Exclusive

BIRMINGHAM OPERA COMPANY COULD CLOSE

20-12-2007

Birmingham Opera Company faces a bleak future after discovering that it’s Arts Council funding is being axed – despite staging a recent production of La Traviata at the NIA which won national and international acclaim.

Insiders were told last week that the company would no longer receive its annual grant of £324,000 following a major spending review.

The Arts Council has decided to focus on a smaller number of organisations, some of whom will receive extra cash.

General Manager Jean Nicholson admitted she was “hugely disappointed” by the news, and admitted that the Company could close.

But she said, “we are calmly trying to consider what the options might be.

“The most honourable thing to do in the interests of the people we’ve worked with is not to rush into battle without thinking about the consequences of what that battle might be”.

One hope is that the Council, which currently underwrites BOC to the tune of £197,000 a year might be encouraged to lever extra funds and help provide a future for one of the city’s genuine cultural icons.

Although the sums in involved are considerable, Birmingham Opera Company has achieved the seemingly impossible – by turning a high art form into a mainstream event.

“La Traviata” drew more than 9,000 patrons to the NIA over two nights in October - 68% of them attending opera for the first time. It was also successfully staged in the amphitheatre during Verona’s prestigious music festival.

Part of the company’s great appeal is that it involves ordinary singers (and non-singers) from all over the West Midlands in its choir and chorus. It’s wonderful staging of “Candide” at the Chuck Works in Digbeth in 2003, which invloved hundreds of local extras, was a landmark in the city’s cultural evolution.

It’s heartbeat and inspiration is Graham Vick, the Artistic Director who now gets booked into the world’s major opera houses La Scala but who still remains loyal to the organisation that he helped found.

To see The Stirrer’s review of La Traviata, click here

And to read a blog by chorus member John Mostyn, click here

Also check out http://www.birminghamopera.org.uk/

Should Birmingham Opera Company be saved?

Leave a comment on the Message Board.