Opera tuned out on radio

CHICAGO -- A heartbroken Italian clown and a helmeted soprano with a spear; they're the stereotypes who spell grand opera for many people, and they're both on hand this season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. \nBut the only people who will hear Johan Botha sob as Canio in "I Pagliacci" or Jane Eaglen give her "Hojotoho!" war-cry as Brunnhilde in "Die Walkure" are audience members in the Civic Opera House. For the first time in nearly 30 years, there will be no live radio broadcasts of Lyric's productions this season. \nThe broadcasts' sponsors, United and American airlines, cited financial losses in informing WFMT-FM that they could not continue this season. \n"The airlines have been wonderful supporters of the arts in this city, but they are facing extraordinarily difficult times," the Lyric's general director, William Mason, said in announcing the suspension only eight days before the Sept. 21 season opener, the double bill of "I Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana." \nWFMT had been broadcasting opening nights of each Lyric production live in the Chicago area since the early 1970s, and had been sending them out in national and international syndication through its WFMT Fine Arts Network since 1977. \nAt the height of their popularity, the broadcasts were carried by some 800 radio stations and were heard by 3 million to 4 million listeners in 40 countries. \nNew York's Metropolitan Opera continues to air regular live opera, sponsored by ChevronTexaco. The 63rd year of those broadcasts begins Dec. 7, and they are carried on 325 stations in the United States and Canada, and some in other countries, said Met spokesman Peter Clark. \nOn a smaller scale, Houston Grand Opera said this week it will air five productions in the New York market on Saturdays this fall. National Public Radio airs "NPR World of Opera" in some markets. \nThe decline in radio broadcasts extends beyond opera, said Dan Schmidt, president and chief executive officer of Window to The World Communications, Inc., WFMT's corporate parent. \n"The major American symphony orchestras have one by one left the radio — and lost their recording contracts as well," Schmidt said. \n"We're not teaching classical music in the schools any more, and the sales of classical CDs have fallen off the table," he said. "But the most important factor is that American performing ensembles now have a price structure that is not in keeping with recording contracts and radio broadcasts." \nScmidt said each Lyric broadcast last season cost $50,000 to air "and that's for a local-only opening night." \n"The national syndication cost another $40,000 per performance," he continued. "Our production costs were only $6,000 or $7,000, and the soloists didn't cost that much. Almost all of the rest went toward royalties and fees — especially the orchestra members and the stagehands"