Broadcom founders give $5 million to Opera Pacific

Alex Coolman

SANTA ANA -- A Corona del Mar arts patron announced today a $5-million

grant to Opera Pacific, a gift that will boost the opera’s outreach

efforts and become the foundation of its endowment.

Susan Samueli, wife of technology company Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry

Samueli, said her enthusiasm for the overall artistic quality of the

opera and the strength of its youth programs were major factors in her

and her husband’s decision to make the donation.

“Opera Pacific exemplifies the kind of artistic excellence that Orange

County needs and deserves,” she said.

Samueli, a mother of three, said the opera -- which performs at the

Orange County Performing Arts Center -- has been an enriching experience

in her children’s lives, and one that she hoped to make available to more

young people.

The gift, said opera executive director Martin Hubbard, represents a

major step forward in the opera’s efforts to build its endowment and will

provide a certain amount of fiscal breathing room for the organization.

“It’s the kind of thing that lets the art shine forward and doesn’t have

us all the time scrambling for money,” he said. About $1 million of the money will be applied to the organization’s New Opera Pacific Fund, which

will be used for a variety of operating expenses. The balance of the gift

will form the seed money for what organization directors hope will

eventually be a $20-million endowment.

The donation comes as the most dramatic example of the opera’s return to

financial prosperity after a brush with hard times only a few years back.

Two and a half years ago, the organization labored under a $2-million

debt and experienced difficulties with its creative direction.

Improved attention to fund-raising efforts and the galvanizing force of

artistic director John DeMain, who joined Opera Pacific in 1997, has

turned things around, said Hubbard, who was himself brought on in 1998.

“We’re not only alive and well,” he said. “We’re getting rather strong.”

Samueli made her announcement in the cavernous space of a Warner Street

office building that will become Opera Pacific’s new headquarters

starting in September. The space will house rehearsal stages and offices

for administrative and fund-raising work, as well as teaching rooms and a

warehouse.

The opera company’s facilities have, in the past, been spread out at

three different locations in Irvine and Costa Mesa.

“This new home will consolidate all of our operations,” Hubbard said.

Opera Pacific acquired the building for about $1.5 million, a purchase

funded by a variety of donors.

Broadcom also announced today that it planned to donate $3 million to UC

Irvine for the formation of a research center for developing

technologies.