David Gockley — without question the most successful executive in Houston’s arts community over the past generation — has resigned as general director of Houston Grand Opera to accept the same position with the San Francisco Opera.
After the HGO Board hired the youthful Mr. Gockley 33 years ago to replace HGO’s founder Walter Herbert, Mr. Gockley oversaw the transition of HGO from a sleepy regional company to one of the leading Opera companies in the United States. Under Mr. Gockley’s diretion, HGO has become particularly well-known for its productions of new works for the American stage, and Mr. Gockley brought in 33 world premieres. Examples of noteworthy works that were first performed by HGO are “Nixon in China” by John Adams and “A Quiet Place” by Leonard Bernstein.
Under Mr. Gockley?s leadership, HGO won a Tony, two Grammy and two Emmy awards, conducts frequent international tours, and is heard around the world each year through international radio broadcasts on three continents. Mr. Gockley was also a superb innovator as he introduced such concepts as supertitles, outdoor simulcasts, and OperaVision, which are screens that bring close-ups of the stage and orchestra to people in the upper reaches of the theater.
The main attraction to the director’s post with the San Francisco Opera is that the company is bigger and much older than HGO. SFO was chartered in 1923, while HGO began in 1955. Moreover, SFO’s budget is about $55 million, which is twice the size of HGO’s budget. SFO’s season includes 9 productions and 80 performances compared with HGO’s 7 productions and 55 main-stage performances.
Nevertheless, Mr. Gockley will not be facing a bowl of cherries in taking on the SFO job. SFO is undercapitalized, and its current endowment is only about a third of what it should be given SFO’s budget. Moreover, in San Francisco, Mr. Gockley will face huge transportation problems in attracting Bay Area opera fans into downtown San Francisco; those problems simply do not exist in the much less densely populated Houston metro area. Finally, SFO is heavily unionized, which makes operations much more expensive and complicated. Mr. Gockley did not face any meaningful union problems during his entire 33 year stint with HGO.
No word yet on who will replace Mr. Gockley, who will be the quintessential tough act to follow. Nevertheless, given HGO’s stature in the opera world, the HGO should have an impressive list of candidates. Stay tuned.