“Only about 30 percent of our budget goes for administration and fundraising.” I’m rather proud of that percentage,” he said. “About 70 percent of what we spend ends up on stage or in the theater. The remainder, $119,000, is generated from program ad sales and other sources. Close to another third, $407,000, comes from local corporations and foundations, while $330,000 comes from individual contributions and fundraisers. About a third of its revenue, $420,000, comes from ticket sales. Jeffries recently told the Convention and Arena Authority - which owns the company’s performance place, DeVos Hall - that his annual budget totals $1.2 million. The Opera Company of Boston, Florida Grand Opera in Miami and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto are also on his resume. I wish our lives had soundtracks as good as most operas.”Īn East Lansing native and a University of Michigan grad, Jeffries came to Grand Rapids from Opera Idaho in Boise. Its very nature is a little step further from reality than ordinary theater because it’s accompanied by music all the time. “Opera is not theater set to music, it’s music set to theater,” said Jeffries. And the curtain on that Russian story went up just a month after John Peter Jeffries came aboard as the group’s executive director. The company’s season opened in October with “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovski. Both will be played out on the DeVos Hall stage.įor almost as long as anyone can recall, Opera GR has staged a trio of productions each year, and this year is no different. Now in year 34, West Michigan’s only nonprofit professional opera company, and the state’s oldest, is preparing to tell two more grand stories: “The Magic Flute” by Mozart in February and Puccini’s “Tosca” in May. Instead, Opera Grand Rapids seems to be getting better with age. And she’s unlikely to do so anytime soon, because it’s not over yet - not by a long shot. GRAND RAPIDS - After three decades, the fat lady still hasn’t sung.
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