“Gotham Chamber Opera, a small, imaginative troupe that had seemed poised to fill some of the void after New York City Opera closed in 2013, announced on Thursday that it would shut down because its new executive director had uncovered a large, previously undisclosed deficit,” writes Michael Cooper in Friday’s (10/2) New York Times.“The troupe had seemed to offer a new model for opera in the 21st century: It gave critically acclaimed performances of small-scale works … Things began to unravel in June, after Edward Barnes took over as the company’s executive director and discovered what he described … as unrecorded invoices and contracted fees that had never been put on the books. The opera’s board of directors … voted on Thursday to close. ‘I’m crushed,’ said Neal Goren, who founded the company 15 years ago and served as its artistic director and conductor … Company officials … described [the deficit] as being in the ‘mid six figures.’ Gotham’s annual budget was under $2 million…. Barnes … took over as executive director from David Bennett, who left to become general director of the San Diego Opera.… Bennett, the former executive director, denied that he had kept the board in the dark about Gotham’s debts.”
Posted October 2, 2015
