By Nick Galvin
Outgoing Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini has claimed the company is now in great financial shape after two years of COVID cancellations, bullying allegations and redundancies.
“This year is going to turn out to be the most successful in the company’s history,” said Terracini, who will step down next year after 13 years at the helm. “We’ve taken over $77.5 million already and we still have a quarter of the year to go.”
Lyndon Terracini will leave at the end of 2023.
Terracini said his approach of bringing in overseas talent and bolstering box office receipts with popular musicals had stood the test of time – and COVID.
“I’ve gone back to that model and it’s working brilliantly,” he said.
The former singer also took a potshot at critics who questioned his decision to stage two productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera in the course of a single year. The first was staged on the over-water stage at Mrs Macquaries Chair, while the second opened last week to positive reviews in the Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre.
“I’m happier than normal because everyone told me it wouldn’t work,” said Terracini. “Everyone told me that we’d cannibalise the audience doing Phantom on the harbour and then in the theatre. But the opposite has been the case. It’s fantastic.”
These optimistic assertions come after Opera Australia suffered a $22.5 million loss last year, prompting new chief executive Fiona Allan to call in consultants to transform the company’s operating model. In May, Allan told the Herald that Opera Australia’s approach was “not sustainable in the long term” and hinted there would be a fresh focus on local talent and content.
Then, later that month, following a widely publicised dispute with the cast of Phantom on the Harbour, a leaked survey found one in three Opera Australia staff believed bullying and harassment was a problem at the company. A separate investigation into that issue is underway.
The results of both the reports have yet to be announced and neither Terracini nor Opera Australia was willing to make further comment or outline a timeframe.
Terracini was speaking as Opera Australia unveiled its program for 2023. In his last year, he is bringing a host of international stars to the Sydney Opera House including German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, in-demand Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho and American tenor Michael Fabiano.
The program will also feature bankable crowd-pleasers, including La Boheme, Don Giovanni and Aida, alongside a few lesser-known works such as Italian composer Francesco Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur and a concert version of Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Terracini said he was particularly pleased that The Tales of Hoffman, cancelled due to COVID in 2021, would finally get to the Opera House stage in July. Homegrown superstar Jessica Pratt will play all four soprano parts in Opera Australia’s first co-production with London’s The Royal Opera.
“This is the first one where we have actually made the whole thing,” said Terracini. “We’re making the sets and the costumes.” After the Sydney premiere, the production will tour Europe.
Terracini said OA was “in good shape” and that audiences were returning strongly after the pandemic.
Asked if he had advice for his successor he said his recipe for success was “instinct based on experience ... And being brave enough to take risks even when everyone is telling you it’s not going to work”.
A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.