The Washington National Opera is leaving the Kennedy Center

The Washington National Opera (WNO) announced its withdrawal from the Kennedy Center, marking one of the most significant cultural fractures since President Donald Trump took control of the major performing arts complex in the United States.

The company reported that it will begin an "amicable transition" to end its historic affiliation with the Kennedy Center and return to operating independently, it said in a statement to the New York Times.

The central reason: a new financial model imposed by the Trump-appointed administration, which the opera calls incompatible with its operation and with the economic reality of the performing arts.

The new financial model and the nature of opera

Following the dismissal of the previous board of directors and the appointment of allies of the president to oversee the center, with Trump as chairman of the board, WNO claims it was required to fully fund its productions in advance. This scheme ignores that opera, by nature, depends on donations and grants that cannot be secured years in advance and that ticket sales cover only a minimal portion of actual costs.

As an immediate result, the company will reduce its spring season and move its productions to other venues, a move it said seeks to preserve fiscal stability and meet its budgetary obligations.

Details of the new performance schedule will be announced in the near future, and a new website with the opera calendar will be launched soon, they said.

Although the official statement avoids mentioning the president directly, the decision occurs in an unmistakable context: the name change of the venue to the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, already visible on the façade and on the website, despite the fact that Congress continues to recognize it only as the Kennedy Center.

Other artistic cancellations

This renaming sparked a new wave of cancellations by high-profile artists.

Figures such as Lin-Manuel Miranda and musician Peter Wolf had already withdrawn their projects from the center following the changes in leadership. They are now joined by entire institutions that, like the Washington National Opera, consider that the new direction compromises not only the financial viability, but the very spirit of the space.

From the Kennedy Center administration, interim executive director Richard Grenell, a close adviser to Trump, responded that the venue has committed millions of dollars to sustain the opera, which he said continues to operate at a deficit. However, he defended the separation as an opportunity to give the center more "flexibility" and attract international productions, according to cited AP, in an X post that later disappeared.

The departure of the Washington National Opera is not an isolated episode: it's a red flag.

The Kennedy Center, for decades a plural meeting space for American culture, now faces an artistic disbandment that reflects the clash between political logic and the fragile, collaborative and diverse nature of art.