Ardis Krainik knew. The legendary general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago was OPERA America’s board chair back in 1990 when I became president. At our first working lunch, she warned me that the course of progress was unsteady. How right she was! As the curtain rises on the 2023–2024 season, we are excited by the prevalence of American operas across the country. At the same time, we continue to struggle to regain some sense of operational equilibrium in the wake of the pandemic.

Small and mid-sized companies — and festivals of all sizes — have led the field for years in developing an American opera repertoire. They have shouldered responsibility for creating and nurturing new works with the aim of connecting with a new public. The impact of their work is profound: This fall, our largest companies are featuring an extraordinary array of American works, having learned that new operas that resonate with the world around us can garner media coverage and attract new audiences.

The coming months are unprecedented. Productions of El último sueño de Frida y Diego, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, and Omar will take place in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Met has programmed Dead Man Walking, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (also being performed in Seattle), and Florencia en al Amazonas — all before the end of the calendar year. Houston Grand Opera will premiere Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s latest opera, Intelligence. At Washington National Opera, Jeanine Tesori’s latest opera, Grounded, with libretto by George Brant, opens in October. This is progress.

Still, it is attendance that has been set back by the interruption of COVID. An OPERA America survey comparing ticket sales from the 2022–2023 season with 2018–2019 — the last complete year before COVID — found that overall sales were down for most of our companies. Looking at a constant sample group of 30 companies across all budget cohorts, total ticket sales between FY2019 and FY2023 declined by 25%, with ticket revenue decreasing by a comparable 24%.

There is some encouraging news. Attendance among first-time ticket buyers set new records last season! For all our companies, 31% of ticket buyers were “new to file.” One company reported first-time attendance of over 50%! This represents a tremendous inflow and tells us that retention strategies must be top of mind. How do we induce first-timers to return? How do we introduce them to the idea of making a contribution — even a small one — to support their local opera company? How do we ensure performances are good enough to inspire people to travel downtown, perhaps on a day when they are working remotely?

The pandemic required us to experiment with strategies to keep the public engaged. The same spirit of inventiveness and determination must prevail until we can finally declare ourselves back on a steadier path of progress.