The economic climate has proved no barrier to thriving opera in the cities worst affected by the financial crisis. Robert Everett-Green explains why.
Good arts companies can thrive even in bad times. Very few can prosper in truly terrible economic conditions, like those prevailing in Greece and Spain.
Those countries have been stuck in a six-year depression, with unemployment rates of around 25 per cent. Yet their principal opera companies have somehow come through the valley of austerity with no debt, full and lively artistic programs, and higher standing in their communities. They have done far better, in fact, than some companies in wealthier European states.
A Greek National Opera (GNO) production I attended in Athens recently was sold out for its entire run, even though the piece, Giorgos Koumendakis’s The Murderess, was a new, commissioned opera. The all-ages crowd looked like a fair cross-section of Athenian society, and included people who had scored tickets for €20 ($28) or less... Keep reading on The Globe and Mail -
Good arts companies can thrive even in bad times. Very few can prosper in truly terrible economic conditions, like those prevailing in Greece and Spain.
Those countries have been stuck in a six-year depression, with unemployment rates of around 25 per cent. Yet their principal opera companies have somehow come through the valley of austerity with no debt, full and lively artistic programs, and higher standing in their communities. They have done far better, in fact, than some companies in wealthier European states.
A Greek National Opera (GNO) production I attended in Athens recently was sold out for its entire run, even though the piece, Giorgos Koumendakis’s The Murderess, was a new, commissioned opera. The all-ages crowd looked like a fair cross-section of Athenian society, and included people who had scored tickets for €20 ($28) or less... Keep reading on The Globe and Mail -