Earlier this month, we wrote about Tuomas Hiltunen, the new out general director of the Fort Worth Opera, who said he was brought into the organization, in part, to get it on track financial. Well, with fewer than two months on the job, we have the first sign that he’s serious about that mission.
Hiltunen announced today that the 2018 Festival’s planned production of Wagner’s epic Das Rheingold — one of the central operas in the famed Ring of the Nibelung Cycle — would not go forward, citing the high production costs.
The decision “was difficult,” Hiltunen said, “but we have listened to our donors and community partners regarding fiscal accountability and prudence.”
In addition to the three operas previously announced (Maria of Buenos Aires, Don Pasquale and Frontiers), the FWO will add the Texas premiere of Brief Encounters, a trio of 15-minute operas written by gay composers Mark Adamo and Jak Heggie, and FWO’s artistic director, Joe Illick.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
