A scene from the COC's production of "Death in Venice": Despite sellouts, funds are shortMICHAEL COOPER
You know that times are tight when even a company that sells out every show can barely make it into the black by the end of the year. The Canadian Opera Company packed Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for 70 mainstage performances in 2009-2010, and sold more single tickets than ever, but still needed a cash infusion from the COC Foundation to turn an operating deficit of $194,000 into a surplus of $21,000.
The company's offerings, in full productions, educational programs and free concerts (78 of them, attended by 16,000 people), were a strong draw with the public, which also responded well when fundraisers came to call: Nearly three-quarters of donations came from individuals. But total fundraising topped out at just under $9-million, down from the nearly $10-million raised in 2008.
Box office rose by more than 6 per cent, accounting for 41 per cent of the total revenue of $32.5-million. Fundraising and sponsorships accounted for 28 per cent, government grants (which increased slightly over 2009) covered 19 per cent and revenue from production and space rentals amounted to 12 per cent.
COC president Paul Spafford said that cost-cutting and partnerships with other organizations also helped the company stay on course for the year. The COC still carries a net deficit of $1.4-million; the COC Foundation's assets remained virtually flat at $20-million.
The year's productions included new productions of Verdi's Otello and Mozart's Idomeneo, the Canadian stage premiere of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and the debut of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, a four-company collaboration featuring music by Stravinsky and production by Canadian stage director Robert Lepage, in association with his company Ex Machina. The show won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for production and will appear at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March for four shows, co-presented by the COC.