SCOTTISH Opera will have to make significant changes to help meet a deficit of between (pounds) 2.5m and (pounds) 3m by the end of this financial year, its chief executive admitted yesterday.
However, Christopher Barron said he was determined that the deficit would not grow into a crisis that would
threaten the existence of the opera, and he is not looking for a multi-million pound ''bail out'', such as that made by the Scottish Executive in 1999.
In an interview with The Herald, Mr Barron said changes would have to occur in the coming months, because the company is set up to make more operas than it can currently afford.
On the future of the company, he said: ''There will have to be change, but I cannot say what that is. The overheads that we have today was designed for a company producing nine or 10 operas a year 10 years ago and, if there's a cap on the cash available, which appears to be the case, we have to look at the whole thing.
''Whatever our ambitions previously were, we have to take a major review of them.''
Scottish Opera is expecting to learn on Tuesday that its grant from the Scottish Arts Council will be (pounds) 7.4m, the same as the last three years.
Mr Barron declined to say whether the company would become a part-time or ''seasonal'' operation, but revealed that Frank McAveety, the culture minister, had assured him the executive still wants Scottish Opera to continue providing opera for Scotland.
''There is a very large difference between now and 1999, in that we are in control, we know exactly where we are, we know where are accounts are, we are well managed. The determination of this whole administration is to work within the funds available and service the audience at the other end,'' he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article