Re-imagining Opera: Episode 2

Opera in Ireland has been going through something of a crisis. Last year the newly formed Irish National Opera Company closed just two years after its birth was announced due to financial cut-backs. Opera Ireland had been wound down to form it and Ireland was left with no national company and the loss of Opera Ireland. Today new roots are beginning to emerge including a new opera company called Wide Open Opera, launched by conductor Fergus Sheil. The Art Council is now supporting opera on a production rather than company basis and Wide Open Opera's first production, Wagner's Tristan Und Isolde, which was grant aided to the tune of €600,000, is the featured opera on RTE lyric fm this Saturday evening. A documentary on the production of Tristan & Isolde, the first in Ireland in some 50 years, goes out at 7pm on Friday.

For opera companies in Ireland funding is an issue. While the Tristan Und Isolde production got Arts Council support to the tune of 600,000 euro - there's effectively just a small handful of productions getting a slice of a radically reduced opera budget. But is money really the issue or is it all about attracting and building audiences who are prepared to pay for opera or to support public funds going to opera?

This episode is the second in the series Re-imagining Opera and was broadcast on Tuesday 20th November at 1.45pm on RTÉ lyric fm.

The series is an Athena Media production for RTÉ lyric fm made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.