Opera in Ireland - general discussion thread on all things opera in Ireland

Got an email today to advise that Castlebar Mayomovieworld is the latest cinema to be going down the MetOpera route for opera in cinema - this means in the west Castlebar, Galway and Sligo are now venues for the Met Opera shows - I am not sure its sustainable and thought Castlebar had carved out a niche for itself going with the opera in cinema distributor showing opera from various European houses. We shall see... how it works out.

I see there is one of those ghastly outdoor conerts in Bray next week with Carreras - I've posted my views on that one in the thread about it. I just cannot buy into those types of events.

JonnyBlackrock wrote: »

I only ever saw Domingo once, more years ago than I care to remember, as Otello at CG. Quite unforgettable.

Phenomenal - do you remember the excitment of his entry in the first act, with that breaking storm. My god what a presence this man has on stage. This Rigooletto is an interesting experience, havign to wait for his vendata over Sunday morning coffee is an interesting idea.

JOnny forget about seeing opera of any value artistically now in Ireland - cullen killled off our most creative company and the new regime will offer nothing.

Sandwlch wrote: »

Opera Ireland booking now for Tosca in November.

http://www.operaireland.ie/

A national embarrassment really.

Yes another great achievement of Martin E voting cullen. This achievement will go unnoticed and uncared about by the vast majority. Getting rid of OTC at the stroke of a pen was an act of vandalism by a man who knew nothing about what this company had achieved for opera goers in Ireland. OI is a shambles and no "great national opera company" is going to arise from its ashes. I don't think I will bother with this Tosca, if its the production they did a few years ago - forget it. I have seen too many good (ney great performances of this opera) to want to spoil the pleasure of this masterpiece by witnessing the shambles of OI.

Unless we get the cheapest seats and have an opera boards meet up at one of the performances.

There is some good stuff going the other side of the water - but the axe is about to fall there too. We are indeed entering dark operatic days in Ireland.

I sent this off to MH today: If others wish to follow suit please post a copy of your letters to her on this thread. I will keep you noted of any reply I get.

Dear Minister

I trust you have followed the public debate in the letters pages of the Irish Times about the structure of Opera in Ireland and the effects of the decision by your predecessor to disband OPERA THEATRE COMPANY and OPERA IRELAND and the “plan” to merge both companies into an IRISH NATIONAL OPERA COMPANY – it seems unclear now exactly what is going to happen and what the level of funding for the new company will be. The loss of OPERA THEATRE COMPANY is an absolute disaster for Opera goers in Ireland. It represents a massive step backwards for opera in Ireland; I think it will mean opera outside Dublin will become a thing of the past. The funding simply will not be there for the grand plans of your predecessor –, you know that, I know that, the dogs on the street know that. it looks like you are backing a loser from day one and you may be remembered as the Minister who set the development of Opera backwards in Ireland.

I am asking you to consider giving a one year reprieve to OPERA THEATRE COMPANY whilst there is a period of consultation – with the opera goers of this country it would be very welcome and in my opinion a very brave decision to reverse the decision of Minister Cullen. The opera goers of Ireland will be the customers of the output of this new company so let us have a say in the future of opera in Ireland. For once will you listen to the people who buy the “product” as your civil service colleagues may refer to opera.

OPERA THEATRE COMPANY with its proven track record of good fiscal management, superb creativity, and all Ireland touring capability, is the vehicle any new company could be built on. Ireland does not have the population to create a powerhouse National Opera Giant such as Welsh National Opera – a company which has taken 60 years to build, and whilst it carries the name “Welsh” national opera – it performs in the large urban areas of the Midlands and North West of England – as well of course as Wales and has a local audience to draw from of about 30 million people who live within two hours drive of the theatres it performs at. WNO is not an operatic destination tourist attraction (for example like Wexford) – it is part of the opera going fabric of the UK. Your predecessor, Minister Cullen I understand wanted a national opera company modelled on WNO. We simply do not have the critical mass of opera goers to support it. Let’s cut the cloth according to measure. I am copying this letter to Brian Lenihan – he might have a quiet word in your ear about the small issue of the budget deficit he is trying to fix. I don’t think a bigger spend on opera is high on his priority list – do you?

Minister, to achieve an opera company the standard of WNO you will need considerably more than the combined budgets currently given to both Opera Ireland and Opera Theatre Company – I understand last year OTC got 650k and Opera Ireland 1.8 million; a total of 2.45 million. Imagine going to cabinet and saying “oh and by the way I want the budget for opera to increase twenty-fold so we can have a world class international opera company based in Dublin.” To create something like WNO you will need this level of funding – Your request will fall on deaf ears, so what will you end up? This is why the previous Ministers plan is ill-conceived and needs a radical rethink – before it is too late.

We already have a gem of a company in OPERA THEATRE COMPANY. A small tight management team of about half a dozen people; dedicated professional arts administrators and managers, now looking at the dole queue. A company that contracts professional singers, musicians, stage staff, creative staff, all those contracts will go. The OPERA THEATRE COMPANY young artists programme which has helped develop young Irish Operatic talent, will be gone. The many performing arts venues around the country will lose out on not having OTC bringing opera to their part of the country. I will miss the welcome visits to the Hawkswell in Sligo. OTC is exactly the kind of company that receives public funding we should be trying to emulate –well managed, with excellent service delivery of its objectives.

Minister – please think again. Give OPERA THEATRE COMPANY at least another year and let the opera goers have their say, before you strike out and dismantle this great Irish creative force. Yet more jobs will be lost through this decision. When OTC are on tour, it gets people out to those regional theatres; people spending money in the economy. The Arts Council grant to OTC, allows their very existence to create economic activity; when analysed this must actually claw back much of the grant by people getting out and being active in the economy, spending money. I understand OPERA THEATRE COMPANY received 650,000 Euro from the Arts council last year – can’t you see the economic madness of cutting this grant? losing six full time jobs at OTC plus all the contract employment the company provides. When we see the waste that goes on at FAS, or the HSE re-organisation it makes my blood boil. You will get rid of one of the finest performing arts company this country has which actually “wipes its face” produces a surplus and generates its own economic energy and yet waste millions on the aforementioned. You will be remembered as the Minister who shut down Opera Theatre Company – some achievement as Minister for Arts. Closing an Irish performing arts company with an international reputation, do you think this is a good idea?

The need to maintain jobs has never been greater – think about the job retention benefits there are by keeping OPERA THEATRE COMPANY. Disband OPERA THEATRE COMPANY and the skill sets and core collective experience of the company is lost in a ministerial stroke of the pen. Is this going to be your legacy at the helm of the Arts?

Minister please think again. I would welcome the opportunity to meet you with a delegation of opera goers to discuss what we think is achievable and what we would like to see for Opera in Ireland in the future, what is realistic, what is achievable and what would deliver a good realistic national operatic product. I would be happy to give you a 20 minute presentation on how Ireland could have a good opera “product” achieved at current spend levels, We already have an efficient and very creative national opera company – Please don’t cast the creative force of OTC to the four winds it will be lost forever and the opera going public won’t thank you. Mary Hanafin – The Arts Minister who killed opera in Ireland 2010. You have inherited an ill conceived plan – have the courage to change it. Please contact me and I will tell you about an alternative plan that would deliver opera at no extra cost to the state.

You can be remembered as the Minister of Arts who saved our Touring Opera Company or the Minister who destroyed it. The choice is now yours alone.

Sincerely

Cc Brian Lenihan – Brian - Minister Cullens plans were pie in the sky. Please have a word with Mary about what kind of money will be available for opera in the next few years and please contact me if you want to hear the opera goers alternative ideas to the crazy plans being put in place.

One of Martin e-voting Cullens aspirations was apparently to have an Opera company to rival Welsh national across the water. WNO are a great company that has been established for 60 years performs in a home base which is considered to be one of the greatest opera houses to have been purpose built in the last twenty years, it is a company that performs in a catchment area of about 30 million people.

What's more it gets 10.8 million sterling from the UK government arts council grant! That's about 12 million Euro. excluding Wexford our total opera subvention from the Arts council last year was 2.45 million.

If you want a quick look at the figures on WNO go to this link and read the income and expenditure page on their annual report

http://www.wno.org.uk/about-us/annual-report-accounts


The maths is not hard to do! This is why the whole national opera company idea is a fiasco, and why the Minister has to recognise the damage EV Cullen did to opera in Ireland in his ministerial pomposity. We are not going to get a national opera company if his plan goes through. the debts on OI will be paid off and we will have to go back to the Dublin grand opera society. the Cullen way is a step backwards.

Sandwlch wrote: »

Q: Are you condemning the formula of an OI type national company due to poor direction by a few individuals over the years, or to due to the formula itself ?

Sand thanks for your reply - re this specific question - I think it's a matter of what can be achieved on the budget we are going to have.

My assumption is that there is going to be no increase in the spend on opera - keeping wexford out the equation, the combined OI and OTC budget is 2.45 million. 650K went to OTC and the balance to OI. OI were always up against it to put on 4 operas a year (2 in Spring and 2 in Autumn), 1.8 million simply wasn't enough - which is why I think standards have slipped at OI. They were placed in an impossible position. I just don't think on 2.45 million we can achieve a great deal in terms of home grown opera of the grand mainstream variety, people expect more from their opera now than a back drop canvass, bare stage and no creativity - I'm a fan of OTC because they have been very creative and have achieved a great deal - and they have bought people into opera who would not hav attended live opera without their presence in the country - have they made opera going part of the cultural fabric and heritage of this country a difficult question - OI have IMO lost the plot in the last few years - I'm not a fan of Dieter - as you know, but I just think on the budgets we are talking about a national opera company will be walking on one leg from the start. The objectives will not be achieveable so why set something up which is going to under achieve from day one.

The idea of inviting the likes of SO, WNO or ON to add an Irish element to their tour and we can subvent them might be quite appealing - to these companies - it may help them in difficult times to underwrite one or two productions, and it will deliver a good reliable mainstream operatic experience to Belfast Dublin and potentially Cork/Wexford twice a year.

The answer to your question is a bit of both - yes poor direction in the past few years and definitely yes I don't think the formula will work - cos the money won't be there to allow it to work.

for what its worth this is my four point propsal to deliver opera (I have excluded the specialist niche of Wexford) on a mainstream basis in Ireland (on the current level of spend):

My assumption is there will be no increase in funding for opera in Ireland – which is why the grand plan for one company the INO will not work


1) Disband OI – Not well managed, debt ridden, creatively bankrupt, to management laden, to much a Dublin 4 emphasis – they are not national and to be fair cannot deliver what they are asked within budget, and really this is the key point they under achieve because they can't achieve what they want to do.


2) Take the 2.45 million given to opera in Ireland and do not ask for an increase from Government (you won’t get it anyway – so be realistic)

3) Double the grant to OTC to 1.3 million and revise their brief to deliver two (possibly three) operas per annum on the scale they do now taken on tour to minimum eight destinations with equal geographic spread around Ireland but allow two or three within the Dublin region (eg Helix, Bray, Peacock, Tallaght, etc – we have enough venues in the Greater Dublin area) and to include Wexford, Cork, Galway, Sligo as the anchor tour venues. Start to build an audience from the anchor tour venues as a loyal subscription audience – like the regional UK companies do. Open Negotiations to include the North if we can bring NI Arts council back on board, they dropped out of supporting OTC due to the decision by Minister Cullen. This was a disaster – A performing arts company had forged excellent relationships with the NIAC and what did we do – Pull the rug from under them!

OTC to actively seek a big branded corporate sponsor of Irelands National Touring Opera Company. Any problems with the Aviva Opera Touring Company (if they give you half a million a year)? If Lansdowne Road and the IRFU can sell off a name why not an Opera Company? There are plenty of good quality companies that may want to be associated with such a venture. Tie in a deal for a minimum of five years with the corporate sponsor.

OTC to Continue with all the other good work they have done – like the youth and education programme and innovations such as Fidelio in Kilmainham etc. OTC would also take on responsibility to market the Met Opera Series – as long as there is a revenue stream in it for OTC. All marketing information from OI to become the property of OTC. Maintain current management of OTC. Fiscal stability to be maintained and philosophy of company to remain.

4) For Large scale “grand” Opera – no need for a national opera company, can't afford it, so contract out this service to Scottish Opera and Welsh National or Opera North. Take the 1.15 million left over from the Opera Pot of 2.45 million and use this to contract out Grand Opera. I call this the "Coat Tailing policy"

Subvent one Irish Spring tour of say Scottish Opera along the East Coast Axis: To bring their Spring Season to Belfast (in conjunction with NI Arts Council), Dublin (Grand Canal Theatre) and Wexford Opera House and or cork. I am not asking you to bring Grand Opera to the West.

Subvent an Autumn/late Winter tour (not to clash with Wexford Festival), hopefully WNO to come to Dublin only at the Grand Canal Theatre to bring what they can for a period of say 5 nights. Big theatre – will fill up for WNO.

I think this model would deliver a suitable operatic “product” for Ireland

I remain pessimistic, both in the current fiscal climate and very dismayed at the crazy decision to wind up OTC. Sheer bloody lunacy in my mind!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyEtkMWmFL4

La Stupenda. RIP