Financial Stuff!

I promised a posting that looked at the finances of staging an opera. Even a production as straightforward and simple as Brundibar is at best a break even proposition. Let me say that no one I know who works in the arts has made this choice to make money. The first myth to debunk is that ticket sales cover the cost of the production. Not even close!


For Brundibar the most optimistic budget projection had ticket sales of about $5000. It was important for schools to keep the cost affordable, so those tickets were $8/student. The Sunday performance generated the most revenue, about $2500. All told the income was about $4000. The other income that should have supported the production was ads in the program and we got a late start on this and did not have enough volunteers selling ads. So that income never materialized. Corporate sponsors I think could have been recruited particularly because this opera has deep meaning to many in the Jewsih community but we never got the right people to ask the right people. Lastly, the children would have normally paid a participation fee (~$100) and because we got a late start Karen did not charge this.

The expenses were considerable and it was quickly apparent to me that without some important sponsors this production would never have happened. First, the International House offered their theater free of charge, this was huge. Second, all of the program printing was underwritten by a number of corporate sponsors. The program development and layout I did and Carole R took all the photos of the cast for the biographical section. No paid advertising, normally a key item in developing an audience was used. Rights to the opera needed to be paid for each time the company performed it (~ $250 / performance). Lights needed to be rented and paid for. Lighting placement and design was accomplished by Christian and Bernard Bygott, Karen’s sons, both of whom have professional theatrical careers themselves. Lighting gels needed to be bought. Costumes which were simple became the responsibility of some of the mothers who shopped thrift shops. The pianist was a colleague of Karen’s from Sardinia who gave everything he had to this production. Normally there would be a stage manager who would have relieved Karen from some of the people issues that she dealt with through out the production. Some additions to the stage had to be built, again volunteers helped out and did this. The lighting was handled by Bernard Bygott. The cast needed to be feed during all day rehearsals – again many helped out. Some mothers volunteered and brought lunch, other days it was donated pizza. I and a few drafted friends did all of the ticketing and ran the box office. These are just the expenses that I can think of off the top of my head, I am sure there are many more. So in the end I don’t know exactly how much Karen was able to pay Gianlucca (the pianist) and Bernard who was at so many rehearsals and performances but I’d be stunned if she was able to give them more than $700-800 after all the bills were paid.

The plan is to repeat this opera next year and I have a list of items that will make it a more financially viable production (sell more ads, find more sponsors, increase audience size etc.), but in the end people don’t get involved in the arts to make money.

Next posting I will talk a little about future plans for the opera company.