SAN FRANCISCO Opera director search adds Houston veteran
Once not in running, David Gockley now a leading candidate

Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic
Tuesday, January 11, 2005

David Gockley, the visionary longtime general director of the Houston Grand Opera, has emerged recently as a leading candidate to take over the reins of the San Francisco Opera.

Gockley, 61, was not considered a candidate through the fall as a 14- member search committee chaired by board member George Hume looked for a replacement for Pamela Rosenberg, who will step down when her five-year contract as general director expires in 2006.

But Gockley said that since Christmas the committee had approached him again and that he had decided to "take a different view of the matter."

"At this point, we're both doing what you'd call due diligence," he said. "I'm trying to figure out and learn as much as I can about the company so I know what I'd be getting into as far as the financial circumstances, the union circumstances, the staff circumstances."

Hume refused to comment on the specifics of the search. "We have a number of candidates we're looking at, and we're hoping to make an announcement by the end of January," he said.

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