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Opera in Ireland - general discussion thread on all things opera in Ireland
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JonnyBlackrock wrote: »That's very sad.
Later in her career her voice developed a weird kind of duck-like sound, but when she was young she was amazing.
OH f**ck you have made me laugh this afternoon! she did have a great voice though, mentioned on another thread that I only heard her once, at the very end of her career in the mid 1980s, Glasgow Royal Theatre I guess about 1987 on her prolonged farewell tour which went on for about two years - she raised the roof and I didn't hear a single quack, deffo not the peak of her career but great to have heard her sing in a theatre and not a bit of amplification needed!
Anyone booked for Tosca yet and what are the preliminary soundings on Wexford?0 -
I have only just read this article and still need to take it in p- some of the points he makes are fine - but a lot of it is total drivel>Recent experience proves that if opera wants to connect with a wider audience in Ireland, it needs to forget the obsession with tuxedos and the cultivation of operatic snobbery, argues Michael Dervan
OPERA IN IRELAND is at a major crossroads. It’s a cliche, I know, but it’s true. Opera Theatre Company’s tour of Grigory Frid’s Diary of Anne Frank was its last. Opera Ireland will cease operations after its upcoming Gaiety Theatre production of Puccini’s Tosca .
Castleward Opera and the Opera Fringe Festival in Northern Ireland have already shut up shop, and the newly formed Opera Company NI has appointed Oliver Mears as its founding artistic director. Applications for the post of general director of the new Irish National Opera company (which will subsume the roles of Opera Theatre Company and Opera Ireland from next year) closed at the end of last month. Mears has announced a raft of new developments for Northern Ireland. But it’s rather scary that no one I’ve managed to speak to has any clear idea what the future will bring elsewhere in Ireland. One thing is certain – for most of next year both opera in Dublin and touring opera are going to be very thin on the ground.
The Wexford Festival has changed, too. It’s seeking to become Europe’s major outlet for work by living US composers. But that’s another day’s work that we’ll know more about when Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket , premiered in St Louis in July, hits Wexford on Sunday.
The changes that are underway are hugely challenging, but they also present new opportunities, especially when you take into account the 2,100-seat Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin, which opened last March. It’s no opera house – it’s a commercial receiving venue, with acoustic limitations that make it far from ideal for opera. But it’s got a decently proportioned and equipped stage and orchestra pit, and a range of creature comforts that the Gaiety Theatre cannot expect to rival. And Scottish Opera’s La Bohème , with Celine Byrne as Mimì, which was presented there in June, provided a lot to mull over.
Firstly, in spite of ticket prices that went up to €125, it was a popular success. And secondly, it felt like it was open to everyone, and that everyone who was there knew that. That’s never been the feeling I’ve got from either Opera Ireland or the Wexford Festival. In fact, both organisations have on a number of occasions taken me aside for firm talkings-to about the matter of wearing evening dress. I kid you not. Monkey suits are a more important part of the ethos at Wexford than they are at Glyndebourne. And rather than let me deal with the potential shame of turning up in normal clothes, sob, sob, both Wexford and Opera Ireland have chosen at different times to try and twist my arm, and make sure their proprieties were observed.
You may have wondered why the outcry about the demise of OTC has been so much greater than any mourning for Opera Ireland. Well, OTC, of course, has toured the length and breadth of the land, and brought opera to communities where it’s never been seen before. I, for one, had never expected to find myself in Carrigallen for the opening night of a new production of Tom Johnson’s witty, minimalist classic, The Four-Note Opera back in 1998. And OTC has also concentrated on opera in English translation. Opera Ireland was late in introducing supertitles, and Wexford dug itself into an ideological stronghold about them, before caving in and discovering that their audiences loved them. OTC has also distinguished itself by eschewing the kind of operatic snobbery that Wexford and Opera Ireland have so assiduously continued to cultivate.
By curious coincidence, it was in the same year that I saw The Four-Note Opera in Carrigallen that I went to Scottish Opera’s Tristan und Isolde in Glasgow. Wagner’s Tristan is such a long work – four hours of music – that it has to begin early, 5pm in Glasgow, if I remember correctly. There wasn’t a dress suit in sight. And when it came to interval time, quite a number of opera-goers sat around the place eating the sandwiches they had prepared in advance. Glyndebourne may have a reputation for snobbery, and, yes, I did see people who seemed to have brought their butlers with them for their picnics in the long interval. But I also saw people carrying Marks & Spencer bags from their cars to the lawns, and a far higher proportion of everyday attire than I’ve ever seen at Wexford. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not against anyone dressing up if they want to, I just don’t think it should be imposed.
The Bohème at the Grand Canal Theatre in June was like a breath of fresh air blown as a message to the stuffy end of the world of opera in Ireland. Old hands have remarked to me how it clearly reached out to an audience that doesn’t – or won’t? – go to Opera Ireland or to Wexford. After all, opera is historically a popular artform. It’s not for nothing that it was a sliver of opera, Puccini’s Nessun dorma , that became the anthem of the 1990 World Cup. And it’s no accident either, that in Vienna’s world-renowned Staatsoper, the ticket prices start at €3. Yes, that’s not a misprint – €3. Sure, for that price you have to stand. The Staatsoper has 567 standing places, each with its own multilingual display of what’s being sung, along with 1,709 seats. It’s a totally non-Irish approach to accessibility.
Whenever opera with a popular slant has been presented in Dublin, there’s been an audience willing to try it out. When Aida was presented at the O2 last December, by an Italian company nobody had ever heard of, there was an audience for it, and one that became very vocal about the shortcomings of the production. When the same work was done for two nights at the same venue, then known as the Point, in 1994, it sold out.
Further back, in 1991, the year Dublin was European City of Culture, I was able to begin my wrap-up of the year with some astonishing statistics: “1991 was a remarkable year for opera in Ireland,” I wrote. “There were 71 nights of full-scale opera, 43 nights of opera with a reduced orchestra or piano, eight nights of original chamber opera, and a concert performance of Balfe’s Bohemian Girl . In fact, it seems that in 1991 professional opera performances easily outnumbered professional piano recitals.”
The year’s operatic offerings had included six nights of the Sofia National Opera at the Simmonscourt RDS with seating for 6,500, and five nights by Glyndebourne Touring Opera at the Point. Even though they didn’t sell out, these two companies more than doubled Dublin’s attendances at opera over the previous year. 1991 also saw the Wexford Festival extend its offerings by 20 per cent, to achieve for the first time a run of 18 nights of opera in a row. Luciano Pavarotti (grossing about €900,000 for one night) and Plácido Domingo also gave arena-style concerts that year. Even in those pre-Celtic Tiger days, people were clearly prepared to put their hands in their pockets for opera and its stars.
I have no idea where opera in Ireland is actually headed at the moment. Responsibility for its future in Dublin has shifted from the Arts Council to the Department of Culture under Mary Hanafin. That seems to me to be no bad thing. The Arts Council had set its heart on creating a national opera company to be based in Wexford. This would have been about as sensible as most of the rest of the governmental decentralisation that’s taken place, except that the council somehow expected to make cost-savings in the process.
The Arts Council strategy was devised in the face of impending government cutbacks. But difficult times have been no barrier to the development of opera in the past. All of our existing major companies came into being in straitened times; Opera Ireland, originally the Dublin Grand Opera Society, in the war-torn world of 1941; the Wexford Festival during the post-war rationing of 1951; and Opera Theatre Company in 1986, a time of high emigration and a major property slump.
It was Hanafin’s opera-loving predecessor, Martin Cullen, who upset the Arts Council’s apple cart, and set in train the process that’s led to the demise of OTC and OI, and the creation of a new company. It’s not yet clear that Hanafin has fully taken on board the nature of the issues involved. But I did see her at the opening night of Bohème at the Grand Canal Theatre.
And opera lovers can but hope that she picked up the many positive messages of that particular occasion. She certainly can’t help but relate them to the priority the government is attaching to cultural tourism and the compelling case that was so strongly made at the Farmleigh economic forum last year about the importance of investment in the arts. A real national opera company would be a major employer. And the evidence is that when the right opportunities have presented themselves – or at least apparently attractive ones, such as last year’s Aida – the wider public’s appetite for opera has proved to be very real indeed.
I've not got time yet to go through this article but anyone else with views?0 -
Indeed bits of it are drivel, but some of it is interesting, especially the bits about dressing up. Dressing up for OI? That's like putting on a dinner jacket and eating scrambled eggs. If they expect the audience to wear fancy clothes then they should supply something that's worthy of them. I've been to the opera a few times in Berlin in the depths of winter, and on all occasions I was wearing an Aran sweater and jeans, and I was definitely one of the better dressed people in the audience. At least my jeans didn't have huge gashes in them!0
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Johnny indeed I think he has lost the plot on this article in my 32 years of adult opera going I have never felt obligate to dress up like a ponce. To me going to the opera is merely a night at the theatre, I wouldn't intentionally go scruffy but "standard" every day clothes do the job. Yes I have worn black tie at Wexford but increasingly not so in the past few years, and have often gone to Glynedbourne with a shirt and tie, which would be complete over dress for WNO, SO ON or indeed for OI. I think by focussing on this issue MD has trivialised the important issue about the state of opera in Ireland. I must drop a line to the IT and see if they publish it.0
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Johnny indeed I think he has lost the plot on this article in my 32 years of adult opera going I have never felt obligate to dress up like a ponce. To me going to the opera is merely a night at the theatre, I wouldn't intentionally go scruffy but "standard" every day clothes do the job. Yes I have worn black tie at Wexford but increasingly not so in the past few years, and have often gone to Glynedbourne with a shirt and tie, which would be complete over dress for WNO, SO ON or indeed for OI. I think by focussing on this issue MD has trivialised the important issue about the state of opera in Ireland. I must drop a line to the IT and see if they publish it.
Are you not misreading MD on the dress issue? Or am I ? I read him to be levelling fair criticism at both organisations pushing him to wear black tie, which he was, rightly in my view, citing as an example of the misguided efforts to preserve Opera as an elitist entertainment in Ireland.
I have been in most of the top opera houses in Europe, and while I have not removed a tie if I had it on for work that day, I have certainly never put one one because I was going to an opera.
Do your bit for opera this Autumn - leave your tux at home when you go to Wexford.0 -
Are you not misreading MD on the dress issue? Or am I ? I read him to be levelling fair criticism at both organisations pushing him to wear black tie, which he was, rightly in my view, citing as an example of the misguided efforts to preserve Opera as an elitist entertainment in Ireland.
I have been in most of the top opera houses in Europe, and while I have not removed a tie if I had it on for work that day, I have certainly never put one one because I was going to an opera.
Do your bit for opera this Autumn - leave your tux at home when you go to Wexford.
Yes, he did seem critical of the "obligation" to dress up for the opera. Well, I for one have never worn a tux in Wexford for the simple reason that I don't actually own one. A suit and tie are fine for me.0 -
Are you not misreading MD on the dress issue? Or am I ? I read him to be levelling fair criticism at both organisations pushing him to wear black tie, which he was, rightly in my view, citing as an example of the misguided efforts to preserve Opera as an elitist entertainment in Ireland.
I have been in most of the top opera houses in Europe, and while I have not removed a tie if I had it on for work that day, I have certainly never put one one because I was going to an opera.
Do your bit for opera this Autumn - leave your tux at home when you go to Wexford.
Sandwich I just think there are bigger issues, and actually I think he has misread the situation - anytime I have been to the Gaiety to see OI I have not actually seen anyone in black tie, as for weford I wear a jacket and dress tie - but only when I can find the dam thing, last time I couldn't so just put a shirt and tie on - and didn't feel underdressed and didn't get approached by anyone I don't have much call for evening dress in my life and on the very odd occassion when I do wear it the dicky bow tends to get lost. I woudl feel perfectly comfortable at Wexford in a shirt jumper and trousers - just like you I have been to most of the top opera houses in europe - and really just worn what I wanted or had with me on my travels - I think MD didn't focus on the real issue - which is lack of funding for opera - by presenting this opera is elitist angle - he actually made opera feel elitist - it isn't, its an artform for everyone to enjoy, and actually Wexford has made more tickets available this year at decent prices than ever before and is trying its best to open the festival out to all, MD should have focussed on this positive side of Wexford. Re OTC he said OTC are getting support because they are less elitist sing opera in English and tour etc - this is all well and good - but the real reason OTC have got so much support is their standards are so hihg -- the reason OI has received little vocal support in the press is the precise opposite, the past few years standards have slipped having said that they are up against it because of the big issue - Lack of funding.
The biggest crime in an opera house isn't about wearing a black tie - its about whether yo bring in sweets with noisy papers to unwrap.0 -
Feels strange to be defending a MD article but maybe that is because he isnt actually reviewing any music in this one!
Nevertheless. He seems to be making the case that there an audience for opera in Ireland - eg, big events in the past in similarly or even more money strapped times, or more recently the Aida (fiasco) or the Boheme visit to GTC. But that neither Wexford Festival nor OI seemed to have any interest in tapping into, or expanding this audience, but prefering instead an elitist cosy club of fellow afficionados (surtitles, dress codes, language etc. are trivial things in the greater picture but are crucial to perception of the art by the wider public). OTC did try an alternative approach - and achieved more than OI, trying to increase audiences, developping regional supporters (though my own thought as previously stated is that the yield from their efforts is unfortunately negligible), and offered a good artistic standard. Hence the disappointment at their demise outdoing any comment on the passing of OI.
If I summarise him correctly, I agree with most of it. And would add my own thought, that it is the strategy of all involved that has led to a minimal interest in opera in Ireland, and their own straightened funding situation is very much their own doing rather than simply nasty politicians unwilling to release the purse strings.0 -
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But that neither Wexford Festival nor OI seemed to have any interest in tapping into, or expanding this audience, but prefering instead an elitist cosy club of fellow afficionados .
I think he is being really unfair about Wexford, they have made real efforts to make the festival more accessible since the new opera house has opened - the waiting list for friends went, they have tickets at variable prices, they have a good website, they engage in text and email marketing, they have the mini-operas etc, in fact they have made stirling efforts to improve communication with the great unwashed. In the same way that Glyndebourne became a better marketed opera company with the new opera house,and far more accessible - the new house has meant a new direction for Wexford - it has released the festival to far more people and they have much bigger audiences now - that consist of far more ordinary opera goers than the protected "we can get tickets, Friends cosy club" - exactly the same happened at Glydnebourne. An Opera Festival in many ways is a bit specialist anyway and perhaps is not the route to build a mainstream opera following. OI on the other hand has not really moved with the times - which is why they need a dam good shake up - but at the cost of getting rid of OTC is a disgrace. His editor gave him a lot of space for this article and I think he messed up because he lost his way writing it, the point about Tristan and people eating M&S sandwiches was so irrelevant - opera goers have been taking picnics to Wagner for donkeys years - you would think he had seen something new - Sure I saw the same level of Picnicking at the UCH in Limerick for the concert ring cycle there several years ago. and not a black tie in sight. I don't know - I just think MD lost an opportunity in this article to map out a vision for opera in ireland instead of moaning about something quite irrelevant.0 -
I am going monday night for Virginia - any news on anything so far? I heard some good things about the golden ticket but not read anything good about it! Glad I body swerved it from I have read0
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I'm going to Wexford this weekend. I'm going to Virginia on Friday night, and then The Kiss on Sunday, and maybe the Prague Chamber Choir on Monday morning.0
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Got back from Wexford yesterday.
Haven't got time to write much now, but will just say that it is a fantastic festival this year, the best one in years.
Will write some more tomorrow.0 -
Jonny I am the same on time at the moment - onluy got to see Virginia thought it was right up Wexfords Street in terms of repertoire choice aand they did a first class job with it. Will write more later.0
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I have a few minutes now, so here goes:
I saw Virginia on Friday and enjoyed every minute. The music is kind of proto-Verdi - Mercadante was 15 years older than Verdi, and I don't think his music in inferior. His ability to create moods, passion and drama is first class. The only place where he is inferior to Verdi is in terms of structure. Endless successions of recitative-aria-short recitative when messenger bursts in with news-fast cabaletta, and this gets a bit tiring after a while, but I'm sure most of the audience didn't notice. Angela Meade was fantastic in the title role, and the two tenors were also excellent - their devastating duet was spellbinding (can't think of another example of a duet for 2 tenors). It lasted 3 and a half hours and could have been a long bore, but the whole thing was over in a flash. Even the production jump from antiquity to the modern era seemed to work.
The Smetana was perfection. Fantastic production, no gimicks, beautiful and colourful, only one production value - to present the (very silly) story in as clear a way as possible. In fact, the production was so good it even managed to make us forget how stupid the story was. No weak links in the cast. 10 out of 10.
Heard the Prague Chamber Choir on Monday. Sublime as ever. It is miraculous how they perform such complex a-capella works so effortlessly.
As I said before, this is the best festival they've had in Wexford for years, perhaps ever.0 -
Thanks Jonny I think the Virginia drew more on donizetti and Bellini than Verdi, however before writing a piece on virginia - the good news tha slipped slowly under the radar last week was the answer in a Dail Question when Mary hanafin announced that OTC will in fact get a reprieve for one year and still be offering opera next year before INO comes into being - of course as we all know INO is a pipe dream - this decision is a the polite way of side stepping the whole issue. It's the right decision what we need to be asking is the 2.45 million spent on opera ireland and OTC (650k) last year now going to be cut back to just the 650k that was spent on OTC last year. Me thinks this whol INO thing might just be a ruse to cut back spending even further.0
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JonnyBlackrock wrote: »I Angela Meade was fantastic in the title role, and the two tenors were also excellent - their devastating duet was spellbinding (can't think of another example of a duet for 2 tenors). .
Jonny yes I can see your point about early Verdi, as for the duet between the two tenors - absolutely fantastic scene. Normally this kind of male rivalry would be tenor versus baritone, I like you can't come up with an immediate example of two tenors being placed opposite each other like this - which in this ego driven artform might be one of the reasons the opera is difficult to cast, tenors do not like to sing in competition on the same stage! Angela Meade was indeed very good.0 -
in a Dail Question when Mary hanafin announced that OTC will in fact get a reprieve for one year and still be offering opera next year before INO comes into being
Well spotted westtip. Your radar is good. Led me to :
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/News/Current/Opera-Theatre-Company-reprieve.aspx
A Don Pasquale to look forward to so. The cynic in me wonders is this just a way of defering funding INO and by giving OTC a half a million, the govt save a couple of million for a year while avoiding acusations of no funding for Irish opera in 2011. Still better OTC than OI I guess.
Wexford. I always feel I need to preface any Wexford opions with a standard preamble : it is rare/unknown repertoire, so you have to accept that much of what is offered may well be neglected for a good reason. So you cannot judge the overall entertainment with the same criteria that you would the traditional masterpieces of opera. But that is the very bargain you make in Wexford - put on a good production of something I dont know - I am here to extend my horizons, even it greatness is not guaranteed.
I saw Hubicka and Virginia.
Hubicka plot is based on such a slight device that it is really not worthy of comment. But I dont really go to opera for the drama, so it didnt put me out particularly. The music was well worth hearing though - the best of it in the orchestral parts rather than the voices for me.
The simple staging was OK - no real point in trying to make too much of something so inconsequential and so it was well judged. Pumeza Matshikiza was the pick of the voices which in general were good. Better was the choir, and better still the festival orchestra who were top notch this year. Overall, fine entertainment.
Virginia entertained me even more. The music of the first act was a bit mundane. But it improved after that - the choral work in the dramatic second act was very good, and the music in in the third act best of all. Staging was very nice and I liked the updated setting. Again both choir and orchestra were best. All voices were plenty good, but no standouts. Heard various good views of Angela Meade (including this thread, above!), but while I wouldnt fault her at all, did not catch the my ear especially though.
Chose not to see The Golden Ticket. It is just not Wexford material. I hope it has not sold its soul.
Just one man's opinions.
Would have liked to get to the shortwork performance of La Serva Padrona but couldnt manage to - I like it a lot and recommend it to any of you unfamiliar with it.
Other news : a long way away, but dates confirmed for ETO visit to Belfast next spring :
- Il Tabarro/Gianni Schicchi on 26 and 27 may
- La Clemenza di Tito on 28 May.0 -
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Well spotted westtip. Your radar is good. Led me to :
http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/News/Current/Opera-Theatre-Company-reprieve.aspx
A Don Pasquale to look forward to so. The cynic in me wonders is this just a way of defering funding INO and by giving OTC a half a million, the govt save a couple of million for a year while avoiding acusations of no funding for Irish opera in 2011. Still better OTC than OI I guess.
Other news : a long way away, but dates confirmed for OTC visit to Belfast next spring :
- Il Tabarro/Gianni Schicchi on 26 and 27 may
- La Clemenza di Tito on 28 May.
That is indeed good news about OTC plans for next year and reinforces all the points that have been made about OTC. Picking up on Mary Hanafins comments again here is what she said in the Dail:
The Minister also statedThe Government remains committed to that ambition.” (creating Irish National Opera) “Meanwhile, Opera Theatre Company will continue to produce opera in 2011 and will be funded to do so by the Arts Council. This has been agreed between the interim board, my Department and the Arts Council.”
To achieve the objective of a National Opera Company, considerably more than the combined grant of 2.45 million previously given to Opera Ireland and Opera Theatre Company will be needed for this company to perform to its brief. An increase in spend on Opera is now highly unlikely.“As previously announced, Opera Ireland will be wound down after its autumn season, as its business model for opera provision is no longer sustainable in the current fiscal and arts funding environment. However, there will be public provision for opera in 2011.”
The minister also added “
- This was a pivotal statement as it does not actually mention the words Irish National Opera Company. As ever with statements by politicians carefully chosen words need to be examined carefully. Personally I would not be rushing to submit my CV in for a job at INO.To this end, my Department and the Arts Council will continue to engage the interim board with a view to achieving a sustainable model for medium to long term opera provision in Ireland.”
I think Mary H is basically reversing the decision of Martin EVoting Cullen and trying to unravel the embarrassing mess he created in his kneejerk announcement about a National Opera Company which cannot be delivered. The big question really is what is a sustainable model? Clealy the Opera Ireland model was not a sustainable model, and you would suspect that INO was going to deliver the same. I have my own thougts whcih I have already sent to Mary Hanafin. Lets see what the next announcement is.0 -
Sorry, typo correction. It is ETO in Belfast next May, not OTC.0
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Still interesting stuff - whats your take on the OTC reprieval for a year?
I dont read too much into it. My best guess is a combination of :
- a realisation that the practicalities of merging the two companies would lead to no domestic production being staged for a lengthy period
- not a great climate for politicians to be highlighting the money being allocated to an 'elitist' minority artform for Dublin 4 barristers and surgeons. Potential headlines if the media latched onto it in the wrong way could be bad for a ministers health.
- a temporary reprieve for OTC is : a cheap way to avoid criticism of allocating no money to opera, a means to saving money overall for 2011, buying some kudos for having listenened to the supporters of OTC, and, there will probably be another minister in the office when the real business of the restructure comes about so no need deal with somthing with so little political return in it.
BTW, meant to mention in my post on Wexford: applause for the man at Hubicka wearing jeans and a teeshirt.0 -
You are probably right on all counts, I don't actually believe canvassing this government on anything is worth it now - I believe most ministers are clearing out their bottom draws in the office and getting the paper clips in nice neat rows for the next incumbents - although you never know with the Houdini like nature of FF. I don't think we will see the new national opera company emerge from the ashes of this unholy mess we are in and my fear is the money that could have been spent so wisely on delivering opera (ie the money that used to go to OI) will now be swalloed up as a "saving" to get us out of the this self created hole. don't want to get poitical but you get the drift of what I am saying.0
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Tough opera times all over:
"Negotiations underway for part-time orchestra at Scottish Opera
9 September 2010, [Originally posted on 31 August]
Scottish Opera may be planning to halve the working hours and salaries of its orchestra, a report in Glasgow’s The Herald revealed last week.
According to the report, “The management of the opera company, led by general director Alex Reedijk, believe the expense of a full-time orchestra cannot be sustained.”
The alleged proposal to put all 54 orchestra members on part-time contracts for 26 weeks’ work per year has been met with “anger, concern and dismay” by the musicians.
They have responded by writing an internal letter to the company’s board members stating that “We are the last remaining performing artists on full-time contracts, and if we were to continue in the direction that these proposals take us, Scottish Opera would no longer be a performing arts company at all, merely an administration, and indeed would no longer be a ‘national’ company worthy of the name.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Scottish Opera has told Opera Now that “we are currently in negotiations with the players representatives and the Musician's Union about new employment contracts and do not have anything further to add.”
The orchestra of Scottish Opera is due to celebrate its 30th birthday this year, having survived a previous financial restructuring of the company in 2004 that led to the loss of nearly 100 jobs, including all 34 members of the Opera’s chorus."
Is there any clear info of how INO is going to be structured and what it will deliver ? Or is that what they are spending 2011 figuring out ? Westtip, did you ever get a proper reply to your letter to our minister ?
Anyone know if the OI Tosca is worth a visit? Even if just to say goodbye?0 -
Sandwich indeed interesting - if this is happening to an established company such as Scottish Opera with the whole ethos of cut cut cut now in the airwaves across Europe, I restate my view - INO is dead in the water before it starts and they should abandon the project now.
Perhaps our Arts Minister, the arts minister in NI and the Scottish assembly arts minister should get together a Scottish/Irish JV opera comapny - why not in these troubled times.
Re Tosca if its the production they put out about 6 years ago then no its not worth going to, but to support the dying embers of opera in ireland it may be worth supporting OI in their final leap of death over the castle walls. I am going to try and get there.0 -
I'm not going to bother with Tosca, even though I know Orla Boylan is pretty good. I wasted my money on two dire OI "productions". Never again.0
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JonnyBlackrock wrote: »I wasted my money on two dire OI "productions". Never again.
At least the demise of OI will mean we won;t have to suffer anymore dieter kaegi productions -m lets be thankful for small mercies.0 -
Is the English opera Riders to the sea (based on the JM Synge play) any good?0
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Here's Michael Dervan's review of OI's Tosca from today's Irish Times:
Tosca
MICHAEL DERVAN
Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
IT WOULD be wonderful to report that Opera Ireland ended its 69-year history in a blaze of glory. However, the new production of Puccini’s Tosca directed by Jakob Peters-Messer, with sets by Markus Meyer and costumes by Sven Bindsell, and Gianluca Martinenghi conducting the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, makes that impossible.
The church setting of the first act is awkward. A none too large room squats in the middle of the stage, with Cavaradossi’s painting covering both walls and ceiling. The woman in the painting is dark-haired, but Tosca still refers to her as blonde.
There’s open access to the Attavanti chapel where the escaped prisoner Angelotti has to hide, but he still has to find a key to get through the door in the wall of the room. Scarpia later walks freely through that open space, even though the Sacristan has protested that a key to the clearly redundant door is necessary.
There’s no desk in Scarpia’s apartment in Act II, only chairs, lots of them, which are used to express violence in various ways and also as resting places for food, drink, and writing paper. And the twist in Act III is that the back of the stage has footlights pointed into the auditorium, and the chorus assembles at the far side of them, dressed as a theatre audience. Tosca retreats from the lights, and freezes in front of where the curtain will drop to suggest she’s about to jump into the orchestra pit. Okay. There’s probably some point being made about all the world being a stage in Act II. But the production is a rather sorry affair.This wouldn’t matter so much if the musical end of the evening were better.
But there’s a tenor Marcelo Puente’s Cavaradossi, who seems to be stuck at full volume, to the point where you would fear for the future of his voice. And there’s a bass Dimitri Platanias’s Scarpia, who begins more impressively in the same mode, but loses steam in the face of the sound volume that Martinenghi delivers from the pit.
It’s actually Martinenghi, not Scarpia, who’s the real villain of this piece. He’s one of those conductors who seems unwilling to accommodate singers, either in terms of orchestral balances or the shaping of musical line.
The singer who suffered most was Orla Boylan, whose Tosca is appropriately jealous, flirtatious and protective with Cavaradossi, and defiant with Scarpia.
She’s got a genuine vocal heft no one else in the cast can match, but all too often her attempts to broaden a tempo for vocal inflection were stymied by the rigidity of the conducting.
The audience liked the the edge-of-the-seat effects, and gave the principals a rousing reception.
Runs until Sunday 21st
I don't exactly take everything he says as gospel, but I think I'll save my hard earned money for better things.0 -
I went to Tosca on Saturday.
Despite the comments below, 1) I enjoyed it, 2) some live opera is better than none.
However:
- Dervan's criticisms are generally on the money. Dramatically it was a non event. Tough enough to do with such a melodrama as Tosca. The cast made a reasonable effort to act, but the failure of the stage concept (if there was one) meant that overall it really didnt add anything much above a concert performance.
- Tosca and Cavaradossi voices did the job but had no charm. Scarpia's voice was well suited to the role and quite OK.
- The orchestra played well, the only problem, not their fault, being the mad acoustic of the Gaiety.
But, to reiterate, this is Ireland. Operatic beggars can't be choosers.0 -
But, to reiterate, this is Ireland. Operatic beggars can't be choosers.
I don't agree with that.
Rather than go to some third rate excuse of a thing, I'd much rather a) stay at home and save my money, b) listen to top rate recordings and make up imaginary productions in my head, and c) save up and go to see something decent in another country.0 -
JonnyBlackrock wrote: »I don't agree with that.
Rather than go to some third rate excuse of a thing, I'd much rather a) stay at home and save my money, b) listen to top rate recordings and make up imaginary productions in my head, and c) save up and go to see something decent in another country.
Jonny I went to see Tosca - Michael D is pretty much spot on - its not a good production. I only went to give final support to OI, got the cheapest seat possible, I have seen Tosca more times than I care to remember - including some really great historic performances of the past 30 years.Domingo, Pavorottti, etc and some wonderful productions by Scottish, Welsh and indeed Opera North. This production is 4th Division stuff. Re seeing stuff in another country - its the same price for me to travel to Glasgow, Cardiff or London from the West of Ireland - so missing out on the home spun stuff at the Gaiety is no sad loss. OI is gone and best forgotten.0 -
Went to see it also and to say goodbye (hopefully not au revoir) to OI. Nothing to recommend it. Hard to know what it was trying to achieve and 4th rate is about right. Voices just about got the job done but were in no way winning. All were very one dimensional with little character. Crowd seemed delighted though. Loads of ovating and even some standing ovaters at the end. Beats me - maybe my ears just missed the brilliance.
I do hope something gets up and running sooner rather than later to have a go and stage some opera in Ireland, and it doesnt just get permanently 'postponed' due to our economic woes. I am not looking for Royal Opera standard, but would like to see someone making an effort. Important that we have some opera on our doorstep so that it does not completely become a foreign treat.
Had a quick scan back at the OI productions over the years (surprisingly(!) none sprung to mind without prompting), and could only recognise two which I both enjoyed and though a good job had been done, Giulio Cesare in 2001, and Imeneo in 2006. Shocking how many I was at yet made no impression on me.0 -
Went to see it also and to say goodbye (hopefully not au revoir) to OI. Nothing to recommend it. Hard to know what it was trying to achieve and 4th rate is about right. Voices just about got the job done but were in no way winning. All were very one dimensional with little character. Crowd seemed delighted though. Loads of ovating and even some standing ovaters at the end. Beats me - maybe my ears just missed the brilliance.
I do hope something gets up and running sooner rather than later to have a go and stage some opera in Ireland, and it doesnt just get permanently 'postponed' due to our economic woes. I am not looking for Royal Opera standard, but would like to see someone making an effort. Important that we have some opera on our doorstep so that it does not completely become a foreign treat.
Had a quick scan back at the OI productions over the years (surprisingly(!) none sprung to mind without prompting), and could only recognise two which I both enjoyed and though a good job had been done, Giulio Cesare in 2001, and Imeneo in 2006. Shocking how many I was at yet made no impression on me.
I agree with your sentiments Sand I couldn't see what there was to cheer about - we do need some home grown opera; and like you I am not expecting standards; of the top five houses in the world; good quality regional repertory opera (Opera North, Scottish Opera a good benchmark) should be achievable, the past few years have not been good for OI, I agree about Giulio Cesare, the Orpheus (around 2004?) was pretty good, they stuck for too long with Dieter Kaegi who dragged the company into the mire in terms of production standards and intepretations, he was a complete disaster; I am sure there is a way forward but watching Primetime tonight I cannot see a new national opera company being high on the agenda.... it will be the responsibility of the next Government....0 -
Is the English opera Riders to the sea (based on the JM Synge play) any good?
It's an interesting short piece by Ralph Vaughan Williams - not everyone's cup of tea (RVW that is),
The wiki entry is here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riders_to_the_Sea_(opera)
I have only heard it once many moons ago in London, in a concert performacne and I recall being quite impressed.....but it was a long time ago! Just listened to some bits on Youtube - its made me want to see it again - I think I would go out of my way to see it - it is not performed very often - if anyone is reading from Wexford woudl be a nice idea for a double bill at the Festival! Lets say a double bill with one of Brittens short pieces, say Owen Wingrave hardly every performed....
Heres the Youtube link to riders to the Sea very mournful stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZe1EIo7NE
Its actually very beautiful having listened to it writing this post!!!!0 -
we do need some home grown opera; and like you I am not expecting standards; of the top five houses in the world; good quality regional repertory opera (Opera North, Scottish Opera a good benchmark) should be achievable
Indeed. If they can put on high quality opera in Wexford (in a very high quality theatre) on a pretty low budget, then why on earth can't they do it in Dublin??? Sad.
BTW, there was a letter in today's Irish Times on the subject of OI:
A tribute to Opera Ireland- Madam, – As the last production of Opera Ireland reaches its final performance of Tosca at the Gaiety Theatre on Sunday, I would like to pay tribute to the wonderful history of the company in providing classical opera to Dublin audiences for almost seven decades. From its beginnings as the Dublin Grand Opera Society, which bravely began life during the Emergency, to its newer incarnation as Opera Ireland, the company has, against all the odds of financial mountains-to-climb, official disinterest and lack of a dedicated lyric theatre, staged many memorable productions, from Luciano Pavarotti’s debut in Rigoletto to the European premiere of Dead Man Walking. Tosca, despite the characteristically mean-spirited review (November 15th), combines perhaps the best achievements of Opera Ireland in its modern production values and its consistent casting of Irish singers in major roles.
As a former director of Opera Ireland and a granddaughter of the great Limerick tenor and impresario Joseph O’Mara, I am saddened at the demise of a fine tradition of opera production in Ireland. In another ‘Emergency’ during the first World War, the O’Mara Opera Company staged two seasons at the Gaiety annually, offering up to six operas per season; I can only hope that the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport will not keep Dublin audiences waiting for the next “Emergency” to launch the first season of the eagerly awaited new National Opera Company . . . or has that arrived already? – Yours, etc,
EILEEN O’MARA WALSH,
Carrickmines Wood,
Dublin 18.
0 - Madam, – As the last production of Opera Ireland reaches its final performance of Tosca at the Gaiety Theatre on Sunday, I would like to pay tribute to the wonderful history of the company in providing classical opera to Dublin audiences for almost seven decades. From its beginnings as the Dublin Grand Opera Society, which bravely began life during the Emergency, to its newer incarnation as Opera Ireland, the company has, against all the odds of financial mountains-to-climb, official disinterest and lack of a dedicated lyric theatre, staged many memorable productions, from Luciano Pavarotti’s debut in Rigoletto to the European premiere of Dead Man Walking. Tosca, despite the characteristically mean-spirited review (November 15th), combines perhaps the best achievements of Opera Ireland in its modern production values and its consistent casting of Irish singers in major roles.
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Jonny, she means a fine tradition of threadbare, low quality productions, in venues unsuited to opera (RDS Library anyone?) , on a handful of nights per year to a minute opera-going public.
Different take from Michael Dervan in todays Irish Times (is it OK to copy this stuff??? Anyway, here goes).
Bottom line: artistic failure, financial failure, promotion of opera failure, survival failure. Not lot to applaud then.
As Opera Ireland prepares to take its final bow – the current production of Tosca will be its last – Michael Dervan looks at the potted history of the artform here and asks what this means for the new Irish National Opera
IMAGINE THIS. You’re asked to direct an opera on short notice and you find yourself having to argue your rehearsal time up to a grand total of 10 days in an artform where four to six weeks are the norm. But when rehearsals actually start, the lead singers simply don’t show. And your designer has difficulty getting the measurements of the heroine, who then decides to bring and wear her own costume.
This is not a fantasy. It’s what happened to director Ben Barnes and designer Wendy Shea when they worked on a Dublin Grand Opera Society production of Tosca in 1985. Barnes chose to have his name removed before the programmes were printed.
Was this the nadir of the DGOS? Or was that the dayglo Turandot produced and designed by Dario Micheli in December 1986, the last gasp of the old-style DGOS before Michael McCaffery became artistic director in 1987? Could it have been the unseemly quick despatch of McCaffery’s successor Kenneth Richardson in 1991? Or perhaps it was Dieter Kaegi’s 2001 Don Carlos which the Times in London lampooned in the headline “Carry on, Carlos,” with a strap that ran “Did you know that Don Carlos is a rollicking farce? Neither did our correspondent” (the redoubtable Rodney Milnes).
In my opera-going lifetime it’s always been easy to have a go at Opera Ireland and its predecessors, the awkwardly-named DGOS/Opera Ireland, and the DGOS pure and simple. The reason is not hard to find. The DGOS was founded in 1941, and its glory days were well before my time, from the late 1940s to the 1960s.
In the early years, the DGOS hosted visits by leading European companies. The casts were mouth-watering. And later it had subvention from the Italian government for a focus on Italian opera, and Pavarotti sang in Dublin before he was heard in London.
But things got so bad that in 1983 the Arts Council’s annual report (not usually a forum for dressing down clients) voiced concern “at the production and design standards achieved by the Society and early in 1983 [the council] stipulated that it should engage a separate designer and producer for each production and should increase expenditure on sets, costume and design.”
Things improved once Michael McCaffery was installed. When I first reported on the company’s work for the British magazine Opera Now in 1991, I wrote, “The high spots of recent years included a thought-provoking Pêcheurs de Perles directed by Mike Ashman in 1987, an inventive, La Dolce Vita -style, updating of Don Giovanni from Patrick Mason in 1988, and a gripping Dublin premiere of Peter Grimes directed by Tim Hopkins in 1990. There has been singing of note, too. Nuccia Focile’s vocally enchanting Norina in a 1987 Don Pasquale , Virginia Kerr’s rivetting Léïla in Pêcheurs de Perles and a thrilling Cavaradossi from Maurizio Saltarin in a 1990 Tosca immediately spring to mind.”
And when Dieter Kaegi became artistic director in 1997 he put Irish opera lovers in his debt by mounting productions of a swathe of repertoire that was new to the company: Boris Godunov , Salome (both 1999), Katya Kabanova , Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2000), Handel’s Giulio Cesare , Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie (2001), Handel’s Imeneo (2005), André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire (2006), Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (2007), Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (2008), Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa (2009), as well as Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi in concert performances.
SO WHY HAS OPERA IRELAND long been the victim of so much flak? Well, in the Kaegi years, standards have been extraordinarily variable. For a company producing two seasons a year with two operas in each season, that meant that a single dud effectively created a season failure rate of 50 per cent.
The variability made it virtually impossible for the company to put together a string of successes. And on top of that, going back to the 1980s, the company had a series of most appalling of financial woes. It limped from crisis to crisis, burdened by deficits. And its situation was compounded by an Arts Council which welched on successive endeavours to put opera funding on a more realistic footing.
In a way, however, all of these issues are peripheral.
The biggest issue has been that Opera Ireland has never really sustained a persuasive sense of direction. Backing A Streetcar Named Desire and Dead Man Walking was a real comedown from Boris Godunov and Salome . (To be fair to Kaegi, the company never yielded to his wish to stage an even greater work, Berg’s Wozzeck .) And, with output stuck in a rut of 18 performances a year (when crises weren’t causing cutbacks) the company was presenting only a fraction of what it used to manage.
The drop is staggering. 1960-69 saw 370 nights of opera, with 98 productions. 2000-2009 brought 166 nights, with 34 productions and three works given in concert performances. Imagine what we would think if the 21st-century services of Aer Lingus or RTÉ, were less than half their levels of the 1960s.
Mention of Aer Lingus and RTÉ brings us to the nub of the problem, as they both have a history of being national providers. Opera Ireland in its various incarnations seemed the natural body to bring this country the kind of permanent, year-round, national opera company that even the poorest of European nations manage to support. Sadly, this was never to happen, and the company never showed a coherent ambition to develop in that direction.
Countries such as Finland and Norway had thriving national companies in spite of sharing Ireland’s lack of a national opera house (a deficiency remedied in Helsinki in 1993 and Oslo in 2008). Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera were founded later than the DGOS (1946 and 1962, respectively), yet both managed to become fully-fledged national opera providers.
Even Íslenska óperan in Iceland, serving a population of 308,000, managed to send out a psychologically important message by giving native singers annual contracts, a signal of intent that has never been seen here.
Again, the Arts Council didn’t help matters. Back in 1998 when the council engaged in a series of public consultations about its second-ever arts plan, I attended a session on opera held in Malahide. No one from the council even mentioned the idea of a national company, nor did any representative from Opera Ireland do so. The council set up committee after committee, and, even when it agreed to increase the funding, it never reached its own targets.
The council may well have seen the vagaries of Opera Ireland as a valid excuse. Opera Ireland may well have felt defeated in the face of the council’s effective sidelining of opera. Either way, if you’ll forgive the cliche, we are where we are. For all its successes, Opera Ireland has failed. And what about the new Irish National Opera that Martin Cullen brought into being and that Mary Hanafin has so obviously been stalling over? Well. Let’s try the hardest thing of all in the current climate.
Let’s try to be optimists.0 -
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MD does go on a bit - I can't understand why he has to mention Martin Cullen at the end of the article - Cullen simply signed off on something he couldn't deliver and left office - not his fault for leaving office i know - but whatever emerges will not be his legacy to opera in ireland. The trouble with MD he doesn't actually contribute to the debate by saying this is what I would like to see, in this article he has just rambled on about performances he has reviewed probably having never paid for a ticket in his life. The post further up about the orchestra of Scottish opera says more about the future of opera in ireland than MD does - the truth is the total spend on opera in ireland is not going to be increased - and to deliver an Irish National Opera Company it will have to be. I don't feel there is any cause for optimism0
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I am new to this site and I thought I would introduce myself , I am a classical music lover , but particularly an opera lover. I have been reading the previous posts just to get a feel for things . It is all doom and gloom ! Cheer up , at let we can put a great cd on and tune out the cares of the world.
In response to previous posts here is a couple of points (opinions)
- we can afford a full time opera compny.
- we dont have one because dont want one
- we dont want one because we are not cultured enough to appreciate
the lack of one.
- I never noticed formal attire at OI productions.Wexford yes Dublin no.
- I have no problem with Wexford and Glyndebourne being formal and
I dont think people are intimadated any longer by such things. Most
just get into the swing of things and enjoy the day out
Finally a few words of advice as we stand here ''sola,perduta, abbandonatta in landa desolata... let us take the Rheingold and avoid our very own Gotterdamerung and thereafter ''Nessun dorma'' until we have voted out the Forza del Destino and in the last analysis always remember
Tutto nel mondo e burla.
L'uoum e nato burlone.
Nel suo cervello
Ciurla sempre la sua ragione.
Tutti gabbati ! Irride
L'un L'altro ogno mortal.
ma ride ben chi ride
La risata final.0 -
Welcome marienbad.
We will continue to put on a great cd. The doom and gloom is for live opera performance in Ireland - there is a 'being there' magic than cannot be matched by cd or DVD. And despite the current woes, Ireland is still a far more affluent country than years ago - yet our ability to sustain live opera seems to be going backwards.
L'opera in Irlanda e burla.
L'Irlandese e nato burlone.
Nel suo cervello
Ciurla sempre la sua ragione.
Gabbati dai politici ! Irride
L'un L'altro ogni mortal.
I politici e banchieri
hanno la risata finale.0 -
Welcome marienbad.
We will continue to put on a great cd. The doom and gloom is for live opera performance in Ireland - there is a 'being there' magic than cannot be matched by cd or DVD. And despite the current woes, Ireland is still a far more affluent country than years ago - yet our ability to sustain live opera seems to be going backwards.
L'opera in Irlanda e burla.
L'Irlandese e nato burlone.
Nel suo cervello
Ciurla sempre la sua ragione.
Gabbati dai politici ! Irride
L'un L'altro ogni mortal.
I politici e banchieri
hanno la risata finale.
There simply is not enough interest in Ireland in having a full time opera company. It is not that we cannot afford it , it is that we are not cultured enough (in enough numbers) to be prepared to pay for it at any price.
I would surmise that except for a very dedicated and small group it is simply a cross between somewhere to be seen and a just a different kind of night out.
Anectdotal evidence would seem to indicate that classical music just dos'st rate this country and until we face that fact we will never put proper solution in place to correct that .
Some examples,
-Closure of classical music in HMV shops
- bowdlerization of Lyric fm
-poor attendance at the Met Broadcasts
-Mega sales of pseudo classical cds versus classical cds
and I could give a lot more
We are a bit like Kevin Costner in that film about baseball where the tagline was '' build it and they will come'' in that we have built these performance centres all over the country coutrtesy of the Celtic Tiger, but I am afraid no one has come and and that wont change.0 -
Marienbad hi and welcome to this forum of about --- a handful who regularly write here - says it all really about 3 or 4 opera nutters writing here.
You are right of course - which is why most of us take cheap Ryanair flights for whats left of publically subsidised opera at a reasonable price in the UK and rest of Europe.
Martin Cullen lost the operatic plot in his idea for a National Opera Company - he probably wanted to be remembered for something more than E-Voting machines; he won't be cutting the ribbon on any new national opera company that is for sure!
Sand has said it though, going to live opera beats a CD, or a cinematic broadcast (although these are to be welcomed), Its a pity OI was such a disaster, Tosca was a sad end for them - wholly forgettable.
The news in the past week really has focussed minds on other things, I think that our National Opera Company is going to be someway down the pecking order of priorities - I hope OTC get on with something good in the next year they will be on a singout for their existence.0 -
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JonnyBlackrock wrote: »I didn't even know that, but then it's been years since I last bought a CD in a shop. That's what the internet is for - lower prices and better service, and anyway the classical "departments" in the record shops in Dublin were useless.
I agree with you there, much better value on the internet, but it was handy to browse through while waiting on the opera or the NCH, the one around the corner- (Tower , is it ?) is still going as far as I know ).
As for travelling abroad , I have started going to Birmingham to catch the WNO, just back after a brilliant few days in which I saw Ariadne- Fidelio-Magic Flute. Outstanding -cheap flights , reasonable hotels and anything but cheap opera.
I went there in the Summer to Die Meistersinger with Terfel and Rigoletto with Keenlyside . The Meistersinger performance is one of the highlights on my operatic going life.
If Wales can do it , so can we , but the reality is we wont because we can't be bothered. That dawned on me a long time ago so now I dont even think too much about it.
The NCH (what a name) tells everything , we nearly spent a billion on the Bertie Bowl, 50 million on Croake Park untold millions on stadia round the country and we could'nt/would'nt build a proper concert hall not to mind an opera house.
Wales on the other hand in the same period build The Millenium Stadium (365 Million) and an opera house plus many more and they did'nt have the benefit of a ''tiger economy''. But then they care about singing as part of their heritage instead of us with our ''sur ar'nt we grand '' attitude to culture0 -
I agree with you there, much better value on the internet, but it was handy to browse through while waiting on the opera or the NCH, the one around the corner- (Tower , is it ?) is still going as far as I know ).
As for travelling abroad , I have started going to Birmingham to catch the WNO, just back after a brilliant few days in which I saw Ariadne- Fidelio-Magic Flute. Outstanding -cheap flights , reasonable hotels and anything but cheap opera.
I went there in the Summer to Die Meistersinger with Terfel and Rigoletto with Keenlyside . The Meistersinger performance is one of the highlights on my operatic going life.
If Wales can do it , so can we , but the reality is we wont because we can't be bothered. That dawned on me a long time ago so now I dont even think too much about it.
The NCH (what a name) tells everything , we nearly spent a billion on the Bertie Bowl, 50 million on Croake Park untold millions on stadia round the country and we could'nt/would'nt build a proper concert hall not to mind an opera house.
Wales on the other hand in the same period build The Millenium Stadium (365 Million) and an opera house plus many more and they did'nt have the benefit of a ''tiger economy''. But then they care about singing as part of their heritage instead of us with our ''sur ar'nt we grand '' attitude to culture
Marien forget about the comparisons with Wales - have a read of this post I wrote a few weeks ago - its some ideas we could implement to fill the opera defecit in this country http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68412401&postcount=1910 -
Marien forget about the comparisons with Wales - have a read of this post I wrote a few weeks ago - its some ideas we could implement to fill the opera defecit in this country http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68412401&postcount=191
Hi Westtip, I had read this post before I started posting and I thought it was brilliant , I am a great believer in OTC and what you suggest could have happened ,should have happened, but never will happen and not just now with the current state of finances , but would not have happened even if we never went bust.
Why is that ? because too many ''rice bowls'' need to be broken among the arty farty arts council /rte/county council arts officers brigade before any real change or national venture can succeed.
as well as being an art form opera must also be , of necessity , a business. I remember watching a very telling interview with Joe Volpe saying how much easier it was to get people involved in supporting an opera but the real challenge was getting a new telephone exchange for the New York Met.
We don't do business, virtually every professional leaves the arts council sooner or later in frustration worn down by the ''lovie dovies'' and their pet projects, so we end up with ''The Rain Dancers Of Peru'', ''An Exhibition Of Wet weather Origami'', or ''Throat singing from Afganistan'' and of the 23 people attending 19 are from the Arts Council ( who get to cry into their hankies at the pathos of it all and get to mingle with the ''artistes'' after the show) and the other 4 a just a few lost souls trying to escape the torrential rain and assumed the banshee singing must be coming from a pub.
So all the dosh is frittered away on a multiplicity of meaningless and not very memorable events in which some totally unqualified nabob from some government body feels like an impresario for a day and submits a list of expenses accordingly. And so the arts budget is frittered away - death by a thousand cuts.
In a way I think this current crisis may well have a silver lining in that all that waste will be swept away and in the aftermath maybe 5/10 years down the line we start from scratch and concentrate on the end product and not sinecures for the boys .
Until then thank god for Ryan Air and WNO0 -
Ok never mind the politics the depression the IMF the state of the nation, I was just looking at our defacto Irish National Opera Company website (OTC) aned see they have details up about Don Pasquale:
http://www.opera.ie/Productions/currentproductions.htm
Lets all get out there and support our National Opera Company!0 -
Ok never mind the politics the depression the IMF the state of the nation, I was just looking at our defacto Irish National Opera Company website (OTC) aned see they have details up about Don Pasquale:
http://www.opera.ie/Productions/currentproductions.htm
Lets all get out there and support our National Opera Company!
Agreed and it is good to see Limerick back on the venue list after many years0 -
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