Ireland to get a new national opera company in 2011
27 August 2010, Dublin, Ireland
Ireland’s Opera Theatre Company (OTC) began its final tour in Dublin this week with the Irish premiere of Grigory Frid’s The Diary of Anne Frank.
The company, which was launched in 1986 as the national touring company of Ireland, will close at the end of the year when funding from the Arts Council of Ireland ceases.
In its place, a new national opera company – Irish National Opera (INO) – will be launched in 2011, subsuming the existing functions of OTC as well as those of Opera Ireland.
A board for the new company is already in place, but recruitment for a general director only began last week. A business manager will be sought in January and INO’s first production is expected to take place in autumn 2011.
In the meantime, Opera Ireland will present Tosca at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre during November – ostensibly the last production by the company in its current form, although funding may be still sought from the Arts Council of Ireland for an additional spring season in 2011.
