Calif. Attorney General Eying San Diego Opera’s Finances

California Attorney General Kamala Harris’s office is conducting an audit of the San Diego Opera, according to the public television station KPBS.

Opera officials said they were notified of the investigation on Tuesday, a day after they announced that the organization would remain open and put on a 50th-anniversary season in 2014-15, reversing a March decision by prior opera leadership to shut down.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office declined to comment. State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez said she and others had encouraged the attorney general to investigate whether government agencies that made grants to the opera were informed of the “supposed financial problems” that prompted the closure move.

A lawyer for the opera said it is cooperating with Ms. Harris’s office, which has requested documents and electronic data related to donations, compensation of key employees, and “transfer or use of charitable assets,” among other fiscal records.