 I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech and Community Matters and we have Andrew Morgan with us today. He's the executive director of the Hawai'i Opera Theater. It's very important that we check around the community, see how people are doing in the world of the coronavirus and sometimes it's really surprising. We didn't see and understand how our institutions are doing until now. Now when we look at it under duress this way, we find out so much more we never knew before. Hi, Andrew. It's so nice to have you on the show. Really, really great to have the opera represented here. Find out what's going on with you. Thanks so much, Jay. I'm really pleased to be here. So, you're executive director. You're at the eye of the storm, so to speak. And here this comes sweeping down on you in March, February when, you know, I guess you got through the Figaro production alright. But then you have another one coming up and you canceled that. Can you talk about it? Sure. Yeah, actually coming up on my one year anniversary. So I've gotten through a couple of productions since I started. But yeah, you know, we started hearing rumblings about the COVID-19 pandemic and, you know, knew something was going to have to happen. We were about to make that decision on our own when we learned the news of the Blaisdell Concert Hall closing, that actually the whole complex closing. And so that kind of took the decision out of our hands, but it was the one we had to make anyways for the good of our company, for the good of our patrons, and the artists that would be coming to Hawaii. So we were fortunate that our production was far enough off that we were able to alert the artists before they were coming. Of course, airfares had been purchased and plans were made and contracts and everything. So it was a difficult decision, a difficult situation for everyone involved. And, you know, we'll be feeling the impact for years, the arts community. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's fragile anywhere to be in the performing arts when you have a following and, you know, you're sort of thin skinned on the financial side and all of a sudden surprises are really no good for you. Now, I'm just, you know, wondering, I guess it's a good thing that Blaisdell cancelled because otherwise you would have been in a kind of dilemma angst kind of thing. You know, should we or shouldn't, shouldn't we cancel and then that kind of decision gets delayed and then, you know, the damage gets worse if you delay we know that. So actually, yeah, I will say that the day that the Blaisdell announced was the same day that the board and voted to to cancel production. Perfect. We would have made the announcement on that day anyways. But yeah, it definitely it provided us some backup with the decision that it was the right. Yeah. So, you know, I don't know if people realize that you go around the world, auditioning people and finding stars or making contracts with them, arranging for them to come out here, arranging, for example, hotels or sometimes people offer them rooms in their homes, which is very nice. I know few people who do that. And I'm setting it all up and one thing about operators, it's multi multi arts, which means you have so much detail to attend to. You know, you have you have the singing at the stars. You have the orchestra you have the dancers and you have the costumes you have the wigs and it goes on and on how many things you got to attend to and when somebody pulls the plug. It's, it's must be very it must be nerve wracking. There are definitely a lot of balls in the air with any opera production. And yeah, you're right, it takes months and months of planning, if not years. And, you know, you hate to, no one wants to see something canceled that you've worked so hard on to get ready to go. And obviously the singers have been working on their parts for months and months. You know, the conductor, the stage director, all those people have put in a lot of time and effort into making sure that this production of Salome would have been fantastic. In some ways we are we were fortunate in the decision that I'd made last spring to convert the production to a semi staged version, rather than a full on production was set some costumes. That was done for budgetary reasons, but it was the right thing to do and I think still would have presented the. I was still very excited about the production happening we were doing some innovative things, planning some innovative things within the context of a semi staged version. What is the stage. What is the semi stage, semi stage people would be singing off book they would be walking the parts like they were acting you know the acting the roles. The orchestra would be on stage. We were planning on a platform that went behind behind the orchestra then kind of forward on the stage. So there was some playing space for the for the singers, but they were they would not be wearing costumes they would not be there would not be a set for them to work off of we would probably have a chair and a table or a throne for Herod, that sort of thing. But, but minimalist production. And so that meant that we had no costumes in route we had no, no sets being shipped to us or being built here. No wings to deal with, but still it's it, it, you know, it still hurts to have to cancel something anything. Oh, sure. We save money by doing a semi staged. At the same time, you know, you'd rather do it the way you set it up. So, I guess, you know, the question is, can you, we can't go, we're not going to have the chance to see Salome, we're not going to, we can't see it. So that's why I wanted to ask you, tell us about the opera. What happens what distinguishes this opera, give us a praise to you like three minutes okay. Well, so it is based on the biblical story but more closely based on the play by Oscar Wilde about Salome and she is a beautiful woman. She is the stepdaughter of Herod the King, who has married her mother Herodias. And John the Baptist is in this and, and he has been crying out against Herod and Herodias as an incestuous relationship. Because it is his brother's wife that he's married. And so it's quite, it's quite a scandalous tale even now with the idea that Salome lost after John the Baptist and decides she must have him. He of course declines because of his faith and his dedication to the coming Messiah. And so she takes upon herself the, the Herod asked her to dance the dance of the seven veils. And she agrees to do that on the con with the caveat that he will grant her anything she desires. And so at the end of the dance she says what she wants is the head of John the Baptist on a silver plate. She's, he brings it to her or a guard brings it to her. And then she kisses the mouth of John the Baptist as the head severed head. And Herod decides, okay, she's so crazy and orders her put to death and that's the end of the opera. Does that make it a tragedy? A happy story. Happy story. So what, now what about your stars? Did you have world class stars here who would have come in trouble? We did. Yeah. Our Salome was Elizabeth Blanca Biggs who has sung the role before. She did it at Mexico City. And our Herod, I'm going to blank on the names now. I'm sorry. You put me on the spot. I didn't know you wanted the cast. But anyways, yes, we had lined up a really fantastic cast. Our Herodist is an old friend of mine that was an Adler fellow at San Francisco Opera. I was a David Caranas. And it was just going to be fantastic. And of course, Emmanuel Plassant was to conduct. And we had a stage director, Shana Lucy, who's worked at Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera The Met, just a really dynamite team that was going to put this together for us. Regrettably going to lose a lot of money for, you know, the fact that it can't be performed. And I know you went out to your viewers, your audience, your followers, people like me. And you suggested the possibility that we not ask for a refund and leave that for support of the opera. What kind of response have you had to that suggestion? So far overwhelmingly positive. We've got about half the people responding back to us and overwhelmingly they're donating their tickets back. And because I feel it's important for our industry and for our company and the aloha spirit that this company brings to the opera world. We're establishing an artist support fund through those donated tickets. And so once we have a better sense of what that total fund will be, we'll be able to parse out some percentage of compensation for all the artists who have their contracts cancelled because of the production being eliminated. So I'm really, I'm really hopeful. I'm really hopeful we'll be able to provide some meaningful compensation to those artists. Even even with the. The bill that was passed that to trillion dollar bill that was passed by Congress that extended unemployment benefits to contractors like professional opera singers are, you know, they're gig workers, they go from opera company to opera company. I'm hearing from my colleagues that are full time singers that the states, it's varying their responses from state to state on whether they're actually being accepted or denied in those unemployment claims. So there's a lot of people really hurting at this time, because thousands and thousands of contracts were canceled. And that alone had thousands of contracts canceled by by cancelling their entire season through the end of the some June right through May. You know, and that's and their orchestra and chorus all laid off. I mean, it's, it's really bad time to be to be a classical musician or any musician really because pop gigs are canceled too. Boy, and the performing arts in general, really in the same situation between, you know, the orchestra, the ballet chamber music, what have you. Yeah, there's plenty of pain to go around from this pandemic, unfortunately, I'm sad to say. But you know, I think, I think there are, there are a lot of there's a lot of good will out there and I think that we will, we will come back, you know, roaring but you know it's going to be a change landscape. I'm already hearing rumblings of artists that are are concerned about what's called a force majeure clause and most contracts about canceling for war or famine or pandemic. And I get the sentiment, you know, I understand. But it's not, it's not like companies like us want to cancel things, you know, we want to be presenting what we were not for company we present operas. So if we can't present operas we're not making the income that then provides income to those artists. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, the problem is that this is an event an opera is an event and it means people are close to each other and they're breathing on each other. But you don't have to call for sneeze you just breathe on the guy next door. What are you going to do have every third seat filled. Are you going to tell the players to stand at great distance, not going to work the orchestra that can't sit close to you know, not going to work. No, I mean the orchestra was barely going to fit on the stage anyways a solid is a big orchestra. I mean we were doing a reduced version, as it was, and it's still 67 players on stage. Yeah, that's big. Yeah. Yeah. So do you think there's a you know you talk about the changes. Do you think that, you know, the opera and other performing artists as well will come out differently in terms of the way they present you know think about the changes. It's very, it's pure. You know, no microphones. You got to built it out there you got to make everybody in the house, hear you. And to use electronic means, such as we're using now is really not. That's not opera. On the other hand, it does suggest that that maybe music will come together electronically. I know that's offensive in some way. But what do you think I, you know, I think it's been. It's gone back and forth over the last decade or so about what actually longer than that. Benjamin Britton wrote an opera for television. You know so it's not a new concept, particularly, but I think this is you know necessities the mother right. So I think we're seeing a lot of experimentation happening through zoom or other type of conferencing mediums. And I do think you'll see more experimentation with that even once we're able to thankfully hopefully rejoin our audiences live in our performing venues. But I think you won't see this stop now I think you'll you will see. I wouldn't be surprised if you see chamber offers written for zoom or Skype. I think that just kind of gonna be happening. And you do have that microphones for such a thing. You won't be able to help it out. You do although it's not technically it's not for amplifying though it's just for generating the sound period. It'll be kind of like watching a well the Met broadcast at the movie theaters. It's the same sort of thing there. They are singing without mics in the theaters but they are getting picked up on Mike so you can hear them in Hawaii. I really like the Met broadcast and I always say to myself gee Hawaii opera theater, you know get a few videographers I can connect you up with some guys, you know and do something that looks like that. And then put it on, you know cable or television and people would watch that with the same relish really that they would watch the Metropolitan. And so maybe you can have a season that expands into this kind of problem. It could be it's all a matter of resources. You know cameras are expensive camera operators that do well are expensive and obviously you'd have to compensate and should compensate the musicians and the singers differently for that sort of capture. But yeah, I mean, I don't see why not. I will say though that the Met kind of has a lock on that. There's an aspect of there. They're kind of hogging out the territory and I don't blame them. But San Francisco opera attempted while I was working at San Francisco opera they were attempting to do a cinema series as well and just could not get the traction because they couldn't be in theaters that they need to be interesting. So one of the things that one of the things I wanted to ask you about is the orchestra because the orchestra as you said it was like 69 and and 70 is a benchmark when you're around 70 you're you're really filling the pit. Yes, they had a walk away from this and their union they had a walk away from this and they didn't earn any money I mean did you have a contract issue with them. Did they have a you know a gig problem I don't know how it works with the orchestra. They must have been hurt by this. Yeah, I'm sure they are you I mean you should talk to them directly about that particular aspect of it but but yes I mean we are all being impacted significantly negatively financially by this. They had they we contract through Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for our concerts I reinstated that when I got here so this entire season has been through them that organization and we were working on we we've actually been working on a multi year contract with agreement with them but I've been doing show to show this season. And so I had a single you know a contract specifically for Salome. It also had a force measure clause so technically you know we don't owe them anything and certainly the collective bargaining agreement they had with the musicians also had that force measure clause but but again I know the symphonies working on continuing paying their musicians and we are dedicated to including them in the artist support fund so it'll be some percentage again of what the total fee would have been but I think they deserve it you know they worked hard and we we love we love our players I mean they're amazing orchestra we want to have a good relationship with them we want them to know that they're valued and so I believe strongly in that so we will do what we can you know I can't I can't damage the long term health of the company and I don't think anyone would want me to do that but what we can do we will do good you know the players are an important part of the production for sure they are definitely so you have a very rich and robust program of opera education you must have half a dozen separate educational programs going on with the schools with with kids all over the islands. We have people who within the company who spend all their time educating the community and especially the kids in the schools about this but you must have been seriously wounded because you can't do that anymore tell me how it happened to me what you were doing and how they these programs were impacting. Well it's it's really tragic that we weren't able to successfully complete all our programs for this spring semester so yes we do have multiple education programs. We have the opera express which is a touring show of a 45 minute version of an opera this year it was Rossini's La Cenerente or Cinderella which we had done successfully all fall and we're continuing through the spring. It was supposed to tour to the big island in May so all of and finalize finish up touring in on a while who but obviously all of that had to be cancelled because of the pandemic and school closures and we also have opera for everyone which is the final dress rehearsal for each production where we invite students and their families and teachers to come see a live dress rehearsal for the production obviously the Salomé cancelled that had the for this spring we have our young opera young artist program the Orvis studio and the Orvis high school studio those both had master classes that there was a wonderful coach and conductor Mark Morash who was coming into town who actually came into town to do a week of residency with our young artists and he had to leave in the middle of that to get back to San Francisco and get into his own shelter from home with his family. So that didn't come to completion we had several recitals in the spring that were supposed to happen with these young artists those aren't taking place. The biggest heartache for me what was the residency programs which we do in schools mostly elementary school where we have a teaching artist that goes into the school and composes an opera based on a topic that the students select. They write the lyrics together then one of our staff sets it to music so like I'm from Carmen or Bohem or Aida and then they come together and actually produce a performance of it with sets and costumes that the kids make themselves and it's then performed for the school and their families and there was several of those queuing up for their final performances in April and May and that's the real crushing blow of all the work these kids put into those performances with their teachers and those performances just won't happen. We certainly have offered to the schools the ability to extend it to the fall so they can see the completion of the production but the schools were hesitant to commit because there's so much pressure on teachers time. Well maybe they can listen on their favorite music app on their phones and get familiar with opera that way I'll tell you one thing I mean it's just personal but you know here we are in locked in locked down fashion and we have to find constructive ways to spend our time. I mean for me I can talk to guys like you I'm very lucky but I also have to you know I have to find ways to fill my time with you know productive things and pleasurable things and one of the things I do is I listen to opera I'm not kidding. I walk around the neighborhood with my phone and I click into Amazon music and I go one opera after another I haven't listened to so much opera ever before. That's great. But in terms of the season that you've had. Let me see if I can remember. Tosca was the first one back back in October was it. How did that go? What sort of response did you get from the community? That's one of my favorites actually. It is one of my favorites too. It's kind of the perfect opera right it's got everything. Surprisingly everyone dies at the end not just the soprano or the tenor. The soprano and the villain die so some sort of sense of closure I suppose. You know there can't be a sequel because everyone's dead. It was very well received you know ticket sales were good not great. But that's you know kind of the way of most performing arts organizations it's we're struggling to get audiences. But it did well certainly critically acclaimed and the people that saw it thought it was and I would agree with this that it's as good as any other company could possibly do with the opera. Then in February we did Mozart's Marriage of Figaro which was a kind of a Valentine's Day offering and that one. So really Valentine's Day I think helped that propel that over our goal on ticket sales had really great enthusiastic crowds and just a fantastic cast. Really perfect production for me of another one of my what I call Desert Island operas. You know if you're spending a Desert Island project I want to have with you. It's Mozart's Marriage of Figaro up there. Yeah Figaro's really fun. So I guess when it comes to mind it's what are you going to do for the next season. I don't know if it's too early to talk about that maybe not. You know you always have to take one of the ABC was that I eat a bow and Carmen kind of operas and see what happens there and then some avant garde opera just just to mix it up a little. So the question is what do you have in mind for next year. So we actually have just announced our season our subscription renewals are coming in. Thank you subscribers we love you. But we're we start off the fall with Madame a butterfly which is one of those ABC is not really ABC but it's it's in there of the top hits. That'll be October 9 11 and 13 at the Blaisdell. We've got a fantastic cast lined up including wonderful Taiwanese soprano Karen Chelling Ho as our butterfly. It'll be her hot debut and also her role debut and just it's just a great cast all around. Then we have in February we're doing a production of an often box operetta called Orpheus in the Underworld. It's a it's a hilarious spoof on the Orpheus myth where you're to see is whisked away by Pluto the God of the Underworld. And Orpheus really couldn't care less because they didn't get along. But he is shamed into going to retrieve her by a character called public opinion in our case we're calling it social media. So the hilarity ensues at the end of it it's it ends with an often box most famous can can number if you've ever heard a can can you've heard that one. So a lot of fun. We're setting it Underworld because in this operetta the Underworld is the place to be it's the party place. So we thought what better place to do that than a tropical paradise. So it'll be in a Hawaiian like setting and sung in English. Wonderful English adaptation from a company that I've worked with many years pocket opera in San Francisco. And then we finished the season in April. Jamie often box going to be in the often back opera. We still wanted him to be but he's he was already engaged to do a production of Mary Widow in Cincinnati. So unless he could not and he is he is distantly related to Jacques often box a double blow for all of us. But he is he's wonderful. And he'll be in several things in the in the season. Then in April we finished with a production of a new work by J. Kegge and Gene Shear called If I Were You. And it's a Faustian story. In this case the devil character is a woman named Brita Mara and she will be played by our own Blythe Kelsey. Amazing Mesa Soprano sister to Quinn Kelsey the baritone. Yeah Quinn Kelsey sister. She is forced to be rocking with in wonderful ways. She's a great performer and a great voice and she's going to really take that role to the next level. But it's yeah it deals with kind of a soul swapping where it's kind of sci-fi in that the person's soul transfers to the next level. The next person with some sort of incantation and trouble ensues as you might imagine. But it's ultimately it's ultimately a love story and really beautifully told with some gorgeous gorgeous music very tonal. Don't be afraid. And should be a lot of fun. And that'll be directed by Karen Tiller who has to be the executive. Oh sure I remember Karen. She's been in and around HOT for a long time. Yeah. I want to keep it. She's good she's good director for sure. So you know you know the big issue is making sure that you cover the generational bases you know. The problem is why is the performing arts you find that demographic gets older and older. The bell curve extends into you know art engineering and not a lot of 20 year olds there. And that's why it's so important to the educational programs. But how are you doing. To five you've got to have young people. Yeah definitely. And you know it's we have a wonderful board member Andreas Zanoni who has been helping us with a program re instituting something called Jen HOT which is a young professionals group that is attracting people to our performances with special events and meetups because you know that that that age set kind of the 20 to 40s. They're they're they're really interested in socializing with their friends. Not that my generation isn't too but you know what I mean. And so finding finding ways for them to connect around opera. And we had a really successful first outing with them in around the Tosca where we had 100 tickets sold and they did a meetup at a restaurant nearby and then came to see the opera and did the intermission reception and things. So it's a lot of fun for them. They did a good job with Figaro as well. So we're hoping to build on that. Get them engaged with opera ball and just keep building on that. I think it's also important for us to offer. I think the diversity of programming helps. I think doing more out in the community is vital for us. So we've been developing relationships with places like Salt and Akaka Akko where we did a performance of our opera express Cinderella that had 300 people come to it. We're working with connections at the International Marketplace just being out in the community. The other thing that we're working on for next season is a chamber opera that would be done at UH Manoa at the Orvis Auditorium called Hometown to the World which is about immigration and customs enforcement raid on a meatpacking plant in Iowa. That's very relevant, isn't it? Yeah, that really brought that community together. Just three people, three singers, six instrumentalists should be a lot of fun. And I think it's a way to make opera seem more relevant. I personally think TOSCA is relevant to society, the Me Too movement, but it's maybe a little more stretched with something like the immigration raids that are happening now. But we have to do a diversity of programming and be out of our house being where people are. Don't forget, you've got to do TOSCA once in a while, you've got to do Bohem once in a while, and Trabia is essential once in a while. It is. I will say that studies have shown that most people's first time ticket buying is to one of the traditional operas. You get them to come to a TOSCA or a Naida or a Bohem, but then the trick is how do you get them to go to that second one? And I think the second one is going to have to be by something that topics can intrigue them. And you have to make sure that your experience that you're providing even at that TOSCA is as engaging as it is with a super modern topic like hometown to the world. So here we are and you've been kind of a victim of the coronavirus. It's hurt you and with federal support or not, you've been wounded in your season and maybe longer. You can talk about additional performances. That means people got to get together. They cannot sing through masks. They cannot do that. Although I went to your masks in Trabiata. I don't remember. There was one opera with masks. Maybe it was eye masks, not mouth masks. In any event, what message would you leave to your viewers? Both the older types like me, but also the younger types who would be the objects of your educational programs. What would you tell them now in this crisis of the community and crisis of the arts? What message would you leave with the manager? Well, I would say that if nothing else, this isolation of shelter from home has shown us how much we miss connecting as human beings. We need to be in the presence of other people. We are social beings, not everyone, but the majority on the whole. We are social beings that like to be with each other. I think the performing arts pride provides a vehicle for that like no other and it doesn't have to be classical arts. I'm talking about all performing arts. Where you are witnessing a shared experience, you are coming together to see one thing, but you each are bringing your own selves to how you're perceiving that production or that concert. I think I'm hoping that when we get through this and we're able to once again venture out into public as a society and feel comfortable doing that, that we will value even more those opportunities where we can share collective experiences, where we can be a part of the community and not just a facile viewer. I think it's important to participate. It's important to get engaged and feel like you're investing in something beyond your cell phone or your computer or your television. Performing arts is community and it is the best part of humanity altogether. Thank you, Andrew Morgan, Executive Director. I'm sorry, are you going to say? No, I just said it is our humanity, you're right. Andrew Morgan, Executive Director of the Hawaii Opera Theater, bringing us art that helps us even in very hard times, especially at hard times. Thank you so much, Andrew. It's my pleasure, Jay. I really appreciate it. Aloha.