For more than a decade, On Site Opera, a small but nimble performing arts group, brought opera to unexpected places: the Bronx Zoo, Madame Tussauds, cafes and soup kitchens. The company won acclaim for its innovative approach, including a Beethoven song cycle performed by phone during the pandemic.
But on Tuesday, On Site Opera announced that it was shutting down, saying it could no longer keep up with rising costs. The company’s three full-time employees will lose their jobs; no further performances are planned.
“It’s a very sad decision, and it’s very heartbreaking,” said Corey Kinger, president of the company’s board. “The overall fund-raising environment is tightening, while the cost for us of producing opera is significantly increasing.”
Kinger described the decision as a “pre-emptive, responsible closure,” saying that On Site Opera had no outstanding debts or commitments.
The company had a budget of about $1 million. But, it said, opera is about 50 percent more expensive to produce than it was three years ago. Government contributions and gifts from foundations have also dwindled over the past year, it said. Ticket sales make up less than 5 percent of the money coming in.
Across the country, opera companies of all sizes are struggling as they work to rebuild after the pandemic. The costs of shipping, costumes and materials have risen. And funding from foundations and governments has grown more scarce.
In recent years, companies have made cuts, including Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Tulsa Opera and Syracuse Opera. In New York, the Metropolitan Opera has withdrawn tens of millions from its endowment to keep up with costs.
On Site Opera, founded in 2012 by the stage director Eric Einhorn and the producer Jessica Kiger, was a bright spot in the world of opera and provided some hope that the genre could thrive in the 21st century. The company staged 30 works, including five world premieres.
The inaugural production was Shostakovich’s “The Tale of the Silly Baby Mouse,” a Russian fairy tale, which the company brought to the Bronx Zoo in 2012. During the pandemic, when cultural institutions were closed, the company offered live and interactive one-on-one performances by phone of Beethoven’s “An die ferne Geliebte.” And it presented its first production by mail, “The Beauty That Still Remains: Diaries in Song,” sending out a series of envelopes filled with texts and objects, along with links to recordings of song cycles.
Einhorn, who stepped down as artistic director in 2023, said in a statement on Tuesday that On Site Opera “set out to push artistic boundaries by reimagining what opera could be.”
“I am incredibly proud of how we brought that vision to life over the past 12 years,” he said. “I will be forever grateful to the hundreds of incredible artists, staff, board, supporters and audiences who have been part of the On Site Opera journey.”
