I no longer live in NSW. I moved to Victoria several years ago but I am originally from Newcastle and i have worked on several major cultural projects there down the years. Newcastle is the second largest city in NSW and is a large enough place that it would be the largest city in 3 states or territories.

I’ve been involved in two major and several minor cultural projects there. I founded the This Is Not Art festival — which last i heard was still the largest annual tourism event in the city and one of the largest media arts festivals in the world — and ran it for five years. http://www.thisisnotart.org for more info.

Currently, i am working on a project called Renew Newcastle which has already had great success in converting some of the 150 empty buildings in the main streets of Newcastle into spaces for cultural projects and arts intiatives. To date we’ve put 14 projects into 8 buildings and i expect that number will double in the next few months.

I have NEVER been paid for any of this.

I hope that puts my comments about Opera Houses and orchestras into context. I’m not a whinger. I’ve not spent the last 10 years complaining i’ve spent it doing it and simply dealing with the reality that there is not and never has been enough money going around to do this stuff properly and pay me. I have spent many tens of thousands of dollars of my own money. I have worked multiple day jobs to cross subsidise it all. I’ve spent the last year funding the rejuvenation of Newcastle on my credit card. In my experience that is pretty much normal and unremarkable. It is the boat that almost all the people who are participating in the projects that i have created and am creating are in also.

However, there are times — such as when the highest funded cultural organisations in the country ask for another billion dollars — that i am remind there is something deeply and fundamentally unjust about all of this and i feel a little compelled to ask for a reality check.

You’re right of course about the aggregated figures for “opera and musicals.”

I think this has been a really positive thread, by the way, at least in terms of people thinking through the principles and consequences of arts funding.

I’d make one further point here too, which is that public arts funding is actually already heavily biased towards infrastructure and capital investment, and not to ongoing creative activity to support artists (things like project grants, fellowships and so on.)

Adrien – I totally agree with your point 2. This is the whole issue at stake – how should we distribute scarce public resources? But the status quo is a choice in itself, remember.

1. The Opera House is just a building, and houses an elite form of the arts, so why spend so much money on a building.
The Opera House is a work of art in itself and is so much more than just a building. We might as well say that Ankor Wat is just a temple and what a waste of money it is restoring it. Apart from anything else we owe it to future generations to preserve the building as a functioning artistic centre, which it barely is at the moment.
I think that some people commenting here would like to see the whole thing closed down and just have the shells preserved as some sort of symbol of the society that we used to be. You know, one that values artistic excellence, and which is willing to fund it adequately.

2. There are so much more worthy things to spend the money on, such as hospitals, schools, or small scale community arts projects.
This of course is a particularly insiduous argument because once you start arguing this way, it can become an excuse for funding nothing. Why waste money on community arts projects when the money could be better spent on hospitals? Why spend money on our hospitals when people overseas lack even basis health care facilities?

The audiences are from all backgrounds, all ages, and usually enjoy many different musical experiences.

Stats however would suggest it is a narrow range of people in specific demographics who attend the opera.

I feel like I’m arguing against something, which in other circumstances I may not.

Part of the problem is that possibly both you and James view Opera Australia/my employer/my job and the Opera House as one intrinsically linked entity, whereas as I and maybe others see them as two separate things whose needs may be entirely divergent.

would you have it run endless Idol finals and pop gigs with an orchestra? That is plain embarrassing on an international level.

I didn’t get the feeling from this statement that you particularly liked popular musical events and community ones being staged at the SOH or rather that opera/ballet/classic music concerts are the ‘legitimate performances’ and others are just rent payers. I’m happy to hear that you don’t feel this way..

I should have written ‘gems or fancy beading’ whatever Rachel, you wouldn’t get too many real jewels for the price of medium sized car, which is around the cost quoted in the article. The Good Weekend isn’t online@%#$, but anyway you are cherry picking like James – my point was that many people outside of the opera community do not share your passion for opera (understatement) and they also (as per James) resent being told what’s good for them… and more, I defended the cost anyways!!

Just as I’ve posted that fixing the building is also necessary & desirable.

Life in Sydney without the Opera House seems unimaginable after all this time – that sounds rather la-di-da, but things are going to grind to a halt in there without some intervention. Not only the ‘high art’ will cease, but all the varied and wonderful music making that goes on under those shells.

Why is the place going to grind to a halt? Why would we have to imagine Sydey without it? Half of what you post makes a ton of sense and the other half, is just a wee bit over the top.

Ben – you are right – it wouldn’t take $1b to address the noise issues in the pit, but the price tag (seems exorbitant to me too) is for the whole building – not just the opera theatre.
Ear plugs are a factor in most musicians lives – my husband is a gigging guitarist so I am well aware of the noise in many other less iconic music venues. Ear plug technology has indeed come a long way, but for an form that is unamplified coupled with new acoustic technology (ARUP, genius company) there is now no longer a need for them in a well designed environment. Musicians in the Opera house and elsewhere should be able to perform at their best, which means hearing every sound you make. This is especially true in the age of the CD – audiences demand the same quality of performance they hear at home from their favourite recordings (the average symphony has around 2000 edits). You are expected to play to perfection every night, and with 2 ear plugs in it is nigh impossible no matter what instrument you play.

“When you use phrases like “we deserve”, “we have had enough” “it doesn’t work properly so please fix it”, you only strengthen the contention of many in the less privileged parts of the Australian arts that the major performing arts sector in Australia suffers from “a culture of entitlement.”
I guess I should hang my head low and apologise for my language, but I won’t. I am proud of my orchestra, and passionate about the building in which I work. Not only the employees, but everybody in the country does deserve a world class national performance space. We are a very bloody talented country! The SOH caters for all of us – I see it on the monitors every night in the green room – Idol, Metropolitan high schools performance nights, Taikoz, the Bjelke Petersen School of Physical Culture awards, HSC composition show cases, the Australian Ballet, Singing and conducting comps, Foo Fighters, Roberta Flack, the Choir of Hard Knocks, Bangarra Dance Co, Suzuki graduation.. then you have the other events like APEC, World Youth Day etc etc. This money benefits so many people, not just an elite few.

THe argument over health funding is really valid and the hospital system undeniably is disastrous. But the health system and the arts are such polar opposite topics that the argument could go around in circles endlessly. With ever changing technologies and a growing population the burden on health funding is never ending, wheras most art forms that have been in existence for centuries are a known quantity – you can set the budget. However every now and then the actual work space needs upgrading, to set things up for the next few decades or so. The Opera House was never finished properly in the first place, and has reached the point where the facilities are just plain disfunctional. Yes it’s a lot of money but it is a national treasure, and the benefits of a little tlc will pay off. Don’t forget the health benefits of a smile – going to that one amazing concert can be something you never forget.

Jo – i take a little exception to
“you would do yourselves a huge favour if you didn’t sound like the kids at the Kings School lecturing public school kids about how their indoor heated Olympic sized swimming pool and rifle range need to be refurbished.”
I am really passionate about my work, I care for the health and safety of my colleagues, and I also love what I do. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I really stick up for what I believe in too, but pride myself on being open minded and non judgemental/ elitist. I have worked all over the place before I was lucky enough to pass my audition, and have performed in school halls, tiny pubs, basketball buildings, ovals, floating pontoons etc etc . Musos make do with what they have – we all love the gig so always make sure the show goes on. Just because I work in the opera house doesn’t mean I am some sort of privileged whiner. Surely there is nothing wrong with wanting to improving your workplace, whatever it may be???

As for “And as for staging Idol and many other pleb. events at the Opera House, (which both you and James seem to have some real issues with) for more of the time – I think it’s wonderful… And I don’t know why there would be or is, international embarrassment – I would have thought the Opera House in its present form was some sort of international embarrassment for opera purists.”
When did I say they were ‘pleb’ events – I said that if that was ALL that happened in an opera house it would be embarrassing.

Your friends story about the jewels is fantastic – in the old sense – as if the OA board would agree to that! Have fun too finding some ‘opera purists’ – have yet to run into any in the last 10 years at the opera. The audiences are from all backgrounds, all ages, and usually enjoy many different musical experiences. Actually – the audience members I love the most are the ‘opera virgins’ – nothing better than seeing a smile on someone’s face at the end of the day.

Like it or not, the renovation is going to cost a lot of money. The building is firmly entrenched in the fabric of this city so the benefits I believe outweigh these costs in the long term. Life in Sydney without the Opera House seems unimaginable after all this time – that sounds rather la-di-da, but things are going to grind to a halt in there without some intervention. Not only the ‘high art’ will cease, but all the varied and wonderful music making that goes on under those shells.

fcuk, I’m too tired for this.

James,

As for being a minority attending the Opera, try just under 10% of the population visit the opera house to see a performance.. Ill bet thats not as smaller figure as you expected.

James, the figure you are quoting without links btw – refers to performances at the Opera House, I presume? And to view the very productions and performances you and Rachel were poo-poohing earlier like Idol, School concerts, rock/pop concerts? It actually surprises me how low that figure is.

YES Opera has a larger following

Clumsy fudging of facts really does not help Opera’s case. Seriously.

Here is a link to the ABS where the 2001 figure for Opera Australia attendances was 268,012: Source: Opera Australia

http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/ABS@.nsf/Previousproducts/102883C2D4A8648CCA256CAE00108521?opendocument

The national figures for opera attendances range up to 450 thousand nation wide – from around 16 companies in one set of statistics, also note that opera figures are mostly grouped with musicals so you have to look for the separated figures – 2005/06 est: opera attendees by self-report 405,000 being roughly 2% of the population.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4114.0

Also I have no idea what you are referring to in respect of the building’s name. None.

I think that you miss the point that people DO need Opera, alot more than you think, just like they need football, museums, Zoos, Libraries.

This is the sort of comment that just alienates the approx >90-95% of the population who live their entire lives without ever having been to the opera. It’s really very offensive to suggest that people need opera or indeed any particular leisure or cultural or sporting pursuit. Whether as a society we decide collectively through our elected representatives decision’s in respect of arts funding that opera should be supported for a wide range of reasons, then that is another matter.

You have also chosen to just go over the case for the extensive renovation again (in which you preferred the concert hall/opera theatre? swap unlike Rachel..) without however referring to the alternative views put by other opera commentators, that I linked to in respect of building another opera venue. And if I could be bothered going through your points more carefully, which I can’t be – I suspect I would find like your use of statistics above – that you are possibly obstuficating and confusing issues.

If the Opera Australia’s PR Dept were reading this thread, they would probably get you in for a chat to um, ‘learn’ something as you have said to men, including reading closely what people are reporting and what they are stating etc.