Brutal boulevard for Opera Aust as it posts a $10m loss

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Brutal boulevard for Opera Aust as it posts a $10m loss

Opera Australia has plunged to an operating deficit of $10.6 million for 2024, thanks in part to its production of Sunset Boulevard.

The musical starring Sarah Brightman did indeed prove to be a brutal boulevard for the company – it saw poor reviews and Brightman herself unable to perform after an injury.

The annual financial reports released Friday reveal the sheer extent of the financial pressures the company was under as the co-production wrapped in Melbourne in the second half of 2024.

One of the company’s directors offered Opera Australia a $6 million interest-free loan last September, of which the company drew down $2 million that was repaid by the end of December.

Sunset Boulevard did manage to return to the ****** following a more successful run in Sydney, but as widely expected it missed box office forecasts.

But the 2024 operating figures for Australia’s national opera company are even worse than in 2023, when it returned a loss of $7.8 million.

Total box office was $50.7 million, making up just under half the company’s $106 million revenue.

The company also relies on taxpayer funding, with $23.9 million from Creative Australia, $3.8 million from Create NSW and another $1 million from Creative Victoria.

Opera Australia also raided its savings in 2024 to boost its bottom line by $4 million, making for an overall deficit of $6.1 million.

Chair Rod Sims acknowledged the result was well short of expectations and promised the 2025 result would be closer to breaking even, with a small profit expected in 2026.

“As you would expect, we have more to do to ensure our longer run financial sustainability, but we can and will do this,” he said.

Acting chief executive Simon Militano said better planning, cost controls, and a review of its approach to musicals will help.

“I am proud of the way that Opera Australia staff have stepped up and delivered excellence onstage despite the difficulties off stage,” he said.

These difficulties are no small matter – Opera Australia is currently recruiting a new chief executive, director of opera, and music director.

Much of the 2024 program was put in place by artistic director Jo Davies, who left abruptly in August nine months into the job, followed by chief executive Fiona Allan’s departure in January 2025.

The company says it’s also navigating the cost-of-living crisis, a challenging market for live theatre, and a hike in production costs,

In Melbourne, the closure of the State Theatre until 2027 has been an ongoing issue, with productions staged at the smaller Regent Theatre, and Davies experimenting with Tosca at Melbourne Park’s Margaret Court Arena.

But things have improved in 2025 with ticket sales above expectations so far, and projections for the rest of the year in line with its budget.

Highlights of the company’s 2024 offering included La Traviata, Orpheus and Eurydice, Idomeneo and The Magic Flute at the Sydney Opera House, and Handa Opera’s West Side Story on Sydney Harbour.

Contemporary work Breaking the Waves was staged at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, while Puccini’s La Bohème visited regional Victoria, NSW, and Tasmania.

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