Opera Colorado is cutting its schedule by a third after a lacking year end fundraising campaign in 2012. The company will now perform only two productions for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Greg Carpenter, the general director of Opera Colorado, told the Denver Post the company was about $500,000 short of the $2 million fundraising campaign goal. The company reported ended the 2012 calendar year with a deficit of about $690,000.
“Contributions from individual donors began falling off during the recent election season and failed to recover by Dec. 31, a time of year when gifts typically increase from donors seeking tax deductions for charitable contributions,” said Carpenter.
As a result, two of the company’s 14 full-time employees have been laid off. An unknown number of full-time employees with be reduced to part-time hours or seasonal work.
The setbacks will also delay the company’s world premier of “The Scarlet Letter,” which was scheduled to debut in May. The company plans to contact ticket holders for "The Scarlet Letter" regarding refunds or exchanges.
Opera Colorado has also launched a $1.2 million fundraising campaign to raise funds to both pay down the Opera’s existing debt and to ensure its two remaining productions in the 2013 season continue as planned, with a goal of completion by March.
