Contract Cancelled? Start a New Company!

Peter Mark, whose contract as artistic director of the Virginia Opera was terminated after 36 years in November, is taking his revenge. At a news conference Sunday, before an audience of people who expressed their support for him by e-mail after his ouster, he announced the creation of a new Lyric Opera of Virginia.

The company will perform at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach, the Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, the
Landmark and Carpenter Theaters in Richmond, and at an as-yet-unspecified location in Northern Virginia. The press release outlines a 2011-12 season that will include Verdi's La Traviata, Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I and a so-called "jewel box" (or abridged) production of Carmen.

[Source]