Opera Boston turns out the lights

December 23, 2011 at 1:39 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Julie Boulianne and Sean Panikkar starred in Opera Boston's "Beatrice et Benedict" in October, which was the company's final production. Photo: Clive Grainger

Opera Boston announced that it would cease operations due to “an insurmountable budget deficit,” in a statement released Friday morning.

Board chair Winifred P. Gray said “[A]s the end of the year approaches, we find ourselves in a financially untenable situation, and the responsible thing is to work with our creditors and cease operations.”

The company’s publicist Joyce Linehan referred all inquiries to Opera Boston’s offices. Repeated calls there were not returned.

Opera Boston opened the season with a well-received production of Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict in October. The rest of its season was to have presented Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage in February and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in April.

The company earned a national reputation for its innovative programming. Opera Boston presented such works as Thomas Ades’ Powder Her Face, Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado, the North American premiere of Péter Eötvös’s Angels in America and the world premiere of Zhou Long’s Madame White Snake last year, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Opera Boston’s final performance will be a presentation of Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne featuring some of the company’s young artists on December 31.

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