So what's the Tulane Summer Lyric story?

Thursday September 25, 2003

DAVID CUTHBERT

Virtually the entire theater community has been abuzz with rumors of major change at Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre. Here's what's happening:

-- Michael Howard, artistic director of the theater for the past six years, and who has acted and sung at the theater since its first season 36 years ago, has been "released from his duties" by Anthony M. Cummings, dean of the music department.

-- Anthony Laciura, the New Orleans-born and trained (at Loyola and Tulane) Metropolitan Opera tenor and frequent Summer Lyric performer, has been hired to replace him.

The action was abrupt and took a number of people completely by surprise -- including Howard, and the 50-odd members of the theater's steering committee. "It was a shock and surprise to everyone concerned," said member Frank B. Stewart Jr., a businessman not given to hyperbole.

Summer Lyric's large and faithful audience may have a hard time understanding as well, because last summer's three productions, under Howard's supervision, played to 100 per cent capacity. According to Barbara Workman, who together with her husband Mark, chairs the steering committee, "Our shows actually played to more than our 15,000 capacity, because there were people clamoring for standing room only," she said. "It was our most successful season ever."

And as with every Howard season, it chipped away at the debt Howard inherited along with the job, which, according to various estimates, was anywhere between $170,000 to $200,000. According to Stewart, that debt is now down to less than $60,000. Tulane Summer Lyric is self-supporting, living on ticket sales and donations. The university's main contribution -- and a considerable one -- is its performing site, Dixon Hall.

Howard, reluctant to speak, would say only, "I was told that my work was exemplary, but that they wanted a change. I don't know why."

"Basically, those facts are true," said Teresa Soufas, dean of Tulane liberal arts and sciences. "The situation at universities is that chairs of departments, even deans themselves are often rotated. And this position is one that carries no guarantee of permanence"

Still, in 36 years there have been only two artistic directors of Tulane Summer Lyric: the late Frank L. Monachino, its founder, and Howard.

Cummings said his commitment was "to provide a good balance between artistic vision and financial stability" for Summer Lyric. "Michael Howard has done a very fine job artistically," he said, but we need to put the theater on a 'go forward' basis to stabilize and enhance its financial position."

Couldn't this be done with Howard?

"There's a matter of opportunity inherent in Laciura's appointment that puts us in a very good position when it comes to outreach programs, corporate and foundation support," Cummings responded.

Yet in a letter to the steering committee announcing the change, Cummings praised not only Howard's artistic accomplishments, but his "selfless stewardship . . . and leadership (that) extended well beyond artistic matters: in partnership with managing director Abbe Garfinkle, he succeeded in stabilizing the program's sometimes uncertain finances."

He added that Howard remains "a tenured professor on the music faculty. That will not change."

But despite all this approbation, an invitation was extended to Howard to direct at Summer Lyric next season only after the steering committe's negative reaction to the change.

Some see Laciura as more in the Monachino mode, who would be more likely to put an emphasis on the operetta that Monachino loved than the more audience-enticing musical theater.

Laciura, who described Monachino as "a great educator, mentor and father figure all wrapped into one," said that Cummings offered him the job several weeks ago, adding, "it was a university decision," one he was amenable to because "Summer Lyric has meant so much to me," reeling off a long list of roles, concluding with last season's Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof."

He added that the only operetta he could see doing were well-known works such as those by Gilbert & Sullivan. "The furthest I would ever go in that direction might be something like Offenbach's 'Bluebeard,' which is pretty funny."

Laciuira said he has contracts to sing individual roles for the Met as well as opera jobs upcoming in Washington, D.C, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New Orleans, in March, when he will be featured in "Das Rheingold" for the New Orleans Opera Association. Tulane Summer Lyric auditions are in February. His plan is to commute to New Orleans, as time permits, with Lyric performer-supporter Rita Lovett as his assistant.

"He is going to try and spend as much time here as possible," Cummings said.

"The idea," said Stewart, a major supporter of the Summer Lyric program, "seems to have been to seize the opportunity to bring Anthony Laciura back to New Orleans, a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, it hits at a time when Michael Howard has earned the right to continue the exceptional job he has done. It's just unfortunate the way all this has played out."

The steering committee, Cummings and Soufas are meeting again Sunday and Laciura said he has asked Howard to direct Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Mikado," which he said was "the only definite title on next summer's season."

Howard's production of the G&S "Pirates of Penzance" this past season was rapturously received by critics and audiences alike and Cummings said he was "delighted" with it, adding, "I think this coming summer's season will not look that different from Summer Lyric seasons past.

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Theater writer David Cuthbert can be reached at dcuthbert@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3468.

As published in The Times Picayune on 25 September 2003