Word: krainik
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Today, under Ardis Krainik, 56, a former mezzo who was once Fox's secretary, the company is again robust. The deficits are gone, the budget has risen from $9.1 million four seasons ago to $14.8 million this year, and the number of productions will increase from eight to nine next year. Ticket sales have run at 92% of the opera house's 3,520-seat capacity. Quality is high too: this season, Bellini's bel canto I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Soprano Cecilia Gasdia and Mezzo Tatiana Troyanos was an unexpected smash hit, and the Lyric's tradition...
...Krainik's secret is "constant vigilance." She pares each opera's budget line by line, until expenses are balanced by box-office receipts and fund raising. This may seem like mere common sense, but in opera it is a radical approach. Of necessity, she chooses the repertoire carefully and conservatively, this season balancing ham-and-eggers like Butterfly and Traviata with Otello and Die Meistersinger, the lone German entry. "What I've learned," says Krainik, "is that you can have all the art you want if you've got the money...
...Lyric is setting an example for companies all over America. And not just fiscal: the Metropolitan Opera, for example, has not performed La Rondine since 1936. "It's love that generates all this," says Krainik, taking in her opera company, the Chicago River and the Lake Michigan shore with one expansive gesture. "We're here to put on beautiful music." And so they do. --By Michael Walsh