Fallen Angel

When Opera Midwest burst onto the music scene two years ago with a glittering production of Verdi's La Traviata, the Evanston, Ill., company was regarded as something of a musical mystery. Its general manager and financial "angel," Stephen Griffeth, had been able to conjure up a first-season budget of $400,000, a stunning amount for a group of virtual unknowns. Its star soprano was Griffeth's wife, Myra Cordell, a Northwestern University voice graduate. The music director was a former security guard who had conducted a children's choir in West Germany. Even Griffeth, a $369-a-week credit manager for a Chicago company, seemed miscast as an impresario.

Griffeth maintained that the company's financial support came from anonymous donors. Other critically acclaimed productions followed with Cordell in starring roles, and plans were well along for a dazzling finale to the second season when Griffeth suddenly canceled the remaining performances.

In a Chicago courtroom two weeks ago, the onetime angel pleaded not guilty to charges that he had stolen $1.3 million from his employer over the past four years to support his wife's ambitions. It was one of Cook County's largest embezzlement cases, and it could be a tragic last act for a promising opera company.

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