Opera Australia Receives $4 Million Grant to Ensure its Survival

Opera Australia has received $4 million to ensure its survival after being forced to cancel its winter season, as well as its production of The Phantom of the Opera, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The money was allocated to the company as part of the federal government's COVID-19 Arts Sustainability Fund. It also received $1 million from the same fund in May.

The grant comes after Opera Australia's artistic director Lyndon Terracini made a plea for state and federal assistance.

It is still unclear when the company will return to performances, but chief executive Rory Jeffes said he was hopeful the production of Wagner's Ring Cycle at Brisbane's Queensland Performing Arts Centre will proceed in October.

"We will still have the Ring Cycle in Queensland and we can see what we can announce at the back of this year. The big unknown is what the confidence of audiences will be," Jeffes said. "The problem with rescheduling seasons is there has to be an enormous amount of people who have to be available domestically and internationally and we are still working through that."

The federal money will not solve all the company's financial difficulties but it was an "incredible boost to morale in these dark days," Jeffes said.

Read more on Sydney Morning Herald.