Opera going under center's wing

The Washington National Opera, which is running a debt of some $12 million and has cut back on the number and scope of productions in recent seasons, has agreed to become an affiliate of the Kennedy Center, The Washington Post's Anne Midgette reports:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/20/AR2011012001924.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Affiliation means that the Kennedy Center will oversee the opera company's administration and financial affairs, similar to the arrangement that the center and the National Symphony have maintained since 1986.

Plácido Domingo, who has been the Washington National Opera's general director for 15 years, will leave the post at the end of this season.

As of July 1, "[p]rogramming decisions will be made jointly by Michael M. Kaiser, the president of the Kennedy Center, and a new artistic leader for the opera, to be hired by Mr. Kaiser and the opera's board," The New York Times' Kate Taylor reports:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/washington-national-opera-and-the-kennedy-center-agree-to-merge/?partner=rss&emc=rss