Springfield Regional Opera completes 25th season

More than 1,300 people attended the outdoor shows, an unusually high number for the opera company, according to General Director Janice Fulbright, who took over Oct. 1. Typical attendance is around 800, she said, attributing the higher turnout to its outdoor setting, recognizable title (a former Broadway show) and billing as Opera in Blue Jeans.

“We were able to appeal to a different demographic than the usual opera crowd, which is what I’m trying to do,” Fulbright said. “My goal is to change the opinion of opera in Springfield, away from the minks and the diamonds and the fat blonde lady with the horns on her head. It was originally intended to be fun, family entertainment.”

The $25,000 “Pirates” production grossed just $11,000 at the door. While coming up short on ticket sales is nothing new for the expensive opera genre, Fulbright is working to right the regional opera’s financial ship.

Burdened with a history of losing money – the opera faces a $50,000 deficit – Fulbright has begun selling memberships, a first for the opera, she said. Support has historically come from season ticket holders, a group that last year numbered about 85.

Fulbright’s next revenue target is the corporate world. There are no corporate sponsorships to help support the opera’s $140,000 operating budget, which Fulbright calls “bare minimum.” She is seeking seed money for future performances.

But Fulbright is not questioning her career move, in which she took a $50,000 pay cut. She left an $80,000 job as head of the music department at Indiana’s Huntington University.

“I did that because I believe in the art form, and I believe there is potential in this community to have an incredible opera company,” Fulbright said. “But there’s a lot of problems to overcome.”

The first of which is recognition, she said. “I keep running into people all over town and I tell them what I do and they say, ‘I didn’t know Springfield had an opera company.’ We’ve been so far below the radar for so many years and that’s got to change if we’re going to survive another 25 (years). It would be a travesty if the opera company went under.”

The Springfield Regional Opera was founded as a 501(c)3 nonprofit in 1979 by Dawin Emmanuel, then head of the Southwest Missouri State University opera program. A board of directors led by Robert Fields provides oversight.

Fulbright certainly has the credentials to keep it afloat. She has two doctorates from the highly esteemed University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, one in opera performance and history and another in musicology and conducting, and had a professional opera career performing in Europe for four years and in regional opera houses across the United States.

The company’s next full performance is “The Merry Wives of Windsor” Oct. 6–10. The humorous Shakespearean play will be performed “not in Shakespearean English, but in southwest Missourian,” she said.

Fulbright’s lineup for the 2005–2006 season features mostly comedies, and all are in English. She is planning 10 events next year, such as the one-act “Opera for Lovers” for Valentine’s Day mixed with champagne and chocolates.

“I want it to be the art of the people like it was intended to be,” she said.

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