In Tuesday’s (7/24) Globe and Mail (Toronto), Marsha Lederman writes, “After weathering a tough season of shortfalls and layoffs, Vancouver Opera is back in the black—to the tune of a cool half-million. Now as the opera company embarks on an important season that will see it host the OPERA America Conference, VO is contemplating other ways to draw people in, knowing there are only so many greatest-hits-of-opera it can rely on to feed the box office. In 2010-11, VO reported a ‘significant operating loss’ of $831,000 on a budget of $9.7-million, so the estimated $500,000 surplus in 2011-12 marks an encouraging turnaround. (Exact figures are expected later this summer, once audit results are disclosed.) Still, VO officials say the future is going to be challenging for opera companies, and they are no exception. Smart programming that includes a mixture of classics, innovative new works and thinking outside the box they say, will be a key factor in continued success—and staying out of the red. … The company also marked a significant cost saving with its move a year ago to a consolidated space, the O’Brian Centre, which it estimates saved about $300,000 this year in operating costs.”
Posted July 25, 2012
