Save Our Opera Company

BIRMINGHAM OPERA: IT AIN’T OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS

02-02-2008

Birmingham Opera Company which faced closure after it’s funding was cut has been given a reprieve – but the organisation still faces a series of crisis meetings to ensure its survival.

Following a public outcry in the wake of a tough spending review by the Arts Council, 17 organisations nationwide have been reprieved – and BOC is one of them.

The story doesn’t end there, though. There’s no money in the pot for the Opera Company for the forthcoming financial year, and funding for 2009 and 2010 has only been “reserved”.

Whether or not they actually get their hands on it depends on a series of crunch talks with West Midlands Arts Council boss Sally Luton starting on Wednesday.

BOC’s General Manager Jean Nicholson explained, “We’re going to have to talk to them about we get through 08/09, then see what they want from us for the next two years.

“Hopefully, this can be the start of a new relationship with them. We’ll have the chance to restate what we can do, they can tell us what they expect from us, and hopefully we can meet somewhere in the middle.”

The company’s artistic director Graham Vick is heading back from Italy to join the talks, but Nicholson admitted that the fate of this year’s productions remains uncertain.