From Toronto to the world?
Yesterday evening I was one of about 100 people who attended the annual general meeting of the Canadian Opera Company. I’ve been to these things before: they’re usually staid, low-key events, and this was no exception.
The main item in the company’s financial statement was that the COC earned a modest surplus of about $10,000 last year, on a budget of $36.7 million. That’s good news, in a year when the company spent about $1 million to tour The Nightingale and Other Short Fables to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York.
The main item in the company’s financial statement was that the COC earned a modest surplus of about $10,000 last year, on a budget of $36.7 million. That’s good news, in a year when the company spent about $1 million to tour The Nightingale and Other Short Fables to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in New York.
When the floor was opened for questions, one woman in the front row asked, “When will we see ‘Live from the Four Seasons Centre?’” This was the first suggestion I’ve heard that the COC might be joining the growing list of opera companies that are broadcasting productions to cinemas.
And I was surprised by COC general director Alexander Neef’s response. He said that there were “hurdles to overcome,” but that the company was “in the process of working it out.”
I hope they do. Canada often seems to be artistically walled off from the rest of the world: we’ve always had difficulty projecting our voices beyond our borders. If the COC succeeds in joining the ranks of the Met, the San Francisco Opera, La Scala, Gyndebourne, and other major players whose productions can be seen on screens around the world, it would help to break down those walls.
© Colin Eatock 2011
And I was surprised by COC general director Alexander Neef’s response. He said that there were “hurdles to overcome,” but that the company was “in the process of working it out.”
I hope they do. Canada often seems to be artistically walled off from the rest of the world: we’ve always had difficulty projecting our voices beyond our borders. If the COC succeeds in joining the ranks of the Met, the San Francisco Opera, La Scala, Gyndebourne, and other major players whose productions can be seen on screens around the world, it would help to break down those walls.
© Colin Eatock 2011
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