Madam, – I refer to Eileen Battersby’s Irishwoman’s Diary which I read with interest, but also with dismay. I fail to find a supported rationale for the decision to close Opera Theatre Company (OTC). My understanding of the work of OTC has always been that of high artistic merit with ingenuity and innovation being the hallmarks of its productions – all the more admirable since it operated on a shoestring budget for the past 24 years.
While the idea of an Irish National Opera (INO) is exciting, according to Ray Bates, chair of the INO, there would be a reduced opera provision in 2011, but INO would begin with much ado in 2012. But why the 2011 pain?.
OTC has a perfect track record of producing quality opera on a meagre budget – it should not only be allowed to continue through 2011 and beyond, but actively encouraged to expand its touring role and bring opera to the country as a whole. Sincere and genuine efforts, as delivered by OTC, should be acknowledged as having a strategic role as the national touring opera, alongside the INO, which should have a focus on the large scale opera productions in the style of Opera Ireland.
Proposing to close down a healthy, solvent and functioning opera company is ignoring the acknowledged and measurable achievements of OTC on its meagre budget over all those years – indeed, a victim of its own success and a contributing catalyst to the establishment of INO.
At a time of the greatest economic strains experienced in the past 50 years, the proposal to close OTC is, indeed, incomprehensible. Please leave well enough alone! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Eileen Battersby has written beautifully on a matter which should be close to the heart of all people who have ever had dealings with or attended a performance by the Opera Theatre Company (An Irishwoman’s Diary, September 20th). The Opera Theatre Company represents today a company of people bravely facing the challenge of nurturing the arts in the all too busy Ireland of 2010.
Their plight reminds me of that which faced Yeats and his companions at the time of the opening of the Abbey Theatre. Another group of artists who worked among challenging times for something which would last beyond the troubles of the times and lift the people toward a greater more hopeful future. I am thankful for those who chose at a time of limited resources to nurture the seed sown by the brave founders of our national theatre. Lucky were they who found support financial and artistic for their dream for all of us.
There is a generosity of spirit and work ethic which permeates all of the Opera Theatre Company productions and which does not deserve to be quashed. We teach our students in school through Harper Lee’s words. “It is a sin to kill a mocking bird . . . Mocking birds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.”
I ask that the decision to close such a wonderful company be re-addressed by those who have the opportunity to save it. Let Yeats be proven premature in saying “Romantic Ireland is dead and gone” and may we sing instead: “Though all things perish from under the sky, music and joy shall live, never to die.” – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The proposed establishment of a new opera company to absorb Opera Theatre Company and Opera Ireland into one body is alarming for those of us who live in provincial, rural Ireland. From its early days (2001) at Woodbrook near Killanne in west Co Wexford, Blackstairs Opera, run by enthusiastic amateurs, brought opera to a rural community on its own doorstep. The casual aura of the annual event belied the serious intent of quality of production within the limited confines of a marquee in a field. Initially an English touring company was used for the productions, and excellent they were; but the ambition was to use an Irish company, and to offer performance opportunity for Irish singers in Ireland.
Having built a reputation that attracted an audience of 1,000 in 2006, we felt our credibility was sufficient to approach OTC which was expanding its touring programme. At the same time the Arts Council awarded us a small but gratefully received grant towards the substantial cost of our event. In 2009 OTC gave us a wonderful performance of Acis and Galatea and Bastien and Bastiennein the grounds of Kilkenny Castle with the support of OPW.
Our fear is that provincial touring, particularly to rural parts, will suffer from the proposed merger and be lost in the new identity. Our audience was made up of opera first-timers, local people who would not normally travel to Dublin, Cork or Wexford for their opera, and opera lovers who enjoy their music in a more informal setting than the opera house or local theatre.
There is a clear ongoing demand for the opportunity of rural dwellers to engage with minority art forms in their own locality. Furthermore, the talent of producers, artistic directors, arts administrators, singers and musicians needs to be fostered, not thrown out with the bathwater.
Since the value of cultural tourism is recognised as a significant contributor to the national economy, surely we cannot afford to reduce and diminish the prospect of Irish opera at the stroke of an Arts Council pen? – Yours, etc,