A final plot twist ensures that Opera Theatre Company will survive for another twelve months, to celebrate its twenty-fifth year of touring opera throughout Ireland. In a response to a question in the Dáil last Thursday about opera production in 2011, Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin, gave repeated assurances that Opera Theatre Company (OTC) will receive Arts Council funding next year, to enable it to continue to produce opera. It had been announced in August that OTC, along with Opera Ireland, was to be wound down at the end of this year, to pave the way for the formation of the new Irish National Opera company. The new company will not be ready to stage its first production until 2012, which meant that opera provision for next year would have been heavily depleted. The news had come as a huge disappointment to supporters of OTC, many of whom expressed dismay at the decision over recent months, both to members of the company directly, and in letters to the Irish Times.
“Since the new Irish National Opera company will not be in a position to produce its first full season until 2012, the best way to proceed is to continue to support next year Opera Theatre Company's current remit of bringing opera all over the country,” the Minister said. “OTC will continue to produce opera in 2011 and will be funded to do so by the Arts Council. This has been agreed between the interim board [of the new opera company], my Department and the Arts Council.” She went on to praise OTC’s achievement, saying that “it has a wonderful track record artistically, and is well managed”. Meanwhile, the plan to close down Opera Ireland, after its forthcoming production of Tosca in November, remains unchanged.
The board and the Chief Executive of OTC, Kirsty Harris, have welcomed the eleventh-hour reprieve, and have announced that the company’s first production for 2011 will be Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, with further plans to follow, depending of course, on the level of funding it receives.