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Demand for opera and music theatre is growing, and promoters want to programme both popular and unfamiliar repertoire to satisfy and build opera audiences, but lack of touring product is holding back the development of the market. So says ?Opera for Now?, a new report giving a detailed profile of the whole opera and music theatre sector.

The report, published by the Opera and Music Theatre Forum and funded by the Arts Council of England, provides facts and figures which will underpin and inform debate about future policy and funding decisions relating to opera and music theatre. It reveals widespread dissatisfaction with what is perceived to be a lack of overview on the part of public funders, who are identified as a key barrier to the development of the sector. Heavy investment in classical repertoire, mainly aimed at large and middle-scales tours, leaves little available for the development of small scale work, and theatre programmers are critical of the quality of subsidised companies and the variety of repertoire at this scale. A venue in the Eastern region, which hosted of the Year of Opera and Music Theatre in 1997, said ?Since the Year of Opera and Music Theatre there?s been very little available for the small-scale. We nearly had the makings of an audience, but I?m afraid that we?ll need to start again.? The report concludes that the ability of small and middle-scale touring companies to supply and market product is limited, partly because the scale of the work limits their income generation potential, even though it meets accessibility aspirations. But the organisational capacity of smaller companies is very limited too, with over a third having no administrative staff, and no support for marketing, fundraising or education work.

The problems faced by small-scale touring companies are exacerbated by the attitudes of the press. Interviews with arts journalists and critics have revealed the perception that opera does not translate particularly well to the small-scale, being traditionally a large-scale art form which is open to compromise when produced outside the main opera houses. The view that access to opera would be best served by fewer, better-resourced companies producing better work is widely held, and many critics were unaware of the work of smaller companies, only seeing it if it is part of a festival, and if the production is running for long enough to justify coverage. Country house opera is almost universally disliked, despite an acknowledgement that it can produce good work.

See the executive summary of the report exclusively on the ArtsProfessional website
For a copy of the full research report, contact Caroline Anderson t: 020 8516 6313 e: c.f.anderson@cwcom.net