In the United States, opera is produced primarily through the import of singers as private contractors on a short term, single contract basis. Singers, under this system, often engage in agreements with agents, who set up hundreds of auditions that often result in few contracts. These singers travel from opera house to opera house, hoping to make enough money to survive during a year. It is difficult to maintain full time employment apart from the opera career because each opera requires an average of one month of resident rehearsals.
In Europe (especially Germany), opera functions mostly with what are called "Fest" contracts. This system, engages singers at single opera houses with yearly renewable contracts. The singer lives in the city and sings all of the leading roles in that opera house (or at least the roles in their particular "fach" or voice type).
Up to this point, only one opera company, Opera San Jose, has successfully created a full, year-round resident opera company in the United States. This company presently engages approximately ten full time residents that are paid a living wage year round, twice monthly, with benefits and even housing. Not only have they succeeded, but they have received worldwide recognition for doing so. Most important of all, they have never operated with debt or deficit. The company, founded more than twenty-five years ago by retired Metropolitan Opera star, Irene Dalis, has made the case that the resident system can work in the United States.
Taconic Opera believes that resident opera is preferable to import opera. Here are only a few reasons why:
1. It creates a more integrated experience because the performers become familiar with one another on the stage and can anticipate and blend with each other's acting styles. Traditional American opera often presents a story that is unbelievable because of a lack of commitment to ensemble. Resident opera kills the “diva” syndrome that focuses on performers as individuals and replaces it with a committed group of the artists working together to tell the story.
2. It produces better art because it engages people that lead lives that help them understand their audiences. These artists live in and participate in communities. They can have relationships for which they make sacrifices. Imported artists often have no permanent relationships or have broken families. Many travel from one superficial relationship to the next, marrying, in essence, their profession. As a result , the life experience with which they generate their art is often selfish and superficial as well. The characters they portray are often one dimensional. Taconic Opera believes that the art cannot be separated from the artist. Who the artist is as a person is evident in the work that artist produces. Taconic Opera rejects the popular idea that depressed artists make better artists and attempts to create an environment where artists are not torn between home and work.
3. It salvages incredible amounts of lost American talent. Each year thousands of wonderful artists decide not to perform because they cannot or choose not to endure the rigors of travel required by import opera. Many want to live normal lives, with families and communities. The sacrifice is often too much for most artists and their talent remains unshared with the public. If opera in the U.S. was mostly resident, more American artists would enter the field. This would introduce not only a different artist mentality to the public (an artist who cares more about family and community than career), but also higher artistic standards. Greater voices would enter the arena.
Certainly, changing the face of opera in the U.S. would be a long and arduous journey, but Taconic Opera is committed to supporting this kind of opera for its own residents in addition to promoting the creation and U.S. distribution of a template or formula for this kind of opera as well.