ArtScape: Wexford has been in the news this month for more than the nature of its opera productions, writes Michael Dervan.
The Musicians Union of Ireland (MUI) mounted an opening-night protest at the continued use of non-EU musicians - the players of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus - as the festival orchestra.
The MUI's gripe is easy to grasp. The festival's use of the Belarussian musicians is, in the words of MUI secretary John Swift, "depriving Irish-based musicians of substantial performing opportunities". The Belarussians have been playing at Wexford since 2001, when the festival and RTÉ failed to agree terms for the continued use of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra.
The work opportunities opened up by the Wexford/RTÉ contractual rift have been substantial. The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Belarus lists 63 players plus management for its involvement in Wexford, and the orchestra is in situ for a period of four and a half weeks.
This tranche of work amounts to about 2,000 player days. This is on a par with the total annual employment guaranteed by the basic schedule of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, which is the largest single source of work for classical musicians in Ireland outside RTÉ.
Neither side in the dispute is prepared to divulge where the disagreement lies, but money plays a large part. Last year's Arts Council-commissioned report by Pamela Smith, Towards a Policy and Action Plan for Opera, revealed that the provision of the 45-member RTÉ Concert Orchestra for Opera Ireland cost RTÉ in excess of €400,000.
With 88 players in the RTÉ NSO, and work in Wexford incurring significant travel and subsistence expenses, the cost of the orchestra's stint there would run to more than €1 million, of which only a fraction could be recouped from the festival, with its Arts Council grant of €736,000 and a total budget of €2.4 million.
As Smith points out, the Arts Council has benefited directly from Irish opera companies' partnerships with RTÉ "in that the real costs of providing orchestral accompaniment and chorus work have been borne for them". That's no longer the case at Wexford, and the festival cannot at the moment realistically employ non-RTÉ Irish musicians without a serious compromise in quality somewhere else in its output.
The MUI's John Swift is pleased to have drawn the attention of the national media to the Wexford/RTÉ standoff. "The public were largely very sympathetic," he says. "And this campaign will continue until the matter is resolved."
Meanwhile, with the festival in mid-flight, details of Wexford's three main operas for 2004 have been announced.
For his last year in the role of artistic director, Luigi Ferrari has chosen to open with Adelson e Salvini, Bellini's first opera, which is set in 17th-century Ireland. He follows this with Eva, by the Czech composer, Josef Bohuslav Foerster, and his final choice, Prinzessin Brambilla, by the German composer, Walter Braunfels, comes from the early 20th century. This latter work was originally staged in 1909 but will be seen in Wexford in a revision carried out 20 years later and first staged in 1931. The 2004 festival will run from Thursday, October 14th to Sunday, October 31st.
The recruitment of Ferrari's successor will begin straight away, with advertisements being placed nationally and internationally this month and next, and an appointment expected in the New Year.
Opera Theatre Company has just completed the process Wexford is about to embark upon, and has announced Annilese Miskimmon as its next artistic director. She is currently in rehearsal for the OTC tour of Rossini's Cinderella, which opens in Cork next Friday, and is expected take up her new responsibilities before the end of the year. The first fruits of her artistic decision-making will be felt in autumn 2004.
Give up yer aul tax hikes
"To define a country as a country . . . it needs two things: an airline, and an industry. And by industry [that does not mean] Coca-Cola plants or Microsoft outposts but . . . a film industry," says Neil Jordan.
"One of the arguments for supporting a film industry is that it allows a country to express itself," says John Boorman.
Jordan and Boorman are two from a bunch of movie-world heavy-hitters, including five Oscar winners, whose essays feature in an Irish Film Board (IFB) booklet backing the campaign to retain film tax incentives in support of a national film industry.
The booklet will be launched tonight at the Irish Film and Television Awards.
Ossie Kilkenny, IFB chairman, comments: "We are reaching a critical mass and we need to build on this momentum. Only through adequate and secure funding as set out in the Government's own report, Strategic Development of Irish Film and Television Industry 2000-2010, can we fully and properly achieve this."
Other comments from the essays in Irish Film/Irish Culture, include:
"The rest of the world . . . goes to great pains and expense to ensure that their screens, both cinema and television,
are not completely dominated by
American attitudes - that the distinctive flavour of their own lives and cultures will also be expressed in this powerful medium." - Oscar-nominated director Louis Marcus
"The Crying Game, Disco Pigs, The Magdalene Sisters - we have our films, but we don't have enough of them. We need to see old Ireland on screen, and the new. We need to see the new Irish, with their new stories and accents. We're only starting."
- writer Roddy Doyle
"Films are like popular cultural milestones for the rest of the world. As for the cultural role of Irish films for Irish people, simply look at the phenomena of Veronica Guerin, The Magdalene Sisters, Give Up Yer Aul Sins. Films like these act as mirrors into which we gaze, examining ourselves, criticising ourselves and more often than not, laughing at ourselves."
- Kieron J. Walsh
"The cinema is the greatest popular art form since the classical theatre of ancient Greece. Ireland has contributed strongly to cinema . . . It could be argued that our talent for film-making is a logical extension of our talent for literature. It is vital for the cultural, as well as the economic, life of this country that we continue to be active in the medium of film, and the work of the Irish Film Board is vital for that activity."
- writer John Banville
"There can be no greater ambassador to convey our uniqueness. Can there be any greater cultural currency?"
- double Oscar winner Michele Burke
Short Cuts
It's not the first time a Daniel O'Donnell obsession has proved fertile dramatic ground, and Rebecca Bartlett's play has an intriguing title: The Day Daniel O'Donnell Got Married. The 45-minute play was commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and will be broadcast at 2.15 p.m. on Tuesday, Daniel and Majella's first wedding anniversary. Bartlett's fictional drama about two women who share a passion for O'Donnell and long to make the trip to their idol's wedding stars Sorcha Cusack and Gerard McSorley.
Friday sees the second of five RTÉ-commissioned world premières during the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra 2003-2004 season. Mystic Nativity, by Dublin-born composer and pianist Philip Martin, will be conducted by William Eddins. "I am fascinated by Botticelli's Mystic Nativity from 1499, painted at a time of great political upheaval in Italy," says Martin. "It has resulted in a three-movement 'Symphony' and music both simple in texture and, in the last movement, virtuosic to a high degree." He gives a pre-concert talk at the National Concert Hall at 6.45 p.m.
For those interested in clowning about with panache, Barabbas is running a two-week physical theatre workshop facilitated by artistic director Raymond Keane. It runs from November 17th to December 5th, costs €320 (with two scholarships) and focuses on the intelligent body, physical analysis, character, dynamics and physical text. Details and forms from: www.barabbas.ie (e-mail: info@barabbas.ie; tel: 01-6712013).
Barabbas . . . the company is at 7 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2. Museum and arts professionals may be interested in the National Gallery's one-day programme, 'Effective Presentation and Interpretation in Museums', on Friday. Keynote speaker is Prof Charles Falco, of the University of Arizona, on Through the Looking Glass: the Art of the Science of Renaissance Painting, about his collaboration with David Hockney. Other speakers include Ultan Guilfoyle, Trevor Parkhill, Dr Patricia Donlon and Dr Margarita Cappock, chaired by Kevin Whelan. Tickets: €30. Tel: 01-6633505.
Bye-Child, Bernard MacLaverty's new 16-minute short, is being screened at the London Film Festival this week. A dramatisation of a Heaney poem, it's described thus: "A daughter wordlessly waits on her father. Outside in the shed, someone or something watches her every move. When the local boys come to play nearby, a dark secret is uncovered."