Bill Florescu on the new Florentine Opera

In the fall, the Florentine Opera staged the world premiere of Don Davis’ Rio de Sangre. That came on the heels of the second production ever (and the first commercial recording) of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry.

Bringing these new works to the stage as the Florentine’s general director has been the most satisfying and exhilarating experience of my professional musical life. We are rebranding the Florentine as a more creative entity, and those operas signal that. We owe the art form the effort of bringing works that reflect our own time into the repertoire.

Of course Gantry and Rio were bumpy rides; reaction to both operas ranged from ecstatic to bewildered to hostile. In addition, the reactions didn’t fall into obvious ranks. Some fans of very traditional opera loved Rio; some new-music types hated it.

At the end of the day, deciding on doing new repertoire isn’t just an intellectual or aesthetic exercise. It has fiscal implications on both the earned and contributed sides. New work is financially risky. But so is old work.

Opera companies across the country are trying to attract new audiences as demographics change. To a new and/or young audience member, Rio de Sangre is no less familiar or attractive than Tosca.  The old theory of “when all else fails give them a Carmen” isn’t working the way it once did. In a world where a theatre company, a bookstore, a movie house, a symphony orchestra, an art museum would find it odd to not present new or newer American work, why is it crazy for opera companies to do so?

The half-dozen or so American companies that failed in the last few years were among the most conservative. The more innovative companies — St. Louis Opera Theater, Santa Fe Opera and Minnesota Opera, for example — have fared better. These companies balance new and newer operas with savvy productions of standards. We’ve taken that path at the Florentine, and the new American operas have changed the perception of the company in Milwaukee and in the opera world.

Many people will ask, was Rio de Sangre a success or a failure?  I think there are two correct answers:  It doesn’t matter, and it’s too early to tell.  To address the latter first:  Posterity decides whether any work of art is a success or failure.  History gives us many examples of works that were a success in their time and are now forgotten, and of course, there numerous examples of beloved works that in their time were either despised or neglected.  So, time will tell.  As to why it doesn’t matter; the fact is that by producing a world premiere, the Florentine has reframed the discussion about who it is.  A reinvention and rebranding is what I believe this company needed, and Rio de Sangre was the first (but not last) push toward that.