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James Wright, General Director of Vancouver Opera, says traditional opera audiences around the world are ‘aging out.’Ben Nelms/The Globe and Mail

Facing aging and thus declining audiences and donors, Vancouver Opera says it is choosing to innovate and evolve rather than the alternative. So it is moving to a new model – what general director James Wright jokingly calls the f-word. After next year, VO's traditional fall-to-spring opera season will be no more, condensed instead into an annual three-week opera festival.

"There is no denying that … traditional opera audiences around the world are aging out," Mr. Wright told a news conference in Vancouver on Tuesday, emphasizing the need to replace those fans. "We've got to make the kinds of changes that bring enough people in the door."

He says the demographic shift is also affecting donations. "People who gave $20,000 a year are now in [retirement] homes making different decisions or no longer with us," he told The Globe and Mail.

Said board member Mo Dhaliwal: "The biggest risk lies in the status quo."

The move will cut about 10 per cent from the company's annual budget – and will mean job losses and less work for some of its musicians. But VO is trying to emphasize the boldness of the change, rather than characterize this as simply a budgetary move.

VO board chair Pascal Spothelfer called the development "the most important and probably also the most innovative change at Vancouver Opera since it was founded 55 years ago."

The festival – which will include three major core productions – will launch in late April, 2017, with Verdi's Otello. It will be centred around the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Vancouver Playhouse and a tent erected on the plaza. In addition to the operas, supplementary events could include workshops and parties. In an interview, Mr. Wright suggested something like a sing-along screening of Frozen.

"I think it just really opens us up to not being conceived as so stodgy," he told The Globe.

Mr. Wright says Vancouver loves its arts festivals – citing Bard on the Beach, the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and others – and according to Opera America, the most successful opera companies in the past decade have been those that are festivals.

VO will maintain some sort of year-round presence – including some family programming – and will expand its young artists program.

Mr. Wright and the leadership team at VO have been working for months, trying to come up with a model that would satisfy the challenges of being a regional opera company today.

"Budget after budget after budget, nothing was working," he said. About six to eight months ago, the festival idea emerged and the team began investigating the idea.

"I was asked by a board member a really good question in March: 'are you excited about this because it's an answer or are you excited about a festival?'" recalls Mr. Wright. "I said, actually, at first, 'because it's an answer,' but as we've started to really work on it, we've gotten really excited about what this can do. It can really rejuvenate the company."

Mr. Wright estimates VO's annual $10-million budget will be reduced to about $9-million – a figure he calls more "comfortable" for the organization.

Among the savings: one concentrated marketing campaign instead of four annually. Further, "several" positions will be eliminated or drastically changed. Those decisions should be made by Labour Day, so people affected will have about nine months' notice.

There will also be an impact on the Vancouver Opera Orchestra's musicians – who will no longer gather four times a year to play (in varying numbers, depending on the opera).

"I'd be worried about the effect on the orchestra because if people can't get performing opportunities here, they'll have to find other avenues to express themselves or move elsewhere to get more playing," said David Owen, who plays principal oboe with the VO Orchestra and is Secretary with the Vancouver Musicians' Association.

With the current contract expiring this month, VO management begins talks with the orchestra's negotiating committee on Wednesday morning. Mr. Wright believes they will probably negotiate a one-year contract for the 2015-16 season and then deal with the future beyond that separately. He expects there will be less work for some players, but probably more for others.

"To be honest, I'm not even sure [VO] knows all the ramifications for the following season," said trombonist Jeremy Berkman, who is on the committee. "So it will make negotiating it something that requires a fair bit of flexibility and imagination."

Another concern about the change was raised by Vancouver-based composer David MacIntyre, whose 1994 opera The Architect was VO's first commission. With Mr. Wright due to retire at the end of the 2015-16 season and a search now on to replace him, Mr. MacIntyre worries the move to the festival format could have an impact.

"This new model may not be attractive to strong candidates on an international scale," he told The Globe.

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