Two stories about RTE's music department have been making headlines this week, writes Michael Dervan. First to emerge was the broadcaster's split with the Wexford Festival, where, next October, the NSO will be absent from the pit, replaced by musicians from Belarus. Next came the stalemate with the National Concert Hall over a new three-year contract defining RTE's rent and use of the hall for its orchestras and performing groups.
It is very ironic that a venue initially announced in the 1970s as a government project to house the RTE Symphony Orchestra (as the National Symphony Orchestra then was) should find itself in dispute with the very client it was set up to service. RTE's director of music, Niall Doyle, wasn't involved in the last contract, making the current negotiations his first opportunity to attempt to shape the relationship to his ongoing needs.
The relationship between the hall and its tenant is, however, independently facing major change. If all goes to plan, the RTE CO will become the resident orchestra at the new University Arts Centre at Dublin City University some time next year. The RTECO may not be as closely identified with the NCH as the NSO, yet the Concert Orchestra accounted for over 30 performances at the NCH last year compared to 50 by the NSO. It's clear that the basis of the next three-year, RTE/NCH contract will have to take account of the changes the new venue will bring.
RTE is seeking a clear basis for the calculation of the rates for specific usage. Its position is that the deal proposed by the NCH isn't commercially realistic. A highly placed leak puts last year's rent at £426,000, before VAT. RTE's activities also contribute to commission income within the hall's gross earned income of £1.6m (the figure for 1999), revealing the extent to which the dependency on RTE runs.
The NCH yesterday revealed that its board has formally called for arbitration, and that the NCH "has stated this repeatedly in the course of the negotiations to date". Repeatedly stating your position is not the same as negotiation, however, whichever side the repetition comes from. And while having the Minister for Arts & Heritage, Sile de Valera appoint an arbitrator may appear to be a safe haven, it could also draw the minister's attention to a management failure in Earlsfort Terrace and Donnybrook that would better have been resolved by normal means.
The Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) organisation has found a home for its substantial archive, which will soon be available to artists, curators, historians and students. The collection of documents tracing developments in art in Ireland over the past century has been placed on long-term loan with the National Visual Arts Library, housed at the NCAD in Dublin. Cataloguing has already begun on the collection, which is intended to be accessible for public research use towards the end of the year.
The collection dates back to the foundation of the Friends in 1924 by the artist Sarah Purser, and includes documents relating to the campaign to house the Hugh Lane Collection in what is now the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, as well as letters from Lady Gregory and Lennox Robinson and details of all works of art donated since 1924. The FNCI was established to procure works of art and objects of historic interest for the public collections of Ireland in the days before significant state funding was available. It continues to raise funds via contribution, gift or bequest and is seeking new members. (Further information from the president of the FNCI, Brian J. O'Connor, tel: 01-6683722.)
"The Crime of the Twenty-first Century is not a fantasy," wrote Edward Bond in the programme notes for the Paris production of his latest play, which had its Irish premiere last night at Theatre Space @ the Mint. In a Crooked House production, Peter Hussey directs this futuristic nightmare which explores what will happen when human beings succeed in destroying the environment. "The play is journalism - a report of the news before it happens. But it is also more than journalism. To understand ourselves we must do more than read the newspapers. We need drama, the understanding that has always come from art."
The 67-year-old English author of plays that highlight class divisions and issues of moral responsibility - including Saved, Early Morning, Narrow Road to the Deep North, Black Mass and Bingo - makes his first visit to Ireland next week. He will elaborate on his ideas on the radical potential of drama in a public interview with Declan Kiberd, Professor of Anglo-Irish literature at UCD and author of, most recently, Irish Classics (Granta Books). Wednesday, April 18th at The Cube, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, at 6p.m. Booking at: 1850 260027.
