Scottish Opera’s cycle of ‘endless decline’

David Pountney, who was director of productions with Scottish Opera during the 1970s, said he felt “absolutely dreadful” about the low number of operas now performed by Scottish Opera. The WNO will perform eight during the current season, SO just five.

While the new artistic director of the WNO exempted the current management from his criticism, he said SO was suffering as a result of an historical mismanagement, which resulted in the company not performing during 2005.

In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Pountney said: “One of the most upsetting things for me is remembering how vital a company it was under the vigorous leadership of [Peter[ Hemmings and [Alexander] Gibson, and then having to watch this endless decline.

“Yes, there was a massive failure in the management of the company, with a complete lack of leadership over a 20-year period. This is not a criticism of the current management, which is doing what it can; the real blame has to go to arts politics in Scotland.”

He added: “The most important thing is that the company gets back on to a level of performing regularly. I feel absolutely dreadful about it.”

In 2005, after years of turmoil, Scottish Opera was forced to go dark for one year as a result of a cash crisis. Sir Richard Armstrong, the musical director, had embarked on a costly version of Wagner’s Ring cycle, which led to the company being advanced £4 million by the then Scottish Executive in order to keep it afloat. Afterwards, a £7m bail-out of the company was announced, with £4.5m to be repaid over the next four years.

There was also a round of redundancies, with 88 out of 205 jobs being lost, and the 34-strong chorus told minutes before they were due to perform La Bohème in Edinburgh that they were all to be made redundant.

Recently, the Scottish Opera Orchestra was also scrapped.

Mr Pountney said: “Arts institutions can’t be successful in survival mode. Art isn’t about surviving; it can only be created when we have a surplus. If you are obliged to go out and raise money you have to have an exceptional message: your fundraisers have to have something to sell. Ninety per cent of the challenge is in having an ambitious artistic policy, something that is unique and gives profile to the stakeholders.”

Last night, Alex Reedijk, the general director of Scottish Opera, said: “It’s clearly been a long time since David worked in opera in Scotland. If he were to come here now, he’d find a thriving, solvent, highly successful opera company with extensive international links, strong support from the Scottish Government, and a 70 per cent increase in philanthropic support in the last five years.

“We are artistically ambitious, and we’ve got a fantastic season of five mainstage operas ahead and enjoyed a 7.5 per cent increase in audience last year.

“We deliver great value for money to the Scottish taxpayer: we take as much opera as we can to over 50 venues a year, but we’re also absolutely clear we have to live within our means.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government recognises the valuable contribution that culture and creativity make to our society and our economy.

“That is why – in the face of steep cuts to Scotland’s budget imposed by Westminster – we are maintaining funding in 2012-13 for Scottish Opera and our other national performing companies.”

No-one from Creative Scotland was available for comment.