Opera board members decry 'plot' to fire artistic director

Eight Virginia Opera board members and other supporters staged a news conference Monday to protest that longtime Artistic Director Peter Mark is being "secretly" forced out of his job, but the board's president-elect later disputed that the action was being done in secret.

At the news conference, Edythe Harrison, the opera's founding president and the group's spokeswoman, called the effort to oust Mark a "plot" and characterized it as a "travesty."

"If you remove the person who is the opera, you cut the legs off of it," she said.

In a phone interview after the news conference, Alan Albert, president-elect and a member of the opera board's executive committee, confirmed that the executive committee had voted in 2008 not to renew Mark's contract when it ends May 31, 2012. Albert, however, said the action was neither a plot nor a secret.

Mark's future with the opera became public Sunday afternoon when Harrison stunned audience members after a performance of "Rigoletto." Harrison, a board member since 1975, stood on stage with the cast at the Harrison Opera House and told patrons that Mark was losing his job.

Harrison recounted her speech on Monday: "I said, 'There's a small group working in secret to remove our Peter Mark. You, our audiences, need to know what is happening. You need to speak out and stop these few people, and save the opera.' "

Albert attended Sunday and watched Harrison's speech from the second row. "All of these tactics, in my mind, cheap melodrama unworthy of a response," he said Monday.

Trudy Michie of Virginia Beach, a longtime subscriber who was in the audience, said Harrison's announcement shocked patrons.

"Trying to get rid of Peter Mark? He and Edie Harrison built this company from the ground up. As far as I'm concerned, he's there as long as he wants to be."

Mark, artistic director since 1975, is widely credited for bringing national and even international recognition to the statewide company.

Albert said Mark was told in 2008 that the contract would be his last as artistic director. Harrison said Mark only learned that earlier this year.

Harrison complained that the executive committee acted behind closed doors, without consulting the full board.

Albert said it had long been standard practice for the executive committee to deal with senior personnel matters on its own. The opera board changed its bylaws in June to further clarify that, he said.

The executive committee has 19 members. More than 100 people serve on the full board and the boards of governors for Hampton Roads, Richmond and Fairfax, where the opera performs.

Albert said he thought it was generally understood among the full board that Mark's contract would not be renewed in 2012.

A full board meeting was scheduled for Sept. 30 to discuss the action, Albert said, but it was canceled because of heavy rains. About a month earlier, Mark had begun e-mailing the board about his forced departure, Albert said.

On Monday, Albert said he could not elaborate on why Mark will not remain in the job because it is a personnel issue.

But in a letter to the full board dated Oct. 8, Albert, President Joan Miller and immediate past president Mark Cox of Richmond wrote that the executive committee had debated in 2008 "whether to renew the contract at all, given Peter's history of difficulties in working relations with staff, musicians and board leadership."

Mark wrote in an e-mail Monday night that "there have been no complaints against me in my 36 years with Virginia Opera because there has been no basis to pursue any complaints - and to suggest otherwise is slander."

The news conference took place on the steps of the 1,632-seat Edythe C. and Stanley L. Harrison Opera House, named in 1993 for Harrison and her late husband.

The concerned board members said Mark is irreplaceable as artistic director.

"The thing that makes Peter so special is he has fire," said Rose McAree of Virginia Beach, who has volunteered for the opera since 1977. "His creativity and his empathy, you can hear. You can hear it in his music."

The company has struggled financially in recent years because of the economy, which has made it harder to sell tickets and raise funds. The company's budget is $5.4 million.

Mark's salary for the 2008- 09 season was $185,331, according to the opera's 2008 tax forms.

Albert said that after Mark leaves his position, the artistic staff likely will be restructured to have several directors with varying expertise rather than "a single impresario."

"We hope to continue the finest of Virginia Opera's tradition, which is to put a superb artistic product on stage," Albert said.

Teresa Annas, (757) 446-2485, teresa.annas@pilotonline.com