Fresh blood for Opera Aust with UK recruit
Liz Hobday |
The new artistic head of Opera Australia, acclaimed UK director Jo Davies, wants to entice expatriate Australian singers to perform back home.
“I’ve worked over in the UK and Europe with a host of Australian artists, very few of whom have worked for Opera Australia,” she told AAP.
The company announced her appointment on Monday, following Lyndon Terracini’s decision to quit in October.
Davies has spent 20 years working on opera, theatre and musical productions, including at London’s West End and on Broadway, with her version of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Yeoman of The Guard currently onstage at the English National Opera.
Since September, the national company has recruited a new chair, former ACCC boss Rod Sims, and three new directors for its nine-member board, heralding a period of renewal for Opera Australia.
Hiring Davies is a coup, according to chief executive Fiona Allan, who said she never understood the reluctance to book Australians for major roles.
“Our audience would really appreciate seeing them, but I think our company would also really appreciate working with them,” she said.
Davies’ brief involves making original operas that tell Australian stories – a mission that requires both money and long term commitment.
“They need to start originating stories that couldn’t originate anywhere else in the world, but can speak with a universal voice,” she said.
For anyone worried that Davies’ background means Opera Australia will move more towards musical theatre repertoire, she offers reassurances that she is primarily an opera director.
And if reviews of her recent shows in the UK are anything to go by, this will mean productions executed with the zip of Broadway-style expertise.
Opera buffs outside NSW will also be hoping a new era might mean more shows interstate, after Melbourne missed out on fully-staged productions in 2023.
Davies wants to see a two-way flow of new productions from both cities, and said the lack of programming in Melbourne is unacceptable.
But what about opera-loving taxpayers in the rest of the country?
Allan explains that Opera Australia’s core Australia Council funding only pays for productions in Sydney and Melbourne: Brisbane’s staging of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 2023, for example, has been funded by the Queensland state government.
While more productions with state opera companies and symphony orchestras are on the cards, the 2024 summer season will be staged entirely at the Sydney Opera House, before Davies relocates to Australia in November.
She stops short of promising more opera across the Australian capitals cautioning it must be done with an eye on the company’s balance sheet.
Davies is well aware of Opera Australia’s financial rollercoaster.
It slumped to a $23 million loss during the pandemic, before notching up its biggest ever year at the box office in 2022.
“I’d be mad not to have concerns going into a company that has had financial difficulties… any company at the moment is a challenge to go into post-pandemic,” she said.
Pre-pandemic Opera Australia made half its income from net box office returns.
The company hopes to return to that territory, but Allan says it’s also been one of the most expensive years on record in terms of production costs and the 2022 figures aren’t in yet.
Cost of living pressures may also dent future box office sales, with tickets to the upcoming La Bohème at the Sydney Opera House starting at a not-very-bohemian $81 and going up to $345.
Davies is keen to point out she won’t be tackling all the issues facing Opera Australia alone – she believes her skill set is really about collaboration.
“I’m ready for the challenge actually, I’m really excited about it,” she said.
AAP
