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Struggling with having to cancel upcoming performances, Opera Australia has been allocated $4 million from the Federal Government's COVID-19 Arts Sustainability Fund.

Employing more than 400 arts workers, including costume makers, crew, and set designers, Opera Australia announced last week that that it had been forced to postpone its production of The Phantom of the Opera until 2022 because of the severe impact of the current Sydney COVID lockdown. This announcement followed the company’s cancellation of it’s 2021 Sydney winter season.

Federal Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cites and the Arts, Paul Fletcher stated “Opera Australia has the largest annual revenue of the arts companies supported by the Australia Council. It is the biggest employer amongst them. In a normal year it presents a large number of high quality productions in Sydney, Melbourne and other cities, trains many people who go on to work elsewhere in the arts in Australia and globally, and it has specialised resources and capabilities that, if lost, would be a blow not just to this company but to Australia’s entire arts ecosystem.

“The (Federal) Government is committed to a sustainable and vibrant creative sector, which is why we acted quickly in establishing this fund last year to support Australia’s leading arts organisations to continue employing hundreds of workers, provide unsurpassable experiences to Australian audiences, and drive economic activity in their communities.”

Welcoming the funding, Opera Australia Chief Executive, Rory Jeffes advised that he appreciated the Federal Government’s recognition of the important role that Opera Australia represents in the sector, with all the flow on effects that benefit the broader world of live performance.

Jeffes stated “the desperately needed support through the sustainability fund announced today does not solve the difficulties we face but is certainly a boost to morale in these dark days - and allows us to be more confident of at least the immediate future.”

Expanding on his comments to Limelight, Jeffes added “the continuing crisis in the performing arts caused by the pandemic sees the sector sailing into ever more dangerous waters. The latest cancellations forced on Opera Australia over the past weeks put real danger into the very future of the Company as the largest provider of work for artists and artisans in the country - whether singers, musicians, dancers, set builders, stagehands, costume makers and all the other skills that take so many years to acquire at a level for outstanding performance.”

Opera Australia remains hopeful that it will stage its new Ring Cycle in Brisbane, where it is scheduled to present three cycles at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre between 29th October and 20th November.

The Federal Government introduced the $35 million Sustainability Fund in June 2020 as part of its $250 million Creative Economy COVID Support Package.

With additional funding added since then, the total amount committed to the package now stands at $430 million.

The purpose of the Sustainability Fund is to provide support to systemically significant major arts companies, should they face a risk of not being able to sustain themselves to reach the end of the pandemic and return to normal operations.

Between February 2021 and May 2021 grants from the Fund have been provided to 10 organisations.

These are: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra ($3 million), Museum of Contemporary Art ($2 million), Melbourne Art Foundation ($330.000), National Institute of Dramatic Art ($3.75 million), The Wheeler Centre ($500,000), Belvoir ($500,000), Australian Brandenburg Orchestra ($1.14 million), Queensland Ballet ($1.9 million), and Sydney Theatre Company ($2.013 million).

Opera Australia also received $1.026 million in May.

A further $15 million remains unallocated, with applications to the Sustainability Fund still open.

Click here for more information on the Sustainability Fund.

Image: Opera Australia's production of Ernani at the Sydney Opera House.

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