A frightening (parliamentary) report on opera

[Historian]

Very interesting, but why no mention of arts, music and opera in Scotland and/or Northern Ireland? Scotland has some surviving and thriving [to an extent - though perhaps limited] opera companies and orchestras. I know little about Ireland or Northern Ireland.

It mentions in the introduction that arts funding is a devolved matter and this report focuses on (The) Arts Council (in) England. Therefore the report focuses on England and Wales insofar as WNO receives ACE funding.

[Dave2002]

I’ve written to ACE three times about the ENO and WNO cuts , signed several petitions all to no avail .

…..

Meanwhile I shall console myself with a La Boheme rehearsal next week, Jenufa in January and Die Walküre in May not to mention Die Frau Ohne Schatten *from the Met tonight.

WNO did a sensational production of that very opera in the 80’s . Now they’d struggle to get the cash to do Capriccio.

I remember driving to Bristol to see Die Frau - a huge opera to put on. Is one of the recordings still one of the most expensive ever made?

[Dave2002]

It mentions in the introduction that arts funding is a devolved matter and this report focuses on (The) Arts Council (in) England. Therefore the report focuses on England and Wales insofar as WNO receives ACE funding.

I’m sure you are right, but do we also need to have pressure on the devolved administrations? There isn’t much evidence that they handle culture any better or more sympathetically than the England and Wales administration.

[NeilSchofield]

I’m sure you are right, but do we also need to have pressure on the devolved administrations? There isn’t much evidence that they handle culture any better or more sympathetically than the England and Wales administration.

I'm inclined to say that Wales is the worst of the lot. The Welsh Government has cut arts funding by 40 per cent since 2017 and nobody will be surprised to learn that music has taken the biggest hit. The cuts at WNO - on top of those imposed by ACE - mean that it may no longer be able to function as a full-time company; it has sacked a third of its chorus and as I understand it the orchestral musicians are being placed on reduced contracts. Mid Wales Opera - which took full-scale opera to venues around Wales that would never get it otherwise (and with whom, incidentally, I have sung as a Community Chorus member) - has been completely defunded; as a result it will no be confined to doing small stage performances with piano. St David's Hall - which Cardiff Council has been trying to get shot of for years - is currently closed because of RAAC in the roof; there has been no progress on repairs and as a result next year's Cardiff Singer of the World has been cancelled and I know of nobody in the musical world in Cardiff who believes it will ever happen again. The Junior Deparment at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama has been closed; 200 children, many of them from the poorest communities in South Wales, have lost their music tuition and in some cases their loan instruments.

And of course Cardiff University has just announced the closure of its music course. That leaves Bangor as the only Welsh University offering an academic music degree - but Bangor has just announced further cuts and the closure of departments - none has been identified as yet but music has long been regarded as under threat. If that goes, anyone wanting to study for an academic music degree will need to leave Wales. (The situation has not been helped by the astonishing performance of Wendy Larner, VC of Cardiff University, on the Today programme, claiming that there was an "alternative" at the RWCMD, presumably not knowing the difference between a conservatory training and an academic degree).

And it's not just music. The National Theatre of Wales was completely defunded; Michael Sheen got on his white charger and rode to the rescue, pledging his own money to save it. There's nobody to do that for music.

The response of Cymru's politicians has, predictably enough, been to wash their hands. They don't care. Welsh Ministers won't even meet WNO campaigners, and barely acknowledge their correspondence. The Welsh Arts Minister has attracted widespread ridicule for claiming there was "no crisis" in the arts; the reality is that the arts in general, and music in particular, in Cymru are in a state of existential crisis.

It's desperate. How can a nation once so proud of its musical heritage have come to this?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thanks for the excellent but depressing summary Neil. I had the pleasure of meeting several protesting chorus members outside Plymouths Theatre Royal this spring and signed the petition . In past years WNO have bought half a dozen operas here . Next year just one The Flying Dutchman plus things like a Night At The Opera and a community inspired opera . Wales the Land Of Song ? Not with this arts council lot in charge. It’s not just opera . Go back to the 70’s and in addition to Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau at Welsh Rugby Internationals you’d hear Sosban Fach , Cwm Rhondda. Now all you ever hear is that dirge Hymns and Arias. Not even accurate - no Hymns and pretty soon no arias .