Opinion
Troubles at Opera Australia a symptom of a bigger cultural malaise
Getting the books of legacy arts institutions back in the black requires reining in bureaucracy, improving arts education and rejecting ideological distractions.
Alexander VoltzComposerIn 1843, the Sydney-based composer Isaac Nathan was privately rehearsing his newest work. It was an opera, the first opera ever to be written in Australia. Its title? Merry Freaks in Troub’lous Times.
As fate would have it, in freakish trouble today is Opera Australia. Its chief executive officer, Fiona Allan, resigned this week. Its last annual report posted a $4.9 million operating loss. News has even broken that the company resorted to taking a no-interest loan from one of its directors, so as to rescue its 2024 production of Sunset Boulevard.
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