Despite an ambitious plan to strengthen weak art forms, a new Arts Council report on the state of opera in Ireland paints a dismal picture of malnourishment and missed opportunities. So, where did it all go wrong? Michael Dervan reports.

Make no mistake about it. The Arts Council is capable of concerted action when it sees fit. The council's first arts plan, which covered the years 1995-1997, declared one of its major strategic objectives as being "to strengthen the position of art forms which are currently considered weak". The section dealing with music stated that the "Council has never had the funding to make any real impact on the situation as described here".

Yet the plan's projected expenditure, which envisaged a doubling in council revenues, proposed an annual £2.1 million increase for drama, already the most generously-funded area. In absolute terms, this amount actually exceeded the total (£1.8 million) that was to be spent on music, let alone opera. In the event, the increase for drama over three years actually exceeded the plan's projections.

The value of that increase in real terms today would go a long way to addressing many of the issues raised in the Arts Council commissioned report, Towards a Policy and Action Plan for Opera, completed by Pamela Smith last May, and published on the Arts Council's website just before Christmas.

It could, for instance, be used to provide an independent professional opera chorus for all the Irish companies currently in need of one. Or it could be used to provide non-RTÉ - and non-Belarusian - orchestral players for opera seasons in Wexford and in Dublin, a desirable step, as the report points out, if operatic provision in Ireland is to increase. And in terms of singers and musicians it would certainly go a long way towards achieving the council's currently declared priority, quoted in Smith's report, to "make an arts career a realistic ambition for excellent and innovative artists".

It might even encourage an Irish company for the first time to put a singer or two on annual contract, an area in which Ireland lags behind even Iceland.

Whatever way you look at it, such a sum could be used to start turning around some of the more dismal aspects of the situation that Smith describes. "In summary," she writes, concerning what has transpired since the council's Opera Development Group submitted its findings seven years ago, "the Arts Council's funding of professional opera in Ireland since 1996 has had very little impact on the number of main productions of opera each year, the training and/or career development opportunities for opera practitioners, or the amount of education and/or outreach activity in opera.

"The number of commissions has been low, averaging two per year since a dedicated scheme was introduced in 1998. Audience figures have remained relatively consistent, at quite a high level, but have not shown much growth. The one notable area of change has been in touring opera, with the arrival of Co-Opera, the addition of two tours to the annual list, and the attraction of new audiences for these events."

The report continues: "Many of the problems identified by the 1996 review remain unsolved. The level of funding relative to other art form areas within the Arts Council's remit remains very small, despite significant uplifts in cash terms. The additional cash, itself, has supported a new touring company, but kept two of the existing companies only at a consistent level of output and did not prevent a serious financial problem developing at the third (Opera Ireland). Joint activity with Northern Ireland is minimal, although one company is now funded by both Councils.

"There is still no dedicated venue for opera in Dublin. It appears that Arts Council funding may have to be deployed in new ways for any significant development in the sector to take place in the future."

Smith is a realist, and stops short of ending her report with a list of recommendations for the Arts Council to cherry-pick from - her day job is as music officer of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Her approach is altogether more direct. She outlines the council's options, ranging from increased funding of opera to total withdrawal (see panel), draws up a "shopping list" of desirable developments, suggests four scenarios, prioritising different items from that list, and summarises 18 possible steps for the council to take in relation to the developments she has considered.

Those developments, and the factual background through which she fleshes them out, tell a fascinating story of initiative and stagnation.

Small-scale opera touring has clearly been in a healthy, even competitive state, which perhaps shouldn't be surprising given that, in 2002, the major player in the field, Opera Theatre Company, received just under half the amount of public subsidy that was granted to the capital city's provider of main-scale opera. Given the disparity in costs between full-scale opera and small-venue touring, I doubt there is another European country where such a grave disparity exists.

The largest capital project that has been approved in Ireland has, however, nothing directly to do with opera in Dublin. The proposed €27.7 million redevelopment of the Wexford Festival's Theatre Royal, could well, according to Smith, impact as much on touring opera as on Wexford itself. The Wexford proposal (which will bring the Theatre Royal up to 750 seats and add a new 380-seat venue) is also seen as possibly providing a permanent home for Opera Theatre Company .

Smith sounds generally up-beat about Co-Opera, a much younger touring company, which merged itself into Opera Ireland, only to de-merge earlier this year and re-locate to the Belltable Arts Centre in Limerick. Given the parlous finances of Opera Ireland, the move may have been essential to Co-Opera's survival, but the Belltable, which seems set for a 20 per cent (€65,000) cut in Arts Council funding this year, may not prove a nurturing environment in the short term.

The report makes for pretty grim reading in the context of the Government cutbacks from which the arts world is still reeling. Co-Opera faces a difficult year. There is no 2003 provision in the Book of Estimates for the Anna Livia International Opera Festival (which has got its funds from the Department of Education). The Wexford Festival and Opera Theatre Company have both suffered 8 per cent cuts. And Opera Ireland yesterday cancelled its spring season in anticipation of an Arts Council grant cutback which will not be formally revealed until January 21st.

Smith generally confines her deliberations to recent years. But I've calculated that, over the last 15 years, Opera Ireland's funding has increased at a greater rate than that of either the Wexford Festival or Opera Theatre Company - radically greater, if you count in the €600,000 rescue money the company received in December 2001. Yet it's the only current Arts Council opera client whose level of activity has diminished over that time.

The Arts Council's annual report for 1987 comments on a spring season "reduced from three operas to two for financial reasons", although the winter season did run to three operas, and the spring productions travelled to Cork for six performances. In 2002, Opera Ireland managed a total of just three productions.

Here are some of Smith's comments on Opera Ireland: "The company currently has no stated policy on repertoire, although it produced a five-year plan in 1999 that described a broad intention to present pieces new to the OI audience alongside more familiar works . . .

"Opera Ireland's financial position is precarious, with operating deficits in each of the last five years.

"By September 2001 the accumulated deficit had risen to €545,987, and by the end of the year, this had risen still further.

"Where in the past the company had been able to access a bank overdraft facility, and sometimes additional Arts Council funding, to cash-flow the autumn season, in 2001 the overdraft facility was withdrawn ... although it must be said that predicating a future season on significant bank borrowings would be an unhealthy, and possibly disastrous, basis on which to plan for the future ...

"One of the key findings of a PriceWaterhouseCoopers review was that the relationship between the posts of Executive Director and Artistic Director was unclear, leading to a lack of accountability regarding the financial implications of artistic decisions."

Yet, as Smith points out, in detailing the administrative and artistic staffing of the company at the end of 2001, "There was no separate finance manager". There still isn't one, and the season predicated on significant bank borrowings actually took place last November. It's easy to sympathise with Opera Ireland for the bind the company found itself in, wanting to return to normality after the curtailed, one-opera season of last April. It's altogether more difficult to imagine anyone in Merrion Square regarding the presentation of a full winter season without hard and fast knowledge of future Arts Council funding as a smart move in a time of cutbacks.

Yes, Opera Ireland has broadened its repertoire, and scored some real artistic successes of late, "though it must be said," writes Smith, "that nothing that has been presented in recent years would be particularly unusual on a European stage". However, public subsidy of the company's work rose from €680,580 in 1999 (the first repertoire-developing year of Salome and Boris Godunov) to over €3 million for the 24 months from October 2000 to September 2002. Now it's seriously in debt again, and the Arts Council itself is strapped for funds. Go figure.

There are many worrying aspects to Smith's report, and they don't all just concern Opera Ireland or the Arts Council. "So far," she writes, "the Irish Government has resisted pressure to provide funding for a dedicated opera venue in Dublin.

"Opportunities have come and gone: Government Millennium funding for a proposed venue on the north quays was not granted; the Government chose not to purchase the Gaiety Theatre when the opportunity arose; and the Department of Arts has recently turned down an application for badly-needed refurbishment plans at the Gaiety, rendering its future as a venue for professional opera uncertain."

Welsh National Opera's contract to provide full-scale opera in Belfast expires this year, and Opera Ireland appears to be in the running to take its place. But many people, including individuals within Opera Ireland itself, have been wondering if the company will still be around to avail of that opportunity. The situation for opera training in Ireland is utterly miserable, and serious opportunities for composers are extremely rare.

The obvious conclusion is that the Arts Council has baulked at taking seriously the funding requirements of opera in Ireland. And the past behaviour of Opera Ireland is unlikely to encourage it in this regard.

Smith's report provides many facts not hitherto in the public domain. For instance, she calculates the net cost to Opera Ireland of using the RTÉ Concert Orchestra as €90,775, and the net cost to RTÉ as €321,875. Given that there are roughly twice as many players in the National Symphony Orchestra (which used to play at Wexford) as in the RTÉCO, the total net cost to RTÉ when it provided opera orchestras in both Dublin and Wexford can't have been far short of €1 million. This means that a broadcasting organisation was devoting a higher proportion of its music budget to the subsidy of live opera than the Arts Council, the statutory body for the support of the arts.

Smith surprises no one when she writes, "the Arts Council's policies for opera development over the last five years have made only a small impact on the sector". It's exactly as she says: "A new approach is needed."

Putting opera under the spotlight

The report's conclusions:

There has been little expansion in the professional opera sector in the past 10 years.

There is a poor infrastructure regarding rehearsal, performance and storage facilities for companies.

Public funding for opera remains at a very low level in real terms, despite increases in cash spending.

Touring opera is not provided strategically.

There is little market research on audience trends.

There are few examples of sophisticated audience development work among companies and venues.

Orchestral resources are sufficient

only for current production levels. Possible expansion in RTÉ orchestral concert-giving may put the status quo under strain.

Professional chorus provision is in a similar balanced.

The indigenous opera repertoire is small and there are still very few opportunities to develop and present contemporary work.

Professional training opportunities are increasing, but from a low base.

The Arts Council's policies for opera development over the past five years have made only a small impact on the sector.

The question of a dedicated venue in Dublin has not been resolved.

Summary of the Arts Council's options:

To re-direct some of its available funds.

To increase the proportion to opera.

To generate increased Government. funding through successful lobbying.

To maximise the possibilities available through improved partnerships with other funders.

To accept that provision will only be limited, and concentrate current levels. of funding in specific areas only.

To cease funding opera altogether .

To accept the status quo.