February 7, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
By Elizabeth Greene
Alberto Vilar has probably given more to support classical music than any other donor, but his gifts often come with demands for public acknowledgment and a role in helping to manage the nonprofit groups he supports, says New York magazine (January 21).
The 61-year-old billionaire’s name graces numerous performance halls, from the Vilar Grand Tier at the Metropolitan Opera, in New York, to the Vilar Center for the Arts at Beaver Creek, a Colorado ski resort. And numerous programs are named after Mr. Vilar, including performing arts fellowships at New York University and an institute for arts management at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington.
The Cuban investments manager says he courts the spotlight to “set an example for others, so that they might give, too,” yet he goes further than simply demanding his name in big letters, the magazine says. On opening night of a production Mr. Vilar has underwritten, he takes an onstage bow with the singers and conductor.
Mr. Vilar gives his support to “powerful, charismatic individuals whose leadership he admires and trusts,” says the magazine, including Michael M. Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, and Plácido Domingo, artistic director of the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera.
But then, according to some, he meddles. When the San Francisco Opera was hiring a new general director, for example, Mr. Vilar contacted the headhunter and said that if the board chose one of two people, it could expect a big gift, reports the magazine. When it did not, word has it, Mr. Vilar sent the money to the Los Angeles Opera instead. Others say Los Angeles was getting the money anyway.
Others, like Mr. Kaiser, insist that Mr. Vilar does not interfere.
In any event, says the article, Mr. Vilar has good taste, and for that the arts world is grateful. “It’s not as if Vilar is pushing his untalented girlfriends onstage à la Citizen Kane,” says the article, “or wants to direct a Ring cycle himself.”
The article is available at http://newyorkmag.com.
