Tim Cornwell: Scottish Opera needs orchestrated response

Published on Thursday 14 October 2010 14:57

Scottish Opera's new production of the Marriage of Figaro opens in Glasgow on 29 October, and comes to Edinburgh next month. Even the company's detractors, bitterly angry over the recent move to take its orchestra part-time, expect it to be a good night out.

Baritone Roderick Williams, described as the best in Britain, sings Almaviva; another celebrated baritone, Sir Thomas Allen, is in the director's chair. Rising Scottish soprano Kate Valentine sings the role of the Countess. A promising line-up, it is said. But any consensus on Scottish Opera ends there.

Scottish Opera lost its chorus six years ago to redundancies. Last month its orchestra accepted a part-time deal cutting salaries by about a third. It's reported that music director Francesco Corti was not consulted ahead of this.

Scottish Opera marks its 50th anniversary in two years time, but morale is at a low ebb. Two dozen orchestra members, by one count, are looking for alternative jobs, though in the current climate, freelance classical music employment will hardly be easy to find.

The opera's annual output has sunk from about eight at its peak a few years ago to four. Its two regional counterparts, Opera North and the Welsh National Opera, both have full time choruses and orchestras.

The prospect of serious cuts in the budgets of Scotland's national arts companies budgets is looming - and ought to be concentrating minds. Scottish Opera is currently modelling for a 20 per cent drop over four years, bringing its grant down from 8.8 million to 7 million.

Is it delivering for audiences, and packing the same cultural punch, as the National Theatre of Scotland, say? There has been plenty of carping over the latest offerings from NTS. But the worst case for the opera appears to be a vicious spiral, where output and funding continue to drop. With Scotland's rich cultural offering of music, ballet, theatre, visual art, why can't it get opera right?

Scottish Opera's general director Alex Reedijk has made tough choices since arriving in 2006, and is a natural target for bitterness. Observers praise the "goodwill" he has generated for the company, while maintaining artistic standards and running it like a "machine".

He is bullish - speaking of a "cracking couple of years", of outreach and education with touring and children's opera, and "active discussions" on a return to the Edinburgh International Festival. "We do absolutely the right thing by Scotland, the Scottish public, the art form here in Scotland," he said.

"All we have done is correct an historical anomaly" with the orchestra, he said. He and others tried to find more work to justify its full-time employment. "We pay the players for the work that is available to them."

In Edinburgh last week, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, under Robin Ticciati, delivered a superb Don Giovanni at the Usher Hall.In Donald Runnicles, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra has a conductor with a formidable background in German opera, while the RSNO's charismatic French music director Stephane Deneve has conducted internationally. Both have larger profiles, internationally and within Scotland, than Corti.

There's been an old argument over whether Scotland needs four orchestras. In Holland, notes leading UK opera critic George Hall, the Netherlands Opera has no permanent orchestra, but relies on three others. Reedijk is adamant Scottish Opera must keep its.

One suggestion has been that opera productions within Scotland could look to talents like Runnicles. The same people that praise Reedijk as a manager, wonder whether the company is lacking the kind of artistic visionary that a lesser-funded operation particularly needs.

Hall himself believes Scottish Opera has been underfunded, compared to its Welsh or English counterparts. A million pounds or so a year could make a difference. But now is not the time to expect more public cash.

"The problem is that the more you diminish it the less it can do and it goes into the spiral," he said.

"It is a tragedy, it has achieved so much."