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  "path": "/post/210547/opera-donald-trump-kennedy-center-takeover",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-15T20:30:54.000Z",
  "site": "https://newrepublic.com",
  "tags": [
    "Breaking News",
    "Politics",
    "Republican Party",
    "Donald Trump",
    "Kennedy Center",
    "Performing Art",
    "Opera",
    "fundraising",
    "Government Funding",
    "The New York Times",
    "flagrant rejection of the laws"
  ],
  "textContent": "The Washington National Opera has found new life since it steered away from Donald Trump’s control.\n\nThe 70-year-old opera company departed its longtime home at the John F. Kennedy Center when the president and his allies assumed control of the historic cultural institution last year. Yet the difficult exit has apparently not hurt the company—instead, it is well on its way to a full reinvention, raising questions about whether or not the group needs the $2.75 million federal subsidy and support of the Kennedy Center in order to survive, The New York Times reported Friday.\n\n“We didn’t lose any artists,” Francesca Zambello, the artistic director of the Washington National Opera, told the _Times_. “We didn’t lose any staff when we rebooted as a new company. Nobody lost a paycheck. Nobody lost their benefits. Everyone has been very united.”\n\nZambello added that it has been difficult to fundraise and, effectively, create “an opera company out of nothing,” though they have also found “incredible freedom” in the process.\n\nThe opera company’s program has shifted. It has more operas scheduled this year than it did during the 2024-25 season, but it will also have fewer performances of each opera.\n\n“This reflects the competition for stages at auditoriums that have already booked shows well in advance,” noted the _Times_.\n\nThe company’s budget has also grown, from $25 million last year to about $30 million next year. That’s due to the additional costs tied to renting venues, and the loss of in-house staff and government subsidies. A $17 million endowment also hangs in the balance.\n\n“We had to increase our fund-raising budget significantly to cover new costs and to account for limited weeks available in new venues, which means fewer revenue-earning performances per production,” Timothy O’Leary, the general director of the opera, told the daily. “Thankfully, we have received leadership support from our board and donor base, as well as a groundswell of new donors from around the country.”\n\nLong before Trump’s meddling, the Kennedy Center was widely considered a premier global arts institution. But since the White House became directly involved in its operations and programming, its normally star-studded lineup has fallen apart.\n\nIn December, the president suddenly decided to rename the venerated cultural institution “The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts,” in a flagrant rejection of the laws that created the center in the first place.",
  "title": "Group That Escaped Trump’s Kennedy Center Takeover Is Thriving"
}