Despite having staged over 50 operas since 2003, independent company Melbourne Opera has not received a cent of state or federal funding to date.
‘Never – and we’re coming up on our 19th year,’ company director Greg Hocking told ArtsHub.
While the lack of government support is clearly a sore point for the company – ‘Frankly, we’ve been excluded by the Australia Council for donkey’s years, as have many other people,’ said Hocking – it certainly hasn’t impacted on the company’s ambitions.