Joseph O’Connor caught up with Fergus Sheil, Director of the Irish National Opera, to talk about juggling arts and business, setting the tone for his team and inspiring the next generation of creatives

While artists and creative professionals aren’t known for their business acumen, they’re often the ones scrapping the hardest for funding. Musician, composer and conductor Fergus Sheil can testify.

As a successful Irish conductor carving out his career abroad, Sheil recognised that Ireland was one of only a few European countries without a national opera. Seeing first-hand what these organisations delivered for artists, audiences and communities, he was determined to see one established at home.

So much so that years later, in 2017, when the Arts Council announced it would fund a new opera company, Sheil and his colleagues had already laid the groundwork for a successful tender.

“What we did in the years before was play a very strategic chess game where we ticked a lot of boxes,” says Sheil. That included setting up small-scale opera companies, Wide Open Opera and Opera Theatre Company, bringing opera around Ireland, and commissioning some big-name writers and composers for productions.

Their pitch was successful, and the following year, the Irish National Opera was founded, with Sheil appointed Artistic Director. “We hit the ground running, producing seven operas in the first year, and we’ve kept going at a pretty good pace since then,” he says.

Irish National Opera is a registered charity with an independent board of directors and while the larger office engages between 200 and 300 people each year, it has 19 full-time staff. According to Sheil, the nucleus team’s expansion and contracting throughout the year gives the organisation the flexibility it needs to be financially sound and successful.

“I still think of the company as in its infancy,” he says. “We have no dedicated, purpose-built opera house in Ireland. So we still have a long but exciting road ahead.”

Splitting Roles

Sheil has produced over 80 different operas, including works by major composers from Vivaldi to Wagner, and over 40 works by living composers. His most recent was a successful run of Rigoletto at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre. Despite his highly decorated career, perhaps one of his biggest accomplishments has been successfully running a company parallel to producing high-quality opera performances. So, how has Sheil found the juggling act?

“It’s taken me a long time to — I don’t want to say get good at it but — get comfortable with it,” he says. “I remember in my early days when organizing a project, you’d do everything yourself — contracting people, placing ads, doing all the marketing. I remember being in the middle of conducting a concert and thinking, ‘Oh, no, I didn’t bring the checkbook!’ It was very hard to divorce yourself from the creative side and be more practical.”

While Sheil still produces a couple of productions each year, which generally involve an intensive six weeks from rehearsal to performance, a big part of his role is budgeting for an organisation often planning 3-4 years in advance.

“It’s the same for any business, but knowing what you’re going to spend and sticking to it is really key,” he says. “There is a long history in Ireland and internationally of opera companies going bust,

which was a big worry for me at the start. You plan two, three, or even four years out because major singers, directors and conductors get booked up. It means you’re committed to money years out, and it’s a bit like a train leaving the station. It’s very difficult to call it back. So you have to be careful about what you plan and realistic about what you can afford.”

Sheil must be doing something right because, in its six plus years of operations, the Irish National Opera has never been in deficit. As an Arts Council-funded company and registered charity, the organisation plans to spend its entire yearly budget, which means little or no reserves, making operations all the more precarious.

“The pressure is on to put on a lot of opera,” says Sheil. “It makes you feel very fragile. Things could go wrong. Thankfully, they haven’t, but it’s a nerve-wracking game.”

People with Passion

Sheil puts much of Irish National Opera’s success down to hiring people passionate about opera — whether they’re working in accounting, marketing or admin. “They really need to know, understand and get opera,” he says. “When people send in CVs, one of the things I’m looking to see is, yes, are they qualified, but is there another element to what they do that leads me to believe that they would love, be passionate and committed to the work.”

In terms of personal characteristics, Sheil looks for people who show respect towards others — something he says the industry lacked in the past. “The arts can be quite a temperamental place with people who can be temperamental,” he says. “We try to work with people who are really respectful of others. That’s a change in opera compared to 20, 40 or 60 years ago when it was more autocratic with leaders barking orders.”

Sheil says he and his team strive to be collegiate, respectful, passionate and ambitious. “If I embody those traits in my work — if I’m passionate and driven but respectful of others, it reflects a lot. It’s important when you’re in a leadership position, that the tone you set and how you conduct yourself inspires others and how they work.”

Coming Full Circle

In 2023, Sheil was awarded an honorary Doctor in Letters from Trinity College Dublin, the university he first graduated from. Now, he’s come full circle, lecturing a module in career development in TCD’s music department. So, as a mentor, what qualities and values does Sheil instill in his students?

“Most of all, I try to give them some confidence and inspire them to believe that the ideas they have are possible to achieve,” he says. “That’s really why I’m doing it. I started out in Trinity myself, and I had lots of opportunities that led to great things. The music department has fostered a lot of really interesting outside-the-box thinkers and makers of music. So I wanted to do my bit.”

Sheil’s module, ‘From Page to Stage’, encompasses everything from building projects and putting teams together to getting funding, attracting audiences and marketing. Sheil says he wants to help students understand that the mechanisms are there to get your idea on stage. “There is a whole system of funding in Ireland. Of course, we’d all love it if there was more, but there are opportunities open to people.”

According to Sheil, education in his classroom is not a one-way process. He says he learns lots from the young people he teaches, understanding their motivations and perspectives, which often differ from his.

“I think that’s important, right across the board — to work with people of a different generation to you,” he says. “So often you get locked into a group think, believing there is only one way of doing things and thinking about the world. So it’s great to be challenged like that. I find it stimulating and interesting. I don’t know if the work I do makes an impression on them, but I hope it might at some point in their lives.”

When we speak, Sheil is just out of a rehearsal for Rigoletto and full of optimism and excitement, not only about the next performance but also about opera more generally.

“The thing that buzzes me about opera is that it’s so unpredictable,” he says. “I haven’t counted the numbers, but there’s probably between 150 and 200 people involved in putting on this opera, and it’s a combination of the talent of extraordinary people that will come together on that stage. That’s just such a rich experience.”

Three Key Lessons

Fergus shares three pieces of advice for those trying to make it in the arts, which can just as easily be applied to any line of business.

Always have ten ideas in your back pocket

“Don’t think there’s one way of doing something. Don’t approach your career in one way — know that there are many different paths. Don’t be afraid to go left a little because you might very well end up going back to where you were. Things won’t go in a straight line. Be flexible and respond to every opportunity.”

Try not to be the smartest person in the room

“If you’re collaborating with people who are smarter than you, you’re going to learn and develop. The natural, easy thing to do is gravitate to friends on the same level. See if there’s somebody a bit further up the career ladder than you, and reach out to them. You’d be surprised how many are willing to collaborate.”

Go big and ambitious

“In the arts, because of the limited funding available, we tend to make our ideas smaller so that they’re more achievable. I think the opposite. Go with your idea and make it bigger if you need to because it’s the idea that will get you the money. So, sometimes bigger and more ambitious is better. Keep your artistic integrity and your ideas really strong and see if you can get people to back you.”