After 35 remarkable years, Monday, August 31 marks the final day at Cincinnati Opera for Patty Beggs, General Director Emerita and former General Director & CEO. Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director, shares this tribute.
Patty Beggs, General Director Emerita, with Evans Mirageas, The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director. Photo by Philip Groshong.
Today is a landmark day for all of us who love Cincinnati Opera. It is the last official day for Patty Beggs, our incredible colleague of 35-plus years and leader of the company for at least twenty of them. Patty handed the reins of leadership over to Chris Milligan in March, but has stayed with us in an emerita capacity until today. She will continue hold the title of General Director Emerita, but now she can observe and support as she chooses!
As someone who is often called upon to render tributes, this is one time when I am at a loss as to how to begin. Patty has been the most important, most valuable, most cherished boss I have had in nearly fifty years of working in music. It has been a privilege to call her “Boss,” to trust her judgment in all matters, and to learn every single day from her how to be a better leader, a better listener, and simply a better human.
The art of opera in America has benefited immeasurably from her, as well. Patty has served on the OPERA America board and has offered quiet guidance and counsel to scores, if not hundreds, of colleagues over the years. Along with another long-time staffer Tracy Wilson, Patty led the charge thirty years ago to awaken our company and opera in general to the need for more diversity in all areas of our endeavor—on our staff, on our board, in our audience, and on our stage. She is also the most self-effacing, generous leader, always wanting the spotlight to shine on others, knowing that if they do well, she will too.
I have watched Patty closely for fifteen years. She never shied away from the tough decisions. We weathered the economic crisis together, the massive effort required to renovate Music Hall, and most recently, the ramifications for our company and for all the arts of the need for greater social justice.
Patty would have had major celebrations in her honor this summer had it not been for COVID-19 and the loss of our season. So, it has been a muted farewell, and this has been painful for all of us. But Patty has left us in good hands with Chris Milligan, hired by her almost 20 years ago in a junior position. Like so many other women and men in our profession, Patty mentored Chris and the results are self-evident.
We called each other “The Two Harrys.” She and past board president Cathy Crain worked hard to persuade the great Hamilton, Ohio philanthropist Harry T. Wilks to endow the position I hold. More recently, Cincinnati Opera’s past president and extraordinary benefactor to so many good causes Harry Fath endowed the position of General Director. So, we “Two Harrys” worked side by side. Our respective spouses were patient opera season widowers as Patty and I spent nearly every waking hour in May, June, and July in Music Hall. We would buck each other up, bicker over the fine points of supertitles, costumes, wigs, and makeup, and laugh and cry with joy when it went well.
I will miss her presence, her laugh, and that way she could look over her glasses and down her nose when she knew you were trying to pull a fast one! I will miss her sense of style and the good-natured way she took our ribbing over her obsessions with shoes and handbags. But she and her beloved Jim Beggs will now have time to enjoy summer evenings together. I have no doubt that Patty’s next professional chapter is just around the corner and that Cincinnatians will continue to benefit from her wisdom, compassion, and drive. Long may you wave, my dear Patty!
Evans Mirageas
The Harry T. Wilks Artistic Director, Cincinnati Opera
