Opera Ireland has cancelled its spring season at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin because it says there are inadequate promotional funds available from the Arts Council. It agreed on the cancellation in advance of a formal grant offer by the Arts Council expected on January 21st.
Productions of Mozart's Don Giovanni and Janácek's Jenufa were scheduled to run for nine days at the Gaiety Theatre next April.There are immediate and grave consequences for other arts organisations as a result of the cancellation.
Both the 17-member National Chamber Choir, which performs in the chorus of Opera Ireland's productions, and the 45-member RTÉ Concert Orchestra, which plays in the pit at the Gaiety, face financial losses and gaps in their schedules.
Opera Ireland will immediately enter negotiations with the NCC and RTÉ with a view to programming some operatic activity to replace the lost season.
The Arts Council is dealing with an 8 per cent cut in Government funding at a time when the Arts Plan approved by the Cabinet last year would have provided a 12.3 per cent increase. The council's €44 million allocation for 2003 is actually 2.5 per cent below the level it received in 2000. Opera Ireland, whose annual Arts Council grant for mainscale opera productions at the Gaiety has been in the region of €1.1 million, is expecting an offer of €800,000.
Opera Ireland has already borrowed from its bankers to fund its winter 2002 season, which took place at the Gaiety last November.
The overall cost of that season was €1.1 million, of which the Arts Council grant was budgeted to cover 53 per cent, or €583,000. With only €800,000 on the table and with the conditions of that offer as yet unknown, a spring season is out of the question and the next winter season must also be open to doubt.
