Washington's flagship opera company is packing up its scores and leaving the building it has called home for decades, in a break that hints at dollars, politics, and branding. The Washington National Opera said on Friday it will seek an early, "amicable" end to its affiliation with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where it's played since 1971, and return to life as an independent nonprofit, reports the Washington Post. A new website has already been launched. Soon after, the Kennedy Center put out its own statement saying it was the one that had decided to sever ties, calling the relationship "financially challenging" and arguing that the split would help secure the "long-term future of the Trump Kennedy Center."
A person familiar with the talks publicly countered that the move was "definitely a WNO decision," reached with "great regret." The opera said the Kennedy Center had cut or ended support and adopted a model that requires productions to be fully funded in advance—terms the WNO says don't fit an art form that typically covers only a fraction of costs through ticket sales, with the rest coming from grants and donations secured closer to opening. The company also argued the new structure clashes with its goal of pairing known crowd-pleasers with more adventurous works.
Artistic Director Francesca Zambello called herself "deeply saddened" to leave what she described as a "national monument," but she said the opera will look for new venues and scale back its spring season to stay financially stable. Layered on top of the economic dispute is the Trump-era makeover of the institution itself. After President Trump took control of the Kennedy Center's board and David M. Rubenstein was ousted as chair, attendance and donations were reported to have dropped.
The recent vote to rename the venue the Trump Kennedy Center intensified concerns, the source said, as some artists refused to perform there and audiences stayed away. The AP notes that the WNO's statement didn't mention Trump or the renaming. But critics inside and outside the opera see the rebranding of a memorial to John F. Kennedy as a key factor in the WNO's decision, even as the center's new leadership has blamed past management for alleged financial missteps—claims that the Post's source dismissed as "fake." WNO officials say there are new venues already on the table, but no leases have yet been arranged, and the officials are staying mum on which ones are in contention, per the New York Times.
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