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Like Lucchese cowboy boots and shotgun racks on Dodge Rams, what's Texas without the Fort Worth Opera?
Its general director Darren K. Woods -- who's been at the helm for 13 years and runs a tight ship that's solid on talent and loose on drama -- intends to keep it that way by shifting this year's 5.4 million budget to 4.5 million in 2015. The snip is in response to private donation downticks coupled with rising expenses.
Under the streamlined 2015 budget, the season playbill has been reduced to two operas. On the chopping black went the budget-busting 'A Wrinkle in Time', commissioned by the company and originally slated for a 2015 world premiere (after being dropped from the 2014 season). The opera, unable to lure a co-producer/partner to offset its 1.2 million dollar price-tag, has out-priced the FWO's wallet.
Orchestrated by Woods, the budget cut is intended to secure FWO's finances while sourcing new outlets of sustainable revenue (Texas oil?!) in the run-up to its 70th anniversary in 2016.
This year's season, which opens on April 19, includes the world premiere of Daniel Crozier's and Peter M. Krask’s With Blood, With Ink, costumes by Austin Scarlett (above), byotches!; Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell’s Silent Night; The Pearl Fishers and Così fan tutte.