Word: mansouri
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...sometimes, the bad news has to be admitted from on high. The U.A.E.'s Minister of Economy, Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri, last week acknowledged that the economy of the world's fifth largest oil exporter is expected to shrink in 2009. He refused to give an indication of the extent of the contraction, saying simply that the U.A.E. would escape recession. The International Monetary Fund had previously said it expected the U.A.E. economy to grow only 3% this year after expanding 7.4% in 2007 and an estimated 6.9% in 2008. (See 10 things to do in Dubai...
...this is another in a series of strong American opera premieres during the past few years, which has also included Philip Glass's The Voyage and William Bolcom's McTeague. San Francisco Opera general director Lotfi Mansouri speaks of sharing Liaisons with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and taking McTeague in return; it is an excellent idea, for both works merit second and third productions, and not just in this country...
...short summer season. With a bottom-line board of directors perched on his shoulder, McEwen never had the freedom that Adler enjoyed. Nor, apparently, will his successor. "Opera has changed from the autocratic days, when people like Kurt Adler did it all themselves," says the affable, Iranian-born Mansouri, 59, a veteran stage director who has run the conservative Canadian Opera Company in Toronto since 1976, a post he is leaving this year. "It is much more of a business...
Sometimes, alas, it is business as usual. This year's season opener, Giacomo Meyerbeer's hoary grand opera L'Africaine, typifies the ills that have afflicted the company. As Vasco da Gama, Tenor Placido Domingo sounds tired and wan, Maurizio Arena's conducting is enervated and Mansouri's own stage direction merely serviceable. Only veteran Soprano Shirley Verrett, as the regal Selika, captures the fiery spirit of Meyerbeer's diffuse and improbable last opera...
Improvement will take time -- and money. Opera is fundamentally a money- losing proposition, requiring heavy fund raising each year. Even though the company plays to 96% of capacity, box-office revenues account for only 45% of operating income. Thus Mansouri faces a precarious balancing act: while he needs to take bold new artistic steps to regain the company's pride of place, he must also mind the box-office receipts and keep the paying customers in the seats...