Scottish Opera faces audiences' confidence crisis

SCOTTISH Opera is threatened with a "crisis of confidence" among audiences, driven by the cash-strapped company’s shortfall in new productions.

John Stalker, the general manager of Edinburgh’s King’s and Festival theatres, said it could take three years to turn round a company that he said was vital to Scotland’s arts economy. But little more than a million pounds a year could "revolutionise" the company’s ability to turn out a regular supply of new shows, he added.

His warning that audiences could turn away from the opera if its cash crisis cannot be resolved was echoed yesterday by the managers of the opera’s touring venues in Inverness and Aberdeen.

"From an audience and a theatre point of view, I think our audiences feel let down by the lack of number of visits and the lack of things in the repertoire," said Colin Marr, the director of the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.

Mr Stalker noted yesterday that the finances of the trust that runs the two Edinburgh theatres hang heavily on the opera.

Every week of successful performances at the Festival Theatre brings in up to 30,000, vital for other work, including education programmes and the showing of new plays, he said.

"Something has to happen soon, or we will face a crisis of confidence in the audience," Mr Stalker said.

"The Scottish Executive and the Arts Council have to think very hard about audiences."

With a key board meeting looming early next month, Scottish Opera is reported to be 3 million or more in debt.

The Scottish Executive is reported to have turned down a request for more funding on top of a 7.5 million annual Scottish Arts Council grant, while officials say they want a long-term solution to the opera’s woes. "Indecision is the worst problem," said Mr Stalker. "We can’t go on any longer."

Mr Stalker suggested yesterday that 1 million a year, "or a little more, would revolutionise Scottish Opera’s ability to present a full programme ... that is so essential for Scotland." Without it, he said, "audiences could become rapidly disenchanted".

The Festival Theatre is one of only four in Scotland that host operas - along with the Eden Court, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, and Glasgow’s Theatre Royal.