The Stage

Northern Ireland to launch new national opera company

Published Thursday 28 January 2010 at 11:22 by Michael Quinn

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has announced it is to create and fund a new opera company for the region following months of speculation about its intention to amalgamate two exiting companies.

Opera Northern Ireland will “incorporate the best resources” from the 25-year-old Castleward Opera company and the Downpatrick-based Opera Fringe Festival, which was founded in 2001. The Arts Council has allocated £374,000 to fund the first year of the new company, whose brief will be to “provide new ways for local people to engage with opera, raising the standards of local performances as well as providing a platform to showcase the very best international artists”.

Details about the repertoire focus, scale and number of productions per year were not made available although the company, which is to be based in County Down, will be expected to tour throughout Northern Ireland. Roy Bailie, a former board member of Castleward Opera, has been appointed as chairman, with the search for an artistic director now underway.

The launch of the new company comes just days after budget proposals by the Northern Ireland Assembly indicated that ACNI stands to lose £1.1 million in funding while the Department of Arts, Culture and Leisure will have £25.9 million slashed from its allocation, making it the second hardest-hit of the region’s governmental departments.