By Nick Galvin and Elizabeth Flux
Opera Australia artistic director Lyndon Terracini has announced he is quitting imminently, joining a parade of recent departures at the troubled company.
Terracini, who has helmed OA for 13 years and was to have seen out his contract to the end of next year, abruptly announced his resignation on Thursday – leaving the arts community reeling.
Lyndon Terracini has quit as artistic director of Opera Australia.Credit: Cole Bennetts
In a statement, OA said it had been “agreed by all” that now was the right time for the former singer, who turned 73 the same day, to leave.
Terracini said he was quitting “to get on with the next phase of my life, to pursue new adventures and enable the transition of my successor”.
Speaking to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald Terracini said, “I felt that you can’t have two artistic directors in the building, and I’d be hanging around with, frankly, with not much to do, which is not a particularly good thing for anyone.
“I don’t want to be an impediment to someone, just loitering around the corridors. That’s not healthy – it wouldn’t be good for me, frankly, and it wouldn’t be good for the company.”
He also pointed to projects he has “started speaking to people about, that I want to pursue,” which include one in particular which “would be a real conflict of interest with Opera Australia”.
Terracini said that he sent a letter to the chair of OA flagging his intentions in advance of the public announcement. “I decided six to eight weeks ago,” he says, with an emphasis on the I. “We’ve had a good chat about it and everyone’s agreed, so it’s a good time for me to go.”
However, he isn’t firm on the exact date of departure. “I’m in here today and tomorrow,” he says. Asked if he will be going in to the office after that he replies, “I’ll still be working a bit on a musical because that’s not completely locked in yet.”
New board chairman, former ACCC boss Rod Sims, said Terracini was excited about his future.
“He’s got about six things he’s deciding from, which is not surprising,” he said. “Lyndon’s done a fantastic job at Opera Australia and I’m sure he’s going to be much in demand.”
While Sims didn’t predict Terracini’s early departure he says it makes sense in hindsight as the 2023 Opera Australia program is already settled and it would fall to the next artistic director to line up the 2024 program. “It was always going to be the case that there’d be a new artistic director, and that was always going to have consequences ... I hadn’t anticipated ... Lyndon would think like this.”
Terracini’s abrupt departure follows a series of high-profile personnel changes at OA, including the departure of chairman Glyn Davis, who left to take up the role of Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet after only a short stint in the job. Last week, technical director Clif Bothwell left after five years, joining marketing boss Kent Heffernan who quit after barely a year in the role for health reasons.
Last year, chief executive Rory Jeffes handed over the baton to Fiona Allan, who is now faced with rebuilding the brand and reputation of the battered organisation. Allan said the search for a new artistic director was well underway. All names on the shortlist are currently working overseas and are people “who know Australia well, if not Australian”.
Allan, formerly chief executive at the Birmingham Hippodrome in the UK’s West Midlands, said OA was looking for a “step change” with the new appointment.
There would be more Australian commissions and a focus on homegrown talent with fewer overseas stars, which had been the hallmark of Terracini’s reign. OA is still recovering from the effects of the pandemic which saw mass cancellations of productions and the sacking of a quarter of the company’s musicians.
Terracini himself became embroiled in a dispute earlier this year with one of the leads in The Phantom of the Opera production on Sydney Harbour. Subsequently, a leaked internal survey found one in three staff at OA felt there was a bullying problem at the company.
And more recently OA faced strong criticism when its 2023 season was seen to offer little for opera fans in Melbourne.
Allan, who has been in her new role since November, said it had been a bumpy first year but rejected the notion OA was in crisis.
“This is my fourth role as chief executive and, yes, I think it’s been my most difficult landing but we’re nowhere near in crisis – all I see is opportunity,” she said.
Sims also downplayed the multiple issues that have beset the company.
“I hadn’t been in the company, but I have read a few things,” he said. “The thing with Phantom and comments in relation to Melbourne – these things happen. [It would] obviously [have been] better if they hadn’t ... they’re unfortunate, but I wouldn’t put them any more than that.”
Terracini will be farewelled officially on October 29 on the opening night of Verdi’s Attila.
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