Although the people of Cork seem to have turned up in droves to support inaugural events in the Opera 2005 season at the Opera House, a lot of them turned up late.
Notices warning patrons that late-comers will not be admitted are ignored, and at Mozart's Requiem people didn't even wait for the end of a movement - which, typically, were clearly signalled by applause. At Figaro's Wedding, guests at a corporate reception struggled noisily into rows of the dress circle not only after the house lights had gone down - a hindrance exaggerated by the shortage of ushers - but continuing through the overture.
While a lot of money has been spent in the past couple of years on the façade, foyer and bars, the unaltered gloom of the auditorium is darkened further by inadequate lighting (none for rear stalls), although this at least softens the impact of the chewing-gum residue on the carpeting.
The Opera House has made its shop and bar sales so essential to its income that chewing-gum is the least of its in-house consumption style. For both the Requiem and Figaro's Wedding, the audience drank stout, beers, shorts and wine throughout the performance. To facilitate this cultural development without the insurance risk of glasses, management has provided plastic beakers. During the Abbey's run of The Plough and the Stars here two weeks ago not only were people drinking - and eating - their fill throughout the performance, the shelf of the dress circle balcony became an additional bar counter.
Surely the Board of Directors could give, in fact, some direction? Surely it's time to invest the building, its staff, its clients and its patrons with the civic dignity a municipal theatre represents?
All divisions of the Cork Institute of Technology are involved in the institute's production of Fame, which opens at the Opera House on Wednesday March 2nd; the colleges of music and of art and design join the Maritime College at Haulbowline and the main Bishopstown campus to present the show as CIT's chief contribution to Cork's year as European Capital of Culture
