The end of ENO?

[LHC]

I see that the Arts Council has decided to stop funding ENO.

Instead of the £12.5m it previously received it has been offered £17m over the next three years to move out of London (probably to Manchester). This is not entirely unexpected given the problems ENO has had in the last decade, and it’s decision a few years ago to become a part-time opera company, renting the Colliseum out for musicals for large parts of the year. ACE had also been instructed by the Government to move funding out of London (presumably as part of its almost abandoned leveling up strategy).

ENO is trying to put a brave face on the announcement and has said it intends to retain the Colliseum and will rent it out for use as a commercial theatre.

This is not the first time there have been attempts to establish an opera company in Manchester. Several years ago the Royal Opera announced plans to open a second opera house there, but these were quickly dropped due to little interest and no funding. So far these attempts have all failed, and there is little evidence that there is a large enough audience for opera in Manchester to support a permanent opera company.

This looks like the beginning of the end for ENO.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Thing is moving it to Manchester means cutting across Opera North. I think Birmingham with a possible link up with Brum Royal Ballet has more logic to it . Or even Bristol - but then that cuts across WNO.
A sad day..so many great memories

[smittims]

This is not just sad, but I think tragic, in the context of Government spending incidents recently, and when one think of ENO's wonderful achievements over the years. 17 million is very small compared with the amounts that have been simply wasted in recent years in other areas.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is not just sad, but I think tragic, in the context of Government spending incidents recently, and when one think of ENO's wonderful achievements over the years. 17 million is very small compared with the amounts that have been simply wasted in recent years in other areas.

According to the Times the subsidy was £12.5 million . They’ve been offered £17 mill by Serota ( who has far too much power ) to “re-imagine “ opera in Britain. What a lot of cobblers. I just don’t think the Manchester idea will work…

[LHC]

According to the Times the subsidy was £12.5 million . They’ve been offered £17 mill by Serota ( who has far too much power ) to “re-imagine “ opera in Britain. What a lot of cobblers.

And that’s for three years, so only £5.6m a year.

[Ein Heldenleben]

And that’s for three years, so only £5.6m a year.

That won’t touch the sides. Really feel for the now redundant orchestra , chorus , backstage techs and staff. Hopefully some one will pick up the tab in the Lemon Tree tonight.

[Simon B]

Sadly, it does look like the beginning of the end which has been on the cards for a long time - and that was before the omni-crisis that the 2020s look set for.

Worthy of note but so far mostly overshadowed by the news about ENO, is that ACE's funding of WNO is simultaneously being cut by 33% - several £M p.a. This funding is associated with the touring part of WNO's operation - which these days is largely of English venues. WNO already operates on a shoestring and with attendances which seem particularly and lastingly hard-hit by CoVid. Not promising.

What is the intention here? Is the thought that a ghostly vestige of ENO based "In the North" could start serving Birmingham, Liverpool, Milton Keynes etc instead of WNO? As I understand it, ENO was always expressly prohibited from doing this precisely because it would damage the already-fragile status quo with the English regional venues divided up between WNO and Opera North. It's hard to see how that doesn't end badly for all of them in a context of rapidly escalating costs and vanishing £.

My anecdata is that there's little sign of an untapped market for a conventional opera company in Manchester anyway - based on how Opera North did at the Lowry pre-CoVid. "Sometimes ok..." would be a summary.

Right now, the only company that appears to be doing ok on all of attendances, finances, artistic standards and reasonable prospects is the ROH.

Regardless of the machinations, you've really got to feel for the all the shop floor staff of ENO and the freelancers who currently depend on it for some or all of their work. What will they do now?

[Pulcinella]

From the Guardian (my bold):

++++++++++++++++++++

Serota said the ENO’s decision to relocate outside the capital was “their idea, not one we put to them. They’ve long wanted to do more outside London. And the potential of them working from a base in the north is quite exciting.”

He acknowledged that the removal of regular funding to the opera house would be challenging, but “the scale of money that we had to take out of London necessitated looking at a number of the larger organisations”.

ACE had been clear for several years that it wanted “to do more outside London for communities that have not previously had public funding for the art.”

It received 1,700 applications for funding this year, compared with 1,100 in the previous round five years ago. “It’s right that we should respond to energy, imagination and opportunity across the country. I don’t think we shouldn’t be apologetic about it.”

++++++++++++++++++++

Eh?

(Possibly a Guardian mistake, though!)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Sadly, it does look like the beginning of the end which has been on the cards for a long time barring miracles - and that was before the omni-crisis that the 2020s look set for.

Worthy of note, but so far mostly understandably overshadowed by the news about ENO is that ACE's funding of WNO is simultaneously being cut by 33% - several £M p.a. This funding is associated with the touring part of WNO's operation - which these days is largely of English venues. WNO already operates on a shoestring, and with attendances which seem particularly and lastingly hard-hit by CoVid. Not promising.

What is the intention here? Is the thought that a ghostly vestige of ENO based "In the North" could start serving Birmingham, Liverpool, Milton Keynes etc? As I understand it, ENO was always expressly prohibited from doing this precisely because it would damage the already-fragile status quo with the English regional venues divided up between WNO and Opera North. It's hard to see how that doesn't end badly for all of them in a context of rapidly escalating costs and vanishing £.

My anecdata is that there's little sign of an untapped market for a conventional opera company in Manchester anyway - based on how Opera North did at the Lowry pre-CoVid. "Sometimes ok..." would be a summary.

Right now, the only company that appears to be doing ok on all of attendances, finances, artistic standards and reasonable prospects is the ROH.

Regardless of the machinations, you've really got to feel for the all the shop floor staff of ENO and the freelancers who currently depend on it for some or all of their work. What will they do now?

Thanks Simon - Seriously bad news re WNO .Went to see them last week in the Makropoulos Case - excellent production. Better than the recent ROH Aida which has become for me a benchmark of awfulness. Good cast with Nicky Spence etc . The tickets a mere £32 in the side stalls. The previous nights La Boheme was a sell out but TMC was about two thirds full with the top tier closed. Something bad is happening with opera and classical music audiences . They haven’t picked up after Covid. The BSO have Sarah Connolly at a concert in Exeter next week and it looks two thirds unsold at the moment.
I have an awful feeling that the touring part of WNO will fold. So for opera it’ll be a 500 mile round trip to London or 200 miles to Bristol/Cardiff. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to afford it but many,many people can’t. This doesn’t strike me as levelling up tbh.

[Master Jacques]

It is a sad and terrible day, when the country's most iconic opera company, with its noble track record for fostering British opera and opera in English stretching back nearly 100 years, has been summarily ditched. There is no prospect of a Manchester home for ENO - Serota is lying that ENO suggested it - and the cuts to WNO and Glyndebourne have almost gone unnoticed in the melee. I rather assume that Opera North won't have escaped severe pruning either. Meanwhile the Royal Opera only loses 9% of its gargantuan funding.

ENO's recent slow car-crash of a history is down to chronic underfunding over more than a decade, accelerated under weak organisational and artistic leadership; but we should recognise that the decision to ruin opera in England and Wales (while reallocating the money to social-service based local organisations and Blackpool Illuminations) is politically motivated, another nasty facet of populist government.

We here know it's a lie, but the mantra that "opera is not for us" dies hard in the regions where the current government is desperate to do anything - anything! - which it believes will give it a chance to hang on to a parliamentary seat or two. The truth is, that the company which ought to have been defunded is the Royal Opera, which is perfectly well able to seek and find commercial and private sponsorship to keep itself afloat, for its exclusive metropolitan and international audience.

[Master Jacques]

So for opera it’ll be a 500 mile round trip to London or 200 miles to Bristol/Cardiff. I am in the very fortunate position of being able to afford it but many,many people can’t. This doesn’t strike me as levelling up tbh.

Actually, for most people in England and Wales it will be cheaper to fly to Amsterdam or Germany, see an opera there, stay over and fly back, than it will be to pay for a couple of half-decent seats at Covent Garden, where the standards are in any case generally lower.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Actually, for most people in England and Wales it will be cheaper to fly to Amsterdam or Germany, see an opera there, stay over and fly back, than it will be to pay for a couple of half-decent seats at Covent Garden, where the standards are in any case generally lower.

Except for those of us who have decided not to fly unless there is no alternative. I’m limiting myself to one medium haul flight every year and opera abroad doesn’t come into the no alternative category /

[Simon B]

I rather assume that Opera North won't have escaped severe pruning either.

Thankfully not. It is actually one of the few NPO Orchestras/Opera Companies to receive a (very small, cash not real terms) increase in both the 22/23 and 23-26 funding rounds.

[Simon B]

In case it informs the debate, there are some interesting details in the specifics for the different orchestras and opera companies.

Approximate changes, 2018-22 average vs 2023-26 settlement, not adjusted for inflation (so all are cuts in real terms) E&OE:


LSO: 10% cut
LPO: 10% cut
Philharmonia: 10% cut
RPO: 2% increase
CBSO: 2% increase
RLPO: 11% increase
Hallé: 2% increase
Bournemouth SO: 2% increase

WNO: 35% cut
ROH: 10% cut
Opera North: 3% increase
ENO: Removal from NPO

The politics is mostly kind of obvious...

[french frank]

Just had an email from WNO:

"… as we experience rising costs and reduced income in the current challenging economic climate, we will inevitably need to review the impact of this decision on the delivery of our services in England in light of the announcement. "

In fact their visits to Bristol had already been cut back several years ago, probably due to the fact that it was closest to Cardiff.