Opera bailout

Virginia Opera will bail out the subscribers of the struggling Lyric Opera of Virginia, agreeing to stage two of the latter’s planned productions and offering tickets to a Virginia Opera show in place of a canceled Lyric Opera event, Teresa Annas reports in The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk):

http://hamptonroads.com/2012/11/virginia-opera-stage-lyric-operas-2013-season

Leaders of the two Hampton-Roads based companies deflect talk of a merger.

Annas quotes Joseph Mayes, a member of the Lyric Opera board, as saying the company “will explore a new mission for itself that will still aim to ‘increase the audience for opera in Hampton Roads.’ ”

Lyric Opera, launched last year by Peter Mark after his dismissal from artistic direction of Virginia Opera, had postponed its 2012-13 season because of financial problems.

Virginia Opera will pick up LOV’s January 2013 production of “Camelot” and will stage Puccini’s “The Girl of the Golden West” in January 2014. Lyric Opera subscribers will be able to exchange their tickets for admission to Virginia Opera productions of André Previn’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” or Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro.”