Opera buffs are
facing a sour note

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Opera companies love it when drama unfolds onstage. But when it happens behind the scenes, it often causes problems.
Such was the case last summer when the Fairmount Park Commission dropped a bombshell on the Delaware Valley Opera Company by evicting it from its home of almost three decades.
The commission gave the opera ensemble 90 days to pack up and leave Hermitage Mansion in Roxborough, the company’s base of operations for the last 27 years. Since the June 30 notice, the commission has extended the deadline to Dec. 30, although it has given no explanation for the eviction.
Nevertheless, facing a tearful goodbye from its rustic outdoor performance venue and an uncertain future on many levels, the opera company has chosen not to fight the park board nor to close up shop.
Rather, members of the company almost defiantly continue preparations for their next production, a Jan. 4 performance of Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors at Roxborough High School, while savoring their final days at the historic mansion with which they’ve developed an artistic and spiritual bond.
"We decided that it was a waste to fight this, that we should focus our energies on what we do best, put on performances," said Sandra Day, co-founder and president of the opera.
Though some of the company’s 200 members, including its administration, performers, production staff and audience, are still coping with the notion of suddenly leaving the 19th-century mansion, most agree that the best way to continue the mission of providing artistic and affordable opera to the community is by looking ahead.
"(The mansion) is where the company stayed, but we’re still an opera company without it," Day said. "We’re excited about going into a new adventure."
Day, a St. Louis native and Rhawnhurst resident, partnered with James Wiest and the late Sol Bailer to form the company in 1979. Less than two years later, they stumbled upon the mansion in a remote section of the Wissahickon Valley inhabited centuries ago by a colony of hermits.
The home had a large parlor ideal for rehearsals and intimate ensemble performances, as well as a sloping, tree-lined yard that the company later made into a natural amphitheater. The park commission leased the property to the group for $1 per year.
"People would come out here, (and) they would picnic and bring their wine bottles," Day said. "It’s really gorgeous in the summer."
Meanwhile, the company offered a dynamic list of traditional and modern operas featuring some of the most talented directors and vocalists in the region. Though principal performers for the company are paid, the chorus singers, production crews and administrative staffs are volunteers.
"It’s not comparable to anything else that’s in the city," Day said. "We don’t have the production level of the Opera Company of Philadelphia as a whole, but we come very, very close at times."
Many of the company’s performers and production staff have moved on in their careers to major metropolitan companies, while others have been content to return to the DVOC season after season.
The artistic ideal has always been the driving force for the company, although opera — like other classical genres — has had its ups and downs in the popular consciousness.
"The thing about opera is that it combines five different art forms: literature, music, dance, set design and costume design," said Joyce Brommer, executive secretary of the company. "And it calls upon the human voice to reach its extremes and to do it beautifully. It has historical value to it, too."
Day believes that the genre has great appeal to young people because of its universal stories and sheer emotion.
"All they have to do is hear it, be there and witness it, and you can’t help but be drawn in," she said. "There’s no other art form with more passion."
Tragically, there always has to be a business side to any theater company. The DVOC is no different. The company has paid tens of thousands of dollars to maintain and upgrade the mansion over the years, including $8,500 for a new furnace mere weeks before the eviction notice arrived.
"We just got done painting the kitchen, painting the hallway, repairing the plumbing and repairing the roof," Brommer said. "We had a big fund-raiser for the boiler, and the park (commission) knew it."
The cavernous storage areas of the house contain countless costumes and props collected from more than 1,000 performances. All will have to be boxed and moved elsewhere until the company finds a permanent home.
Where the company will eventually resettle is its primary uncertainty of the moment. Roxborough High School has agreed to host Amahl, a 1950s-era English-language tale of the Three Wise Men on their journey to Bethlehem. But the company has not booked venues for future productions, notably the summer series that has always been the centerpiece of the annual schedule.
"We’re basically nowhere," Day said. "We have other places we’re looking at and are excited about. They’re all in the Northwest (Philadelphia). Our major problem is we have to be out of here by the end of the year." ••
For more information about the Delaware Valley Opera Company, including tickets to Amahl and the Night Visitors on Jan. 4, visit www.dvopera.org or call 215-725-4171.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com