Arts Notes

Vancouver Opera has reason to sing, after posting its eighth operating surplus in nine years. For the year ended June 30, 2008, the company reported an operating surplus of $50,770 on a budget of $8.7 million. According to its 2007-2008 annual report, VO now has an accumulated surplus/working capital reserve of more than $700,000.

In addition, earned and contributed revenue both increased this year, and ticket sales reached 120 percent of goals for the season, according to a news release.

That’s in stark contrast to the scene in 1996-1997, when VO ran a $1-million deficit; much of its renewed success can be attributed to its general director, James W. Wright, who joined the company in 1999.

Now on stable financial footing, the company has been branching out into new territory, with original productions and new operas appearing with increasing frequency in its programs.

This November it will stage an original production of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and in March 2010 it will unveil a new production of John Adams’s Nixon in China, marking the Canadian premiere of the work. The fall of 2010 will also include the world premiere of the VO’s commissioned opera Lillian Alling, by composer John Estacio and librettist John Murrell.

And in the 2011-2012 season VO will take part in a co-production, with Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the Wexford Festival in Ireland., in a new production of John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles.