Local talent should get centre stage

CORK Opera House is saying, in effect, to the people of Cork city and county to come in during a recession and line the pockets of foreign artists and production companies.

And that’s what the Cork City Council (CCC) thinks “supporting the arts” is all about.

Surely if CCC had conditioned its funding to the Opera House, insisting local artists were included in the programming, we would see ticket revenues going back into Cork, maintaining jobs and boosting the local economy.

The board members/councillors seem to have no awareness of what the Opera House actually is and why it was beloved for so many years. It’s not the building... it’s the people in it. It’s the access that Cork had to the stage, not just to the auditorium.

If CCC truly supports the arts and wants to see Cork artists off the dole and not emigrating, and if they want to stop continually amateurising local theatre companies, then they should give the extra €250,000 the Opera House is seeking, but with the proviso that they use it for local in-house productions.

Lisa Zagone

Quartertown

Mallow

Co Cork