San Antonio Opera headed for bankruptcy

The curtain is coming down on San Antonio Opera.

But that doesn't mean the city will do without opera, civic and arts leaders said.

The troubled San Antonio Opera is in talks to file for bankruptcy this week.

“We are working with legal counsel at this time on filing the bankruptcy,” board chair Jeanie Wyatt wrote in an email Monday. “More specifics are likely to be available (today) ... The SAO Board and its executive members have been working for months to explore all options for reorganization.”

The news comes at the end of a tumultuous period for the 16-year-old company. Founder Mark Richter, who had also served as San Antonio Opera's artistic director, left in November. His interim successor, Terence Frazor, cut ties less than two months later when, he said, the company could no longer make payroll.

The company closed its offices last month and let the office staff go. It canceled “Don Giovanni,” which was to have been produced this weekend. And several board members have resigned.

“All of us on the board are very disappointed,” said Veronika Kuest, who has served on the opera's general board for about 10 years. “It's very difficult to do this.”

County Judge Nelson Wolff, one of a group of prominent San Antonians who signed a fundraising letter for the company when it went through another rough patch in 2010, said he met with representatives of the struggling company about two months ago.

“I suggested that they do declare bankruptcy... and get the debt resolved,” Wolff said.

The city, he added, will not be without an opera company: “We have one in the wings,” he said, referring to Opera Theater San Antonio, a new company being formed by Mel Weingart.

Wolff said he would like to see members of the San Antonio Opera board join forces with the new venture.

“The best possible role is for them to disband what they're doing now, join the top board members and get a fresh new start,” he said.

Weingart, in a statement he emailed from Mexico, praised the nearly defunct operation for “the years it has provided operatic productions to our area.”

He said the new company, which hasn't yet produced an opera, is moving forward. Plans will be announced soon, he said, for an operatic event to be staged before the end of the year.

The Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, which is slated to open in the fall of 2014, will have opera in the lineup, said J. Bruce Bugg, president and chairman of the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation, which is overseeing the project.

“It's unfortunate, what I've heard about San Antonio Opera,” Bugg said. “But from the viewpoint of the Tobin Center, we are holding spaces on our calendar for opera, and there can be many sources for filling those spaces.”

Jack Fishman, president and CEO of the San Antonio Symphony, is certain opera will continue to play a role in the city's cultural landscape.

“I believe there will be opera in the Tobin Center, and I believe it will be successful,” he said.

Richter blamed some of the San Antonio Opera's problems on Weingart's group, saying it was one of three big blows the company couldn't withstand.

“Obviously, the recession happened. That was the first swing,” Richter said. “The second swing was this confusion about a phantom company coming in. Where corporations were already tight with their money, they would say, ‘Hold on, what's this other company?'

“And the third punch was we did not reach our expected goals for ticket sales for Plácido (Domingo).”

Richter said the company lost “at least $200,000” on the performance last summer, which it hoped would raise much needed funds.

Richter has a new venture, which includes an opera performance arm dubbed Opera Picola San Antonio. It is among local arts groups that will honor San Antonio Opera tickets.

Wyatt said that information on ticket exchanges will be available on the San Antonio Opera website, saopera.com. The San Antonio Symphony and San Pedro Playhouse are also offering deals to opera patrons.

“We appreciate all those artistic venues in San Antonio that are offering to assist with this,” Wyatt said.

dlmartin@express-news.net