These are my notes from the third in the current season of Culture Club talks.
The welcoming and introductions were performed by Tim Calnin, Executive Director of Performing Arts at the Opera House.
Lyndon Terracini, Artistic Director of Opera Australia, was elegantly dressed in a light grey suit with a yellow tie whilst popular broadcaster Christopher Lawrence from ABC Classic FM was more casually attired.
The proceedings began with a short but impassioned prepared speech delivered by Terracini, who said that the works of the great operatic repertoire such as the Figaro and Magic Flute were masterpieces that have withstood the test of time and remain cornerstones of Western culture, just like the great works of art held in major galleries are. Great art can be life changing, and needs to be seen.
Terracini pointed out that Opera Australia, the largest performing arts Company in the country, has to sell more tickets than any other opera company in the world just to break even financially. He told the gathering that this year had turned out to be one of Opera Australia’s best years for some time, and expressed his continuing satisfaction in seeing that many of Opera Australia’s initiatives such as Opera On The Harbour bringing new patrons to the Company.
He expressed his disappointment in the relatively poor funding for the Arts in Australia compared to the generous funding given in most European countries. Also disappointing was the decline in arts coverage in the media.
The discussion turned to the critics symposium that Terracini facilitated in Brisbane in 2001. Sadly Terracini remarked that the quality of criticism has declined especially with the growth of the internet.
Opera Australia’s Artistic Director yearns for better written, more considered reviews like the reviews that George Bernard Shaw wrote before his brilliant career as a playwright took off.
Nowadays with social media almost anyone can be a ‘critic’. Terracini called for more to be done to develop a philosophical, balanced discourse and more serious arts writing rather than the brief, wrongly spelled Tweets. He did concede though that enthusiastic word of mouth still remains the best way to sell tickets.
Terracini described the main role of a critic as being ‘to mediate stylishly between the production and the audience’.
Lawrence brought up the controversial subject of how the Opera Australia Artistic Director blacklisted two critics from reviewing productions earlier in the year. Terracini strongly defended this decision. He is welcoming of informed negative reviews, however when the writing is vitriolic and feels more like a personal attack, that is when he decided that he had to step in.
The fine balancing act in programming a new season between putting on the classics and introducing new important new works such as The Rabbits and The Divorce came up for discussion.
A very engaged audience listened intently to the discussion between Terracini and Lawrence and then, in the brief time left, put forth a few well articulated questions of their own.
Running time I hour and 15 minutes.
The Culture Club talk CRITICS AND THE ARTS: LYNDON TERRACINI IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRISTOPHER LAWRENCE was held at the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House on Monday 7th December.