You could say that Douglas Mitchell is an ordinary man who has done an
extraordinary thing — a thing so rarely seen in Australia that he is
being hailed as some sort of philanthropic saint.
But even a cursory look at the 62-year-old's life reveals Dr. Mitchell is no ordinary man: emerging from a "difficult and tough" Melbourne childhood, he became a globe-trotting chemist and medical researcher and then, in a late-life career switch, made a fortune on the sharemarket using mathematical formulas.
Now he is giving away large chunks of that fortune, and doing it in a rather unconventional fashion. He is sponsoring an entire opera.
Dr Mitchell's A$200,000 donation to fund Opera Australia's production of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is indeed rare.
"Without him, we would have never been able to put this production on," says Caroline Travers, OA's patrons manager. That's because opera companies rarely have the resources to stage such an opera. It requires big orchestras, specialist singers and is not a crowd favorite (the entire experience, including dinner break, takes almost six hours).
But for true Wagner lovers such as Dr. Mitchell — who for 40 years has witnessed the best operas in the world's top opera houses — these performances are "triumphs of the human spirit". They are masterpieces so "intense, romantic and erotic" that the cost — A$600,000 for four performances, with OA getting A$400,000 back from the box office — does not matter. "The economics of opera are just impossible," says Dr. Mitchell.
So somebody has to put their money where their mouth is, and that's exactly what he did on March 4, 1999.
It was on that day that Caroline Travers sat opposite Dr. Mitchell at The River restaurant, Southbank. He signed a cheque and handed it over. It was, Ms. Travers was astonished to find, for A$10,000. "He did it to establish that he was serious, a bona fide supporter of Opera Australia," Ms. Travers said.
Dr. Mitchell, who received his PhD from the University of London for work on the measurement of metals in water, went on to donate about A$200,000 to personally sponsor OA's 2000 production of Richard Strauss's Capriccio.
It was, as OA's former artistic director Moffatt Oxenbould says, a delicate and unusual time. Business and government sponsors tend to be at arm's length, often turning up only on opening night. Dr Mitchell arrived at rehearsals with his own score in hand and sat with the understudies. No one seemed to mind, and the multi-millionaire certainly did not interfere, says Mr. Oxenbould.
An opera is not something you can keep, it has no memorial plaque. It is not a foundation and you can't hang it on a wall. But funding an opera comes with many benefits, besides watching rehearsals. For a start, you get to be the guest of honor at the opening night party and you get to write a welcome note in the show's program. But you can also get Simone Young, OA's influential and talented musical director, to give a talk to your closest friends in the comfort of your own home.
It is perhaps a sign of Dr. Mitchell's almost messianic approach to opera that, before each of his two sponsored performances, he has asked the likes of Ms. Young to make sure his friends were well-educated about what they were about to see. One of those friends, architect and design manager David Blanche, admits to having had his ear "bashed" about Wagner for years.
"I've been persuaded into delivering small amounts of money to the opera also," he says, laughing.
Douglas Mitchell describes his childhood as difficult and tough. His parents divorced when he was young and his mother was left to bring up "three ungrateful kids" alone. He lived in Balwyn, East Camberwell and Hawthorn, went to Box Hill Technical School and studied chemistry at the University of Melbourne and Swinburne.
He worked in London and New York, where he spent 25 years. He was a medical and environmental researcher with the New York State Government then, in 1986, switched his career from science to money-making.
But as he turned to trading futures and derivatives, he took science with him. Dr. Mitchell used a statistical formula technique that calculates the best possible outcome by mathematically assessing risks and trends. It is, he says, "how you decide to do something when you don't know what you are doing".
You get the feeling that every decision in Dr. Mitchell's life is carefully weighed by his calculator brain. Just before his interview with The Sunday Age, Dr. Mitchell said he was "writing a little note" to Opera Australia suggesting a cost-effective season line-up. "I take their cost structure, slot them into a little formula and work out what's best," he says. He is always e-mailing the company ideas — from new management techniques to marketing ideas — as he travels around the world. Opera Australia, says marketing and development director Liz Nield, has come to rely on Dr. Mitchell as an insider.
With his Swedish wife, Monica, Dr. Mitchell spends eight months a year in Melbourne.
He is an eclectic philanthropist. He supports a yoga school in Massachusetts and funds private school scholarships to disadvantaged African-American students. Richmond's Ki Training Centre, which uses tai chi-like methods to combat chronic fatigue, also receives his help (Dr. Mitchell is only just recovering from the condition).
He does, however, have some criteria for giving money away. He has to feel his money will make a difference, it has to be a worthwhile organisation, and the donation must be used well.
Philanthropy, says Dr Mitchell, is about giving back to the community. "I am a strong believer in communities. If they have been good to you, you should be good to them. And whatever money you've got you are not going to take with you."
The final two performances of Tristan und Isolde by Opera Australia are on Tuesday 20 November and Friday 23 November at 6 p.m. at the State Theatre, Victorian Arts Centre,
Melbourne.
