To the art music aficionados - a kvetch.

I don't want to make nice with the NZSO. I'd rather put them to the sword in an interview.

I mean, even if I ticked them off now, 10 years later they'd still play the piece. Particularly if Shipwrecked happens. Composing is a life-long game. -

I honestly want them to explain themselves. How is it that they get $16 million each year with a dwindling audience?

I'm not Jeremy Wells or some journo who doesn't know. I know how the system functions, and I grew up being taught that it was natural and right. -

$9 million on the opera. That's at least $8 million more than the total sum of my entire oeuvre. I doubt I've spent more than $300,000 over a decade...

Total waste of taxpayer money. How could it possibly cost that much? That's roughly half the cost of a Broadway show - we should be able to do it for 1/4. -

I don't want to hear crap about the 'living wage' - orchestral players make significantly more than that via their annual stipend, which doesn't cover the ballet and opera gigs (so far as I know). And it seems like the NZSO picks up their physio bills, which again is something they could easily afford. - Plus the $90 (or more) an hour the NZSO players charge for private lessons. NZSM teachers too... the state funding is just baking inequities into the system. - Re: Unruly Tourists - I seriously doubt that the money went to the singers. It probably went to lights and set design, which to me is the sign of the rot/cost inflation that is killing musical theatre. $9 million could fund a far more elaborate film - Hunt For The Wilderpeople cost around $5 million (I think...).