Well, yeah. I'm not sure what his role is exactly in both these companies (other than fundraising), but the overall decent thing to do would have been to withdraw as director once he realized he wasn't gonna stop singing/conducting/everything else as early as he had thought.

It's all Domingo's fault. By the same specious logic, the whole global financial crisis must be his fault too because he performs all over the world.

Carol Hope, I'm not sure what the tone of your post is, but that it's Domingo's fault that he "performs all over the world" instead of-- for one-- paying attention to his opera house employees is PRECIOUS GOOD logic to me.

I’d like to clarify a comment I made in an earlier post. I was responding to Mr. Smith’s remark about Domingo’s stewardship. He said, “to run into financial trouble with one company may be regarded as a misfortune; to run into financial trouble at both looks like carelessness.” Because I’m a newbie here, the posting of my comment was delayed for a short period of time. Therefore, it appeared as if I were responding to another poster. I apologize for causing the understandable confusion.

It is not fair to blame Placido Domingo for all the problems. The CEO should be held responsible for that. Besides, Placido's name alone brings in tons of donations for those opera houses. Despite performing all over the world, he spends a lot of time at both opera houses. You can blame him for being too soft and not knocking sense into some of the decision makers. LA Opera really should have put the Ring Cycle on hold but I assume Conlon is the one pushing hard for the Ring Cycke so he should be blamed for contributing to the problem rather than helping to prevent it.

Thanks for commenting. Although I would never blame a general director (or manager) for all problems at any company, there is a reason why they're called general directors (or managers). Whoever takes such a job wears a big target, fairly or not. Of course there should be administrators and board types who can bring reality checks as needed. An outsider looking at the situations in LA and DC (where a very competent CEO appears to have been pushed aside) might reasonably wonder if the companies have had the best possible internal system of checks and balances during the tenure of their shared general director. TIM

Blame James Conlon for the LA Opera financial problems. He seems determined to present as much Wagner as possible at a huge cost to LA Opera. At least WNO are staying afloat whereas the Ring Cycle appears to be the reason LA Opera is struggling. Postpone it until better times. How much can you pump into the Ring Cycle.

This quote from the LA Times. "The company had run short on cash, Rountree said, partly because "there was a failure to fully appreciate that they needed to put out $20 million of the $32 million for the 'Ring' Cycle two years in advance." You cannot put all the blame on Domingo for that.

Sorry Tim. I should have been more specific. I was responding to comments left by other people. You were merely reporting the news. I hope I did not offend you.

Not at all offended, just too quick on the draw. Thanks again for joining the conversation. TIM

Tim,

You failed to mention that WNO canceled its own Ring production in a show of fiscal responsibilty. One has to assume that Maestro Domingo played some part in that decision. Additionally, the LA Times reported that the LA Opera production of the Ring, and related events, are expected to generate over $50 million in economic activity. This certainly provided an incentive for LA County to extend the emergency loan. Opera houses all over the country, including the Metropolitan, are feeling the financial squeeze - this isn't unique to LA and Washington.

Strange, though, that the WNO executive who was credited with advocating the 'Ring' postponement should be pushed aside now. I still think it's reasonable that some folks may raise eyebrows and questions over the double whammy of uneasiness in DC and LA. TS