David Bennett, who has served as San Diego Opera’s general director for the past 10 years, will carry on at least through the 2029-30 season, the organization’s board of directors announced last week.
Bennett was offered another five-year contract extension in thanks for his continued innovative leadership through turbulent times.
“David’s visionary leadership has been transformational for San Diego Opera,” said Linda Spuck, president of the opera’s board of directors, in a statement. “He’s commissioned and brought new, innovative operatic works to San Diego and the field of opera, introduced us to world-class singers, developed outside-the-box programming like our Detour series, figured out how to produce and perform during the pandemic — all of this and more while maintaining strong relationships with his staff, the board of directors, five labor unions, our audience, and treasured supporters. We are thrilled to announce that David will be with us in San Diego for at least the next five years.”
San Diego Opera General Director David Bennett photographed in the company’s offices. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune
When Bennett joined the company 10 years ago, its future was in limbo following a near-closure in 2014.
During his first five-year contract, Bennett, his staff and the board winnowed down the company’s budget to better match annual expenses and ticket sales, while also creating the Detour series of smaller, nontraditional opera works to expand the company’s audience.
He also collaborated with Opera America to host Opera Hack, a competition for creative and technology leaders to devise new and more affordable ways to produce and present opera, ranging from the use of haptics devices for disabled attendees, projection-mapping scenic design, software to improve supertitle and score transcription and a database to help opera companies share scenery and costume designs.
When the pandemic shut down arts organizations nationwide in 2020, San Diego Opera was the first professional opera company in the nation to stage performances before a live audience during the shutdown — presenting drive-in productions of “La bohème” and “The Barber of Seville” in the parking lot of San Diego’s Pechanga Arena.
In recent years, the company has also extended its Opera en Español program. This includes co-commissioning “El último sueño de Frida y Diego,” a 2022 opera about Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera by composer Gabriela Lena Frank and librettist Nilo Cruz.
Another co-commission is Nicolás Lell Benavides’s “Dolores,” based on the life of labor leader Dolores Huerta, which just received its premiere at West Edge Opera in Oakland. Its San Diego debut has yet to be announced.
Like all performing arts organizations in America post-pandemic, the company has been navigating an unpredictable environment with declines in subscription and ticket sales as well as donations and grants.
To reduce San Diego Opera’s production costs, the number of productions and performances each season has been reduced, the Detour series is on temporary hold and the runs of each production have been condensed into single weekends rather than spread out over two weeks.
The company’s previously announced 2024-25 season will kick off this fall with Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” Oct. 31-Nov. 2; Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” Feb. 13-15, 2026; and Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” March 27-29, 2026.
On July 30, the company announced an addition to the upcoming season, Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce’s 2016 opera “Fellow Travelers,” based on the Thomas Mallon novel. It’s the story of a secret love affair between two men in the federal government in Washington, D.C. during the McCarthy era of the 1950s. It will play July 10-12 at the Balboa Theatre.
For details, visit sdopera.org.