In Sunday’s (2/15) Miami Herald, Daniel Chang reports, “Mounting financial pressure from the withering economy is taking a further toll on the Florida Grand Opera, whose administrators said this week that they will not renew the contract for Stewart Robertson, FGO music director since 1998 and conductor of more than 40 of the group’s productions. Robertson’s contract expires in May 2010, FGO director Robert Heuer said in a written statement, and ‘Maestro Robertson and I have agreed that this will complete his role’ with the organization. Robertson will conduct the opera’s remaining productions this season and those of the next, and there’s a chance he will return as a guest conductor, according to Heuer’s statement. News that Robertson’s contract would not be renewed follows the FGO’s January announcement that the organization would cut its budget next season by about 30 percent—to $10 million from $14 million—by presenting four operas instead of its usual five, freezing wages and discontinuing contributions to retirement plans for staff.”
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