skating within five miles.”

As for the opera house itself, Eisenhauer is especially proud. “Our opera house is unique because the atmosphere is intimate, beautiful and the orchestra is in full-view of the audience. So, not only does the opera audience get to see the opera singer up close and understand what they are saying (performances are in English) but they have a chance to watch a conductor work with the orchestra.” Eisenhauer says that even jaded opera fans have given Maine Grand Opera a “thumbs up”. “When you have children sitting quietly with eyes transfixed on the stage and orchestra for an entire performance of “The Magic Flute”, you know you’re doing something right. I don’t think there are many opera houses in the country that offer what we do.”

The opera season for Maine Grand Opera runs from January thru December.

GRANITE STATE OPERA:

Phil Lauriat, artistic director of the Granite State Opera, founded the company in October, 1998. The idea of staring a company came about after conducting a series of community theater and light opera productions in the Monadnock region of the state. “I saw there was the potential to create something really wonderful in New Hampshire,” he said of his experience in Monadnock, but “the group wasn’t interested in going beyond where they were.” If others weren't interested, he was.

A prior commitment to conduct “Le Nozze de Figaro” in Slovakia, he says, took him out of country for a short while, but when he returned he “got the bug” again. He called his friend Paul Kellogg, who was the artistic director of Glimmerglass Opera and they talked “for quite a while about how he had built Glimmerglass Opera, and what he found to be important.” Lauriat says he and Kellogg agreed that the formula for success was simple: If he wanted to run a successful company he had to focus on “quality, quality, quality. I adopted that as the company’s mantra,” he says.

His emphasis on staging quality productions was well grounded. Like others who stage opera up north, Lauriat says the opera audience in New Hampshire is sophisticated, well-traveled and versed in opera. “There is a great audience for opera in New Hampshire,” he notes, “I believe there are over three hundred Metropolitan Opera subscribers here, and many of our audience go regularly to the Met, the BLO and Europe – anywhere there’s great opera.” A survey conducted by the 'Business Community for the Arts' found that the audience for New Hampshire is nearly double that of the national average at 8 percent. Indeed, before Granite State Opera was formed 78 percent of the opera audience in the state traveled out of state to see performances. With that many opera lovers willing to travel, Lauriat figured all he needed was to convince them he could offer something just as good, and if he did, they might consider attending locally. The company is now firmly established, growing and attracting a good audiences, and while it isn't yet where he wants it to be in terms of the number of productions, Lauriat does believe Granite State Opera has achieved what he set out to accomplish and is “giving the audience a reason to stay in the state.”

Because the opera base is as sophisticated as it is, he says, one of his greatest challenges “is to convince them that we are creating great opera here.” To ensure his goals are met he says he enlists Metropolitan Opera singers for each production, and draws talented singers from Boston.

Governed by a board of trustees comprised of eight, soon to be ten, with an annual budget of between $190 and $260 thousand, the Granite State Opera performs out of the Capitol Center for the Arts, a 1310 seat theater in Concord. “I’m quite happy with the Capitol Center,” Lauriat says. “We performed at another theater at the beginning,” he adds, "but found the Capitol’s seating, acoustics and management more user friendly." Regarding the building itself, Lauriat notes that while it has a smaller stage and a few other drawbacks, with a little work he manages just fine. “As with many of the old vaudeville houses in New Hampshire," he says, "the Capitol Center is a fly house, so we can hoist things above the stage, but there isn’t much room for standing pieces. Last season when we did La Boheme, it took three sets to find one that fit.”

The only other drawback, he says, is the fact that the Capitol has no orchestra pit. “”I need to spend a lot of time on balances,” he says. “It’s very important that the audience hears everything clearly, especially if we’re performing in English, as with our productions of The Magic Flute and The Barber of Seville.”

In spite of the minor distractions, Lauriat says business is healthy, with ticket sales for some performances, such as “The Magic Flute”, accounting for sixty percent of the cost of production. The remaining comes from private donors and “a small percentage from corporate sponsorships and grants.” But ticket sales, he emphasizes, are a major part of it. This year, he notes, the company expects something unheard of in other places – to run a profit. “This season we’ll have our first auction, and other fund raising events, and we expect to end this, our fourth season, with a surplus.”

How he accomplishes this feat is something people at the Met and elsewhere might want to talk with him about, given the fact that most of his promotion is limited to mailers, print ads, some radio, house parties and the all important word of mouth. “Word of mouth is the biggest source of info for the audience, and I’m trying to get as many mouths going as possible.” Also, he says, on a more serious note, “we try to educate [the public] about the fat lady stuff. They don’t realize that more people go to live professional arts performances than live professional sports events. I’d love to see that reflected in the media coverage”.

True enough, according to a 2003 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, audiences spend approximately $10.6 billion a year for tickets to various performing arts activities, and $1.9 billion -- yes billion -- more than they spend on movies, and $500 million more than they spend on professional sports. An additional $26 billion goes back into the economy from the arts community on what is loosely defined as secondary spending -- dinner, travel accommodations etc.