OPERA PACIFIC PLANS A MENOTTI ‘BOHEME’

Opera Pacific, the Costa Mesa-based organization seeking to produce opera and musicals at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, has announced that it will present three productions--including a new “La Boheme” directed by Gian Carlo Menotti--in early 1987 at the center.

Center officials, however, say it is too early to confirm engagements for the center, scheduled to open next October.

Thomas Kendrick, the center’s executive director, said Wednesday, “We have no comment at this time. Contract negotiations are still in process.”

Opera Pacific General Director David DiChiera, acknowledging that “nothing has been signed,” and “contracts have still to be completed,” claims to have a “verbal commitment” from the center to present Puccini’s “La Boheme” in the spring of 1987 as part of the 1986-87 opening season at the center’s 3,000-seat theater.

“Everything is in concrete,” said DiChiera, “and I’m going ahead putting it all together.”

DiChiera said the Opera Pacific production of “La Boheme,” with Jerry Hadley as Rodolfo, is being mounted specifically for the Orange County engagement at an estimated cost of $400,000. No further performances are planned.

Menotti, 74, who has composed such operas as “The Consul,” “The Medium,” “The Saint of Bleecker Street” and “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” is also known for having established the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, in 1958 (a Spoleto Festival U.S.A. was founded by Menotti in Charleston, S.C., in 1977).

Dates of the two other 1987 Opera Pacific presentations--one an opera, the other a musical--are not ready to be announced, DiChiera said. The second opera is expected to be a venture with several other opera companies, including the Michigan Opera Theatre. (DiChiera continues to serve as general director of that Detroit-based organization, which he founded in 1970).

Also under consideration for early 1987, DiChiera said, is a possible fourth Opera Pacific offering: an opera designed as a “young people’s” presentation.

DiChiera estimated Opera Pacific’s 1986-87 budget at $3 million, primarily for the presentations at the Orange County Center, but also for local educational and talent-development programs. Half of that $3 million is being raised through private donations.