San Diego Opera General Director Ian Campbell, 54, is like a kid with a train set as he shows how the control room works for a weekly opera broadcast. He slips a digital disc into a silvery machine, adjusts the volume, and hands over a headset, on which is heard the radio show's intro, music from Giacomo Puccini's "La Bohème."

Campbell leans into his microphone and says, "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This evening we’re going to hear internationally acclaimed soprano Maria Gobbledygook sing the intensely difficult aria from the opera 'Gobbledygook,' featured in our forthcoming season." At that point, "I put the soprano's CD in right here," says Campbell, who is in total control as his own DJ and captain of the 6-by-8-foot microcosmic universe in the San Diego Opera office across from the Civic Theatre.

He crosses the hall to the Arthur and Dellie Schlesinger Listening Library, created in 1996 following the gift of Schlesinger's collection of cassettes of Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts dating back to 1935. Enlarged now through other bequests, the Schlesinger Library is a potential component of the iconic arts complex envisioned by Campbell on the bayfront site of Lane Field at the foot of Broadway. Campbell points it out from his office window.

Underwritten by funds from the city and county, a $100,000 feasibility study is under way. Along with other arts organizations, the San Diego Opera would become a tenant of a two-theater, $200 million to $400 million complex. Study findings will be announced in a few months.

"It would be a fingerprint, a signature building for the community," says Campbell, who likens its visibility and effect to the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Sydney Opera House in Australia. "There's never been a better time. A consortium is examining the development of the North Embarcadero; the land is owned by one member of that consortium, the Port District; the economy has never been stronger; the money is there; and the opera has never been stronger or more able to handle this project for the benefit of all."

For the financial strength of local opera — where a full house still is a money loser — most signs point to Campbell.

San Diego Opera Now

When San Diegans think of opera, most think of the current season, 23 performances of five operas plus three vocal recitals. Earlier this year, San Diego Opera presented Verdi's "Il Trovatore" and Wagner's "Lohengrin." This month, fans see Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and Andre Previn's "A Streetcar Named Desire." In May it’s "La Bohème." Opera is the most labor-intensive and expensive of the arts. A typical production, such as 1999's Hotel del Coronado-set "Così Fan Tutte," costs around $1 million. "Lohengrin" was budgeted at $1.5 million.

Ranked among the top 10 level-one companies by Opera America, San Diego Opera is doing well. The full-time administrative staff numbers 38, and in 1999 the company issued 625 W2s and 1099s. The 2000 budget is $10,988,052. (By way of comparison, the Old Globe Theater's 2000 budget is estimated at $10.8 million; San Diego Symphony's 1999-2000 budget at $6.8 million; and Lamb's Players Theater's at $3.6 million.) San Diego Opera has 10,557 subscribers and 3,000 donors, among them 42 board members who take their responsibilities seriously, supporting the opera with their time and talents as well as monetary support of $850,000 annually.

When Campbell arrived in 1983, the opera's endowment was under $1.5 million, and there was no cash reserve for working capital. Currently, the endowment exceeds $4 million with more than $15 million pledged in deferred giving, a program that did not exist pre-Campbell. Cash reserves total $3 million. The year Campbell arrived, paid attendance was 53,396 for the season of six operas. Paid attendance for this season's five operas is estimated at 63,420.

Last season's earned income (ticket sales, San Diego Opera Scenic Studio rentals and work for other companies, interest on endowment funds, etc.) totaled $6,357,764, or 60 percent of the budget. Contributed revenue was $4,280,604 (40 percent), leaving a net surplus of $78,972. "We have not borrowed from a bank since 1985 and have had no deficit since that year," says Campbell.

Lifelong opera lover William Stensrud, a general partner in the venture capital firm of Enterprise Partners and one of the nation's hottest tech moneymen, becomes president of the board in July. He says the opera has two imperatives — to put on a high quality product, and to do so in a fiscally responsible way. As for the artistic quality, longtime music critic John Willett says, "The company has a high standard of performance with a consistent and recognizable level of competence, proficiency and excellence across the board."

Willett praises Campbell's pragmatism and his relentless search for singers, whom he signs up "before they've made it large." Willett also says SDO's education department is No. 1 or 2 in the nation, depending upon who's talking. Each year, Campbell spends around 40 nights on the road hearing singers. While at a European conference in June, he will attend eight operas to hear 10 singers, among them a young Peruvian tenor he's got his eye on for a forthcoming season.

Campbell's relentless talent search resulted in the 1988 company debut (as Faust) of then-rising tenor Richard Leech, now an international star. Leech continues to return, admittedly out of a sense of loyalty to the company, the audience and to Campbell personally. He says other performers also are Campbell fans.

"We recognize and appreciate a work environment as professional as any in the business," says Leech. "It’s possible to have a great performance only if all the hidden elements are in place. From the costumers to the production staff and the stage crew to the lighting guys, the assets of the San Diego Opera are so well organized and prioritized that I can’t help but be a star when I step onto that stage. All would be futile without the highest quality singers, director, and conductors working with me, and we’ve learned to trust Ian on that count as well."

Acclaimed young mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux, who has been gathering rave reviews since making her SDO debut as Isabella in "The Italian Girl in Algiers," says the climate is a great inducement for her 2002 return. She also cites "a feeling of family unity that is directly related to the quality of professionalism, warmth and nurturing of Ian Campbell." Campbell should know how to nurture opera singers. He is a former opera singer. Born in Townsville, a small Queensland village of 40,000, Campbell, initially a boy soprano, made his public debut at 10. He sang so beautifully that others paid for the music lessons his parents could not afford. When he was in his early teens, the Royal Air Force transferred his father to Sydney, and Campbell developed into what he calls "a very good second-rate singer.

"I did all the secondary roles for the Australian Opera (1967-1974). I wanted to be Fritz Wunderlich or Nicolai Gedda, and there was no way of that. I could have continued doing character work, but I had to decide, is that where I want to be when I’m 40? The answer was no. I'd be better off going back to finish the law degree." Instead, Campbell, who always loved organizing and planning, "fell on his feet" by moving into administration.

He became senior music officer for the Australia Council and then, at 30, headed the emerging State Opera of South Australia. Impressive, but not enough for Campbell, who aspired to working for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. While in Europe seeking opportunities, he was called to meet with Metropolitan Opera Music Director James Levine and joined the company’s staff in 1982.

Admittedly, Campbell misses the visceral excitement of singing, "but there's also a lot of excitement seeing a great show go on the stage with singers who are vastly better than I." In the current and 1999 seasons, he returned to directing with lauded productions of "Il Trovatore" and "Falstaff."

Transforming A Company

Formerly with the Milwaukee Symphony, Ann Spira, now Ann Campbell, was one of Campbell's early Australian-born "hires" 17 years ago when he became general director following the departure of Argentine director Tito Capobianco (artistic director, 1976-1983). Capobianco attracted big stars like Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, Sherrill Milnes and Luciano Pavarotti. He also instituted an artistically successful but poorly attended and financially unsustainable Verdi Festival in 1978. When the board decided to cancel the festival after its fourth season, Capobianco defected to the Pittsburgh Opera, leaving a fragmented board and a disillusioned public in his wake.

Enter Campbell in July 1983, a time fraught with peril.

Though Capobianco had not left a deficit, there were two years of commitments the company was not prepared financially to meet. In a memo dated April 19, then-president Elsie Weston had advised the board that the budget put forward by Capobianco projected an operating deficit of $759,000 for 1983-84 and that the company would face an accumulated deficit of approximately $990,081 by the end of that season.

"A few months after I arrived," says Campbell, "we revised all budgets and the box office projections in particular and estimated a budget deficit of $750,000." Rather than make a public appeal the board and staff moved forward in all areas.

"If we had stopped moving, we'd have died like the proverbial shark," says Campbell. "We had to re-gear the company, which was an opportunity as much as it was a problem."

Some board members were offended when Campbell delivered the numbers. Some accused him to his face of trying to discredit Capobianco.

"I’m doing nothing of the kind," he said. "This is just where we’re going. You've never had advance numbers before, just emergency fund-raising." The Shaver Co. was brought in to do a complete review, to interview donors and to present Campbell's plan to them.

"It’s a great compliment to that board that even those who were offended and shocked set up a committee of governance and looked at the board's soft underbelly very carefully," says Campbell. "Showing great courage, they transitioned into a board for the late '80s, which is what we needed. They came to realize they had a professional staff that could be trusted."

When Campbell first handed them the repertoire for the next three years, board members were hesitant to look, so covert had such information been in the past. The current board knows all the productions through the end of the 2003 season and two productions planned for 2004. "We’re currently fund-raising and pre-positioning for 2003," Campbell says.

When the Marketing and Public Relations Director Todd R. Schultz came aboard in 1994, he was immediately called to Campbell's office for an emergency department heads meeting. "Oh, fine," thought Schultz. "I just left a good job and moved cross-country to a company in crisis." In the meeting, Schultz learned of a $200,000 threat (subsequently averted through strategic planning) to the season four years down the road. Now accustomed to Campbell's management style, Schultz says. "Budgets two, three and four years out are constantly revised after every conversation in which future projects are discussed. The master budgets maintained by accounting reflect at all times real projections based on concrete ideas for the future.

"Ian runs a tight ship and is definitely in control of the company, but he values the advice and enthusiasm of his staff in the decision-making process," says Schultz. During the initial staff-building process Campbell gained a reputation as a hothead, something he jokingly attributes to the fact he had red hair in those days. Now it’s salt and paprika.

"Hothead? I think that’s unfair," he says. "I set standards and made demands. I never considered working here a right that one was entitled to. You either delivered the goods or you worked elsewhere. Certain people didn’t deliver the goods."

Campbell believes in a fully informed staff and board. Each month a bundle of 75 to 100 of his business letters is routed through department heads, giving each a better understanding of his position on company policies, repertoire, industry concerns and contract issues with singers. Feedback is expected and welcome.

Campbell's third priority was the level of casting, which he felt was weak after the leading singers. He began casting from the bottom up, creating ensembles where the artistry is uniformly excellent, right down to the servant who sings "Dinner is served." Campbell also began to transform the education department into something more appropriate to the company’s and the city's needs. Ultimately, his efforts were abetted with a $1.15 million grant from the Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation, and in 1987 he instituted the San Diego Opera Ensemble to perform and engender opera in the schools, participate in master classes and also to train in the trenches.

This year the six-member ensemble, selected from 600 applicants, gave 142 performances. Occasionally ensemble members are contracted to sing mainstage roles, as Beau Palmer did in 1997's "The Conquistador" and "Turandot." Palmer has since sung at the Metropolitan and Paris operas, and recently appeared in "Susannah" in Zurich. Current ensemble member Priti Gandhi sings in this month's "Streetcar" and in next season's "The Magic Flute." In 1998-99, 60,300 San Diego and Tijuana children and 19,793 adults were served by the education and outreach programs, which include student dress rehearsals.

Among other things, management's ability to influence orchestral quality was enhanced last season, when a new, five-year contract (recently ratified) with orchestra musicians was successfully negotiated. It came following a showdown between Campbell and the musicians' union that threatened, up until showtime, to cancel the season opener. Under the previous contract, a nine-member committee of tenured players had the last word on dismissal of players. Now a representative of management joins a committee of eight tenured musicians to hear auditions of musicians under review. "There has been no audition since the new contract. However, a slight personnel change has occurred," says Campbell.

The Team Campbell

"There's no question Ian is a spectacular general manager," says incoming board President Stensrud. "The opera hasn't had a deficit in many years. Clearly they're doing a great job. There are two sides to that: One is don’t spend more than you make. The other is do a really good job of extracting money from the community.

"Ian's wife, Ann Campbell (director of strategic planning and special projects), is certainly among the top five money extractors I know. She's relentless. She's wonderful. It’s astounding."

Ann Campbell sometimes works at such intensity that she calls her condition "the blowtorch-under-the-tush syndrome." She strives for balance and strength in the board, members of which come from the legal, financial and the peer social community. "We look for time commitment, wealth, wisdom and a balance of male/female and corporate/individual," she says. "Being a board member is a tremendous commitment." (The minimum requirement is $10,000; most give much more.)

During the week before board meetings, members receive a thick packet containing "everything they ever needed to know about everything." They are expected to challenge, to suggest and to ask questions. Department heads attend in order to respond.

"If we can’t give answers," says Ian, "the company’s not being managed the right way. They hold us accountable and that is their role. They, too, can look ahead and point out potential crises. The trick is to know where the speed bump is and flatten it before you get there."

How does this work, this working together and being a married couple? "We started out this way," says Ann. "Early on, I had no trouble taking Ian by the lapels, shaking him, and saying, 'If you want to do that, these are the consequences. This is what’s going to happen. This is what you have to do to achieve it.' We did not know each other when Ian hired me, and we established this fabulous professional rhythm."

"It’s a rhythm similar to that we have with all the staff," says Ian. "If Todd Schultz or Michael Murphy (director of administration) has something they want to challenge, they walk in and say, 'Listen, I want to talk to you about this,' and we do it. Ann does the same."

"We’re all very strong and open," she says. And forgiving? "Always. This is the deal. Ian's the general director at the office, but I’m the general at home."

"And I forgive her all her faults," he says.

The Campbells' "absolute priority," their children, Benjamin, 13, and David, 11, participate in after-school activities, music lessons and sports. One day each weekend is reserved, not necessarily for a family activity, although golf with daddy is popular, but as a day in which both parents are at home.

The Repertoire

Opera America President Marc A. Scorca says, "Ian has established at San Diego Opera a pair of parallel records, one for rock-solid artistic programming with a repertoire that reflects a broad spectrum, including American works — the importance of which cannot be overstated — and the other, a record of complete fiscal responsibility."

The North American Voices Project was established in 1994 to showcase operas by North and South American composers. So far the standard repertoire has been augmented by the U.S. premiere of Mexican composer Daniel Catan's "Rappaccini's Daughter" ("La hija de Rappaccini"), Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," Carlisle Floyd's "The Passion of Jonathan Wade" and "Of Mice and Men," the world premiere of Myron Fink's "The Conquistador," and this month's "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Floyd's "Cold Sassy Tree" and Tobias Picker's "Therese Raquin" are slated for future seasons.

"You cannot do the above operas unless you also do 'Aida,' 'Bohème,' and 'Carmen,'" says Ian Campbell. "We could do those three plus 'Rigoletto' and 'Tosca' every year, sell out, and say, 'Aren't we terrific?' But that would be a bankrupt artistic policy."

Attendance

When "Lohengrin" was last presented in 1983, paid attendance was 8,822. The recent production played to 10,824, an increase of 22.7 percent. Paid attendance for the 1984 "Don Giovanni" was 8,938. At press time, ticket sales for this month's production already stood at 11,737. Campbell predicts "Don Giovanni" will sell to more than 13,000, an increase of more than 45 percent over 1984. Paid attendance for the 1984 "Carmen" was 10,795. The 1997 "Carmen" attracted 14,266, a 32 percent increase. "Clearly," says Campbell, "there is far greater market penetration, and audiences for five operas in the main season greatly exceed the audiences we had for six operas previously.

"Opera has a great future in San Diego provided we don’t relax," Campbell says. "The biggest threat to any company is complacency. Opera is not a need in a city like San Diego. The opera could go away tomorrow, and after a year of grinding and gnashing of teeth, we'd all buy baseball tickets.

"Nobody owes us a living. We’ve got to keep tilling the soil, keep marketing. I see us as a Downtown business whose product happens to be opera."

Longtime San Diego resident Charlene Baldridge is a freelance writer, critic, and essayist who specializes in arts and culture.