Crisis at ENO?

[aeolium]

I have just read this article commenting on the latest developments in the situation at ENO:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/01/crisis-eno-coliseum-national-opera-malaise

I can't really comment on the quality of ENO's productions as it has been so long since I have attended one, though I did watch the cinema broadcast of Terry Gilliam's wonderful Benvenuto Cellini recently. Is the Coliseum itself part of the problem, as Charlotte Higgins seems to think, or is it as much the severe cut in the arts council grant to ENO?

[LHC]

I have just read this article commenting on the latest developments in the situation at ENO:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/01/crisis-eno-coliseum-national-opera-malaise

I can't really comment on the quality of ENO's productions as it has been so long since I have attended one, though I did watch the cinema broadcast of Terry Gilliam's wonderful Benvenuto Cellini recently. Is the Coliseum itself part of the problem, as Charlotte Higgins seems to think, or is it as much the severe cut in the arts council grant to ENO?

This cut in funding by ACE this year won't have helped ENO's precarious position, but its problems predate the cut. ENO does seem to have lost its way in recent years. Some of their productions have been excellent, but too many others have been poor to disastrous. The artistic director, John Berry, was also prone to hiring directors with no experience (or sometime even interest) in opera, which resulted in some strikingly amateurish productions. Its marketing has also often been crass, with the result that the core audience has been alienated, but not replaced by the young trendies that ENO appeared to be trying to attract.

Its biggest problem is that attendance has declined dramatically, and its response to this has been bizarre to say the least. Ticket prices have risen almost to Royal Opera House levels, but then they have to be given away in numerous cut price deals. Many ENO regulars now don't bother to buy advance tickets, but wait for the 1/2 price and better deals to appear. For example, both ENO and the ROH put on Wozzeck last year. The ROH cast included Simon Keenlyside and Karita Mattila, but their tickets were actually cheaper than ENO's!

[Cockney Sparrow]

And yes, for goodness sake, the Coliseum is the WRONG THEATRE for this company.

And the late lamented Intermezzo blog documented, blow by blow, the crass management and its ill effects in virtually all respects.

An example of the effect of alienating core audience and failing to secure the much vaunted younger generations - except that, unlike BBC Radio 3, it doesn't have a (relatively) stable tax levy guaranteed to fund all of its costs, so there is no averting in the end the hard forces of ticket income falling.

I was a regular attended in the Elder / Pountney days. In the past 10 years its been Covent Garden - where I don't feel I have to use a telescope to see what is happening on stage. Its all a great shame - could the company not thrive again at Sadlers Wells, under decent and effective management?

[makropulos]

And yes, for goodness sake, the Coliseum is the WRONG THEATRE for this company.

And the late lamented Intermezzo blog documented, blow by blow, the crass management and its ill effects in virtually all respects.

An example of the effect of alienating core audience and failing to secure the much vaunted younger generations - except that, unlike BBC Radio 3, it doesn't have a (relatively) stable tax levy guaranteed to fund all of its costs, so there is no averting in the end the hard forces of ticket income falling.

I was a regular attended in the Elder / Pountney days. In the past 10 years its been Covent Garden - where I don't feel I have to use a telescope to see what is happening on stage. Its all a great shame - could the company not thrive again at Sadlers Wells, under decent and effective management?

Well said. You take the words out of my mouth. My formative operatic experiences were almost all at ENO during the Mackerras/Harewood years, then the Elder/Poutney years. Many great things, and many tremendous memories. Since about 2000 I've only been an occasional visitor to ENO - and there have been some good things despite management blunders and some very odd artistic/programming decisions.

Give ENO's declining audience - which surely has to have something to do with its now hair-raising ticket prices - a move back to Sadler's Wells (a great place since the refurb a few years ago) would seem like a thoroughly good idea if only SW wasn't now billing itself as "London's Dance House" - undoubtedly a clever move by Sadler's Wells, but a problem if you want to move an opera company in there.

[Lento]

Seems the Board may have sided with Berry.

[french frank]

would seem like a thoroughly good idea if only SW wasn't now billing itself as "London's Dance House" - undoubtedly a clever move by Sadler's Wells, but a problem if you want to move an opera company in there.

OTOH, it does say: 'Incorporating Sadler's Wells Theatre, Peacock Theatre and Lilian Baylis Theatre, which specialise in dance, ballet and musical theatre'. If ENO are going to start putting on productions like Sweeney Todd there does seem to be a convergence of purpose.

[aeolium]

OTOH, it does say: 'Incorporating Sadler's Wells Theatre, Peacock Theatre and Lilian Baylis Theatre, which specialise in dance, ballet and musical theatre'. If ENO are going to start putting on productions like Sweeney Todd there does seem to be a convergence of purpose.

Well, Sweeney Todd was performed at Covent Garden a decade ago. This spring, ENO are also putting on The Pirates of Penzance, with Mike Leigh directing. I think that is fine, especially from a company committed to performing works in English. But it needs to be complemented by more ambitious work, such as that Benvenuto Cellini I mentioned (and, going back several decades, one of the last productions I attended, Pountney's excellent production of Busoni's Doktor Faust). How they can manage this in their present financial predicament I have no idea.

[french frank]

Well, Sweeney Todd was performed at Covent Garden a decade ago. This spring, ENO are also putting on The Pirates of Penzance, with Mike Leigh directing. I think that is fine, especially from a company committed to performing works in English. But it needs to be complemented by more ambitious work, such as that Benvenuto Cellini I mentioned (and, going back several decades, one of the last productions I attended, Pountney's excellent production of Busoni's Doktor Faust). How they can manage this in their present financial predicament I have no idea.

I wasn't querying them putting on the productions, just pointing out that Sadler's Wells does claim to cover 'musical theatre' hence the suggestion that SW's London's 'House of Dance' shouldn't totally exclude the possibility of a shared theatre.

[makropulos]

I wasn't querying them putting on the productions, just pointing out that Sadler's Wells does claim to cover 'musical theatre' hence the suggestion that SW's London's 'House of Dance' shouldn't totally exclude the possibility of a shared theatre.

I hope you're right, FF. That's a good point. A return to Roseberry Avenue could be a very good idea.

[gurnemanz]

I can't really comment on the quality of ENO's productions as it has been so long since I have attended one, though I did watch the cinema broadcast of Terry Gilliam's wonderful Benvenuto Cellini recently.

My mind went back to my first ENO visit back in 1977. My wife and I were wandering randomly down St Martins Lane one afternoon and noticed they were doing Massenet's Werther with Janet Baker that night with Charles Mackerras conducting. Pre-kids, with nothing better to do later on, we toddled in and bought a couple of tickets. I've dug out the programme. It turns out that none other than one Ian Bostridge was playing one of the children. It was a fine staging and performance, as far as I remember. I admire Janet Baker greatly and this was surprisingly the only time I ever saw her live.

I tend to prefer operas in the original language and in the mean time we haven't actually been back that often, but all good: Jonathan Miller's Rosenkavalier, Parsifal and most recently Terry Gilliam's Damnation of Faust

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I hope you're right, FF. That's a good point. A return to Roseberry Avenue could be a very good idea.

Well, perhaps - but this would be purely for financial reasons, wouldn't it? All the most fondly remembered productions mentioned so far on this Thread have all taken place in the Coliseum, haven't they? The Goodall Ring, too? Apart from the reference to needing a telescope, nobody has criticized the venue per se. Changing the venue might ease the financial problems, but these originate in the docking of a third of the funding, and poor management - unless these are addressed, ENO's difficulties might be alleviated, but they won't be solved. And where do they go after the next funding cuts?

[makropulos]

Well, perhaps - but this would be purely for financial reasons, wouldn't it? All the most fondly remembered productions mentioned so far on this Thread have all taken place in the Coliseum, haven't they? The Goodall Ring, too? Apart from the reference to needing a telescope, nobody has criticized the venue per se. Changing the venue might ease the financial problems, but these originate in the docking of a third of the funding, and poor management - unless these are addressed, ENO's difficulties might be alleviated, but they won't be solved. And where do they go after the next funding cuts?

True. I first went to SWO/ENO just after the move to the Coli - and in time for things like War and Peace, the 1973 Katya, the Goodall/Mackerras Ring (CM conducted the first night of Rhinegold as RG was ill), and so much else. But if it's becoming impossible to fill maybe it's time to think again (though if I remember rightly, ENO actually owns the building - one of the many good things Peter Jonas did at the company was to buy the freehold). It's certainly a company it would be good to see prospering and that's not really happening in the way it should at the moment, despite some good things.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

It's certainly a company it would be good to see prospering and that's not really happening in the way it should at the moment, despite some good things.

[french frank]

Well, perhaps - but this would be purely for financial reasons, wouldn't it? All the most fondly remembered productions mentioned so far on this Thread have all taken place in the Coliseum, haven't they? The Goodall Ring, too? Apart from the reference to needing a telescope, nobody has criticized the venue per se. Changing the venue might ease the financial problems, but these originate in the docking of a third of the funding, and poor management - unless these are addressed, ENO's difficulties might be alleviated, but they won't be solved. And where do they go after the next funding cuts?

Well #2 said the problems predated the ACE cuts, and that audiences had declined 'dramatically' before that - hence the querying of the largest theatre in London as a suitable home. The Coliseum wasn't built as an opera house.

[Frances_iom]

... The Coliseum wasn't built as an opera house.

built as a Music Hall - I too stopped going around 2000 after a sequence of very poor productions.
The house is much too large for many younger voices - a move to a smaller house + better management might just revive its fortune.