Madam, - In his review of Opera Ireland's Don Giovanni (Arts, April 7th), Michael Dervan made a number of comments on this company's management of its financial affairs. His comments are based on a mistaken analysis of our recent financial history and his conclusions are therefore seriously incorrect.
Mr Dervan has acknowledged in the past that there has been a serious deficit in the funding of opera in Ireland by the State and that Opera Ireland compares well with similar organisations overseas in terms of its production costs and the value for money which it delivers. This implies that we are making the best of a difficult situation and I believe we could prove this conclusively to any interested observer.
At a more strategic level, I believe the decisions which we have taken over the past few years have been absolutely correct in the circumstances. Opera Ireland received a special grant of €600,000 in 2001 to wipe out deficit accumulated due to chronic under-funding over a long period of years. Having reached this situation, the board of Opera Ireland is rightly determined to prevent the company from slipping back into debt. All its decisions since then have been guided by this overall concern.
Our last funding arrangement with the Arts Council expired on September 30th 2002. We were told by the Arts Council in the spring of 2002 that no more cash would be forthcoming in that calendar year, even though the new funding period was due to commence in October. At that stage we were already committed to the 2002 winter season and knew that the next long-term agreement would have to recognise this financially, even if actual cash did not begin to flow again until the new calendar year.
The allocation of €800,000 quoted by Mr Dervan is, therefore, in respect of a 15-month period starting on October 1st 2002 and ending on December 31st next, a period which would normally have involved three seasons of opera. This is clearly understood by the Arts Council.
In return for this, we have already provided one full season (winter 2002) and one semi-staged production (Don Giovanni). We plan to produce another semi-staged production in the winter as well as collaborating with the Dublin Theatre Festival on an operatic version of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors. We will also continue our series of master classes and our involvement with the Dublin Institute of Technology. If State funding for this 15-month period had kept pace with the pattern of recent years, our grant would have been €1.8 million for that period. Our cash allocation in 2003 is, in fact 56 per cent below what we might have expected for the 15-month period involved.
In the event the Arts Council guaranteed to the bank that the debt incurred on the winter season would be covered by our 2003 grant and the company proceeded on that basis. The amount of our 2003 grant was not, in fact, confirmed until well into the year, by which time we had already cancelled the 2003 spring season.
When the grant was finally confirmed at €800,000 we had no choice but to cancel the winter season as well.
I am not sure what Mr Dervan thinks we should have done in the circumstances. I suppose we could have cancelled the 2002 winter season at the last moment and tried to work our way out of contractual and other obligations - but for what? So we could enter into similar arrangements for a similar season a few months later? Where exactly is the value in this?
We could conceivably have made commitments for a 2003 winter season and planned to carry debts forward into 2004, but we have no guarantee that the Arts Council will put us back in business next year.
In the absence of an agreement with the Arts Council, the Board of Opera Ireland simply cannot allow the company to incur significant debts. The principles of proper corporate governance would not allow it. - Yours, etc.,
DEREK KEOGH,
Chairman,Opera Ireland,
Dublin 8.