North stages opera revamp

The latest reshaping of opera companies, this time in Northern Ireland, fuels the transformation of this art form here

FOR A SMALL country with a limited supply of opera performances, Ireland has a long list of defunct opera companies. Working from south to north, I can straight away think of Cork City Opera, the Irish Operatic Repertory Company, Opera South, Kilkenny Chamber Opera, Wicklow Opera Group, Irish National Opera, Western Opera, Studio Opera Group, Northern Ireland Opera Trust, and Opera Northern Ireland.

Opera Ireland and Opera Theatre Company are still with us, but both are to disappear soon, after they are subsumed into the as-yet-unnamed, Dublin-based national opera company being created by Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Martin Cullen.

The story doesn’t end there. Recently it was announced that two companies in Northern Ireland have also bitten the dust, at the behest of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. They are Castleward Opera (which, since 1985, has mounted productions in a converted stable on the National Trust property, Castle Ward House) and the Opera Fringe festival (founded in 2002, which took place around Co Down). They will be replaced by Opera Company NI, which is to be funded to the tune of £374,000 by ACNI, and will be supported by Down District Council, which had also backed the Opera Fringe. Prominent businessman Roy Bailie (a former board member of Castleward Opera) will chair the new company for a year, and recruitment for an artistic director and chief executive will begin shortly.

It’s not the first time that Northern Ireland has witnessed this kind of forced operatic marriage. Back in 1985 the Studio Opera Group and Northern Ireland Opera Trust (loosely speaking, northern equivalents of Opera Theatre Company and Opera Ireland) gave way to Opera Northern Ireland. Opera Northern Ireland survived until 1998, when it was de-funded by ACNI, which then bravely envisioned a new, all-Ireland company.

The idea was embraced by Opera Ireland’s then chief executive, David Collopy, as “a major step forward in the provision of opera in Ireland both north and south.

“As the largest producer of mainstream opera we will be pleased to engage in any discussions which help bring about the creation of such an entity.”

And the formation of the new company was also welcomed by Patricia Quinn, then director of the Arts Council in Dublin. But the 1998 ACNI announcement proved to be the first and last gasp of the new all-Ireland venture.

With Opera Northern Ireland out of the way, opera-lovers in Belfast have been served by three major UK companies, Welsh National Opera, Leeds-based Opera North, and Scottish Opera, with smaller-scale touring productions sourced from the Opera Theatre Company.

ACNI has described the establishment of the new Opera Company NI as “a bold strategic move”. The allocation of £374,000 for the new entity’s first year is some £150,000 above the combined annual funding that the council granted Castleward and Opera Fringe. Down District Council, which had a service level agreement valued at £35,000 with Opera Fringe, is also eager to support the new company.

ACNI’s vision is for Opera Company NI to “incorporate the best resources from Castleward Opera and Opera Fringe to form a robust new creative enterprise, geared for the future”, and Bailie has elaborated on the direction he expects the new company to take. “Opera,” he said, “is regarded as one of the most dramatic and emotive forms of art but it can sometimes have an image of exclusivity. We want to change that. Opera Company NI will provide new ways for local people to engage with opera, raising the standards of local performances as well as providing a platform to showcase the very best international artists.”

This looks like a poke in the eye for the exclusive ethos of Castleward, which has, in spite of its postage-stamp space, attempted to draw comparisons with Glyndebourne. Preferred dress is formal, there is a long interval, catering is in a marquee, and there is outdoor picnicking. Artistic standards aside, Glyndebourne’s website has links to a lift-sharing scheme and it organises effective connections to public transport, while Castleward always seemed to have presumed its patrons would arrive by private car.

By a coincidence, Opera Fringe’s former artistic director, Rosa Solinas, has become head of music at ACNI. So operatic expertise will not be in short supply, although the grapevine already carries mutterings about a disgruntled Castleward rump setting up another company. That would be no surprise, as Castleward Opera itself was founded by such a team from the Studio Opera Group.

ACNI’s opera spend will rise as a result of the new developments. With £100,000 allocated for Opera Theatre Company, and £150,000 for Scottish Opera, the total is £624,000. But it has dropped in real terms since 1998, when direct support of ONI was around £400,000 and ACNI also funded services valued at around £200,000 from the Ulster Orchestra, which played for ONI. Over the same period, opera funding by the Arts Council in Dublin rose from £1.36 million (€1.73 million) to a 2008 peak of €4.26 million. Although this may look impressive, it has left opera well short of the 2008 target of €5.7 million which the Council itself set in 2006.

So, recession or no, opera north and south is still seriously short of funds to keep up even the historically modest provision that Ireland has known. On the other hand, the new developments north and south must give heart that serious movement may be afoot. There may be a short-term disruption of supply on the way, but the next 12 months look like being the most crucial for the development of opera in Ireland in a long, long time.