Skip to main contentTwo years from now, the cultural landscape in Portland will be completely altered. At least half of the small art galleries, design collectives and theater companies currently operating will be gone. (Realm 8 closed this week, Cygnet Theatre is throwing in the towel, and Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company needs to.) But the most dramatic change will be observed in the city's primary institutions. There will be a new conductor at the Oregon Symphony, a new general director of the Portland Opera and a new artistic director at the Oregon Ballet.
First, there was James Canfield's announcement in February that he would be stepping down in a year from Oregon Ballet Theatre, after 12 years of his controversial stewardship. Last week came a cropper with two similar announcements: James DePreist would be stepping down as conductor of the Oregon Symphony two years earlier than originally planned, and Robert Bailey would be leaving the Portland Opera to move to France.
Why now? As cliché as it may sound, the September events seem to have served as a catalyst for people in reconsidering their lives and careers. There's also the bedfast economy to contend with, which has been a serious challenge to all arts administrators, especially in hard-hit Oregon. "Six months ago I predicted that there was going to be a major transition in the arts in Portland," Portland Institute for Contemporary Art executive director Kristi Edmunds told WW last week. "The economy has forced reassessment." (Edmunds herself will be taking a six-month sabbatical from her job shortly.)
DePreist announced May 2 that he would leave the conductor's stand early to help facilitate the transfer of power to his successor. (The symphony's search committee has narrowed the field of prospective replacements for DePreist to Tadaaki Otaka, Pavel Kogan and Carlos Kalmar.) At a press conference held on the stage of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, DePreist denied that his health was a factor in his decision. But a kidney transplant in December and a recent hospitalization have clearly taken their toll on the 65-year-old maestro.
As someone who has tended a family member with a kidney transplant and who has studied the matter, I've learned that the first year is the most precarious for a transplant recipient, as the immune system is extremely fragile. It was wishful thinking at best on the part of everyone at the symphony that DePreist would bound back to the podium any time soon.
DePreist has done much in his 22 years to increase the symphony's profile. "He raised the bar for the Oregon Symphony, setting the players' and the audiences' expectations higher than ever," Ron Blessinger, artistic director of Third Angle contemporary music ensemble, told WW. "He brought an international mindset to the orchestra, a belief and confidence that we should expect to be world-class." But for the last few years DePreist had become a bit of a spent force, in the opinion of this symphonygoer. Though an eloquent spokesman for the institution (and obviously its primary fundraising asset), his conductorship showed signs of exhaustion. Too many evenings at the Schnitz were marred by his lack of control over the brass section, and it sometimes seemed that a strain of mediocrity had been allowed to flourish under his watch.
But he leaves a strong organization ready if not always eager to evolve to the next stage, which DePreist will be able to support best at the head of fundraising banquet tables.
Robert Bailey will also be leaving a successful institution that he has personally helped shore up for more than 20 years. The Portland Opera has remained in the black for five years, something that other organizations, such as Portland Center Stage, can only wonder at with mouths agape. He's also accomplished this feat with some innovative programming. "Bailey's vision has been successful in establishing Portland Opera's reputation in the opera community," PO chorus master and assistant conductor Carol Lucas told WW. "He's also cultivated and supported new talent and work."
No one can accuse Bailey's seasons of predictability. For a city of Portland's size to mount full productions of Reynaldo Hahn's The Merchant of Venice and Handel's Julius Caesar (not to mention lashings of Janacek, as well as new projects like the I Pagliacci/ Carmina Burana double-bill), is striking. There have also been important relationships built with other opera companies, such as the English National Opera in London. But Bailey is not always fortunate in many of the singers, conductors or directors he engages. Also, many PO productions have suffered from a lack of taste and have often been hampered by desperate attempts at comedy.
Taste has also been seldom exhibited in the Opera's Broadway series, a populist lure to a non-opera-going audience that was one of Bailey's innovations. Though it has been financially viable, the institution's reputation can only be damaged in the long run. Roadshow revivals of Phantom of the Opera are one thing, but crude, plodding vehicles for defunct personalities and aged sexpots (Toni Tennille in the abominable Victor/ Victoria, Ann-Margret in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) are only embarrassments.
Though PO is financially sound, Bailey told The Oregonian that he's disappointed in not being able to develop more financial support for his company. But many opera subscribers have voiced frustration to me over some of Bailey's tactics, which include constant telephone solicitation. Also, no production has been complete without Bailey's begging tour of the stage, where he would shamelessly drum for funds, once holding the curtain nearly a quarter-hour to preach to the choir. However successful Portland Opera was in reality, no one likes the stench of failure, and so Bailey's hat-passing pleas seemed counter-productive.
As Portland grows into a more urban and cosmopolitan center, major shifts and upheavals in the city's arts institutions will be necessary to allow the flow of new ideas and approaches. Whoever takes up the reins of the symphony and the opera may be able to move both institutions into a new concert hall that might actually have satisfactory acoustics and sightlines, a boon to both the city's artists and audiences.
As much as they have done for their respective fields, DePreist and Bailey have wisely realized that their time is up. This is good news for everyone involved.
WWeek 2015