Volume 8 Issue 7 - April 2003

Two Views
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS
by Iain Scott
How healthy is
opera in Toronto these days? Superficially, it is vigorous, vibrant and
blooming. An optimist could credibly assert that the range of opportunities
for audiences and the variety of viable careers for professiona1s in
the field has never been more appealing. Look deeper, however, and
some latent symptoms give cause for concern. ·
First, the good news. Both dimensions of the most important measure,
audience support - ticket purchasing and donations support - are clearly
on the rise. The appetite ofTorontonians for all forms of opera appears
to be getting stronger every year, a trend inirrored across North
America and Europe. In any market, the rise or fall of demand and
supply is interrelated. In Toronto, audience. numbers, the key indicator of
demand, are steadily increasing -- paralleling the increase in supply and
variety of performances available. ·
Even more encouraging are the demographic trends revealed when the
demand statistics are segmented and disaggregated. In contrast to some
other art forms, the fear that opera audiences are graying appears to be
unfounded. There is a healthy influx of new blood. Opera is one of the
two fastest growing segments of the cultural map among 18-35 year olds
- the other is museum-going - perhaps a reflection of their inherently
multi-media tastes.
Here in Toronto, our competitive ability to both attract and retain key
talent is impressive. ·we have developed two large, engaged and
committed communities, of performers and of supporters. Their
interaction creates one of the most energetic and demanding creative hot
spots on the continent. The elements of a positive spiral appear io be in
\ place. Which other city, outside of New York, supports well over a
dozen established performing companies? I believe we are well ahead of
Chicago and San Francisco.
Leading the pack is Richard Bradshaw's Canadian Opera Company,
excited by the imminent prospect of a new performing space, confident
of its ability to raise the necessary capital in a fiercely competitive fundraising
environment, and acutely conscious of the challenge of adapting to
the augmented scope and scale of more frequent performances. Opera
Ontario, led by Ken Freeman, Opera Mississauga, led by Dwight
Bennett and Marshall Pynkoski' s Opera Atelier, the three mid-sized
professional performing companies, have each developed a core of
support within their geographic or temporal communities. ·The first two
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April 1 - May 7 2003
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