The end of ENO?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Interesting indeed, thank you. Wigglesworth offers a good case history of what happens when the artists (who generally know the best way to go about their business) are overridden by management consultancies, self-interested administrative ciphers and boards of the Great and Good.

Getting McKinsey in was a huge , huge mistake.

[LHC]

Good article by Mark Wigglesworth in today’s Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/20...k-wigglesworth

It's a good and illuminating article, but I'd advise against reading the comments BTL, which show a level of wilful ignorance worthy of the Daily Mail. Apparently tickets for Covent Garden cost between £400 and £500 each, all arts organisations should be removed from the Capital immediately, and because lots of people pay to go to the Glastonbury Festival, arts organisations (and opera in particular) should not be subsidised.

[ChandlersFord]

It's a good and illuminating article, but I'd advise against reading the comments BTL, which show a level of wilful ignorance worthy of the Daily Mail. Apparently tickets for Covent Garden cost between £400 and £500 each, all arts organisations should be removed from the Capital immediately, and because lots of people pay to go to the Glastonbury Festival, arts organisations (and opera in particular) should not be subsidised.

That's actually fairly typical of the Guardian's current readership, most of whom are more into football and 'popular culture' than the so-called 'high arts'.

[Ein Heldenleben]

One of the comments reminds us that it was ENO that established Opera North - Lord Harewood’s idea in 1977. I think he would have had an interest as he owned a large swathe of Yorkshire .Without getting all foreleg tugging he belonged to a different era - one in which aristocrats had a sense of public obligation. Now the two organisations he nurtured are engaged in a fight to the death I suspect .
The much reviled seventies - in fact a decade of cultural optimism .Just look at this country now…

[Frances_iom]

....
The much reviled seventies - in fact a decade of cultural optimism .Just look at this country now…

There is a review of Matthew Engel's book "The Reign ..Part 1.. 1952-79" in this weeks Tablet - Christopher Bray the reviewer points out that at the end of this period Britain was the most equal country in the world - soon to be undone by Thatcher whose sins arising from the dismemberment of the post war settlement will I suspect will outlast her children's children.

[Master Jacques]

One of the comments reminds us that it was ENO that established Opera North - Lord Harewood’s idea in 1977. I think he would have had an interest as he owned a large swathe of Yorkshire .Without getting all foreleg tugging he belonged to a different era - one in which aristocrats had a sense of public obligation. Now the two organisations he nurtured are engaged in a fight to the death I suspect .
The much reviled seventies - in fact a decade of cultural optimism .Just look at this country now…

It's good to remind us that Opera North started off as an offshoot of ENO, with Leeds chosen over Manchester for its proximity to Harewood House. As the company was started on a shoestring, its first director didn't want to cause the fledgling company any extra expense in putting him up!

In 1950 he also founded Opera magazine, the art form's 'trade journal' ever since, endowing it with funds enough to keep its independence intact for the foreseeable future. We owe him a huge debt, and I think it is fair to say that this current fiasco would have been averted had he still been around, such was his beneficial influence.

[Ein Heldenleben]

It's good to remind us that Opera North started off as an offshoot of ENO, with Leeds chosen over Manchester for its proximity to Harewood House. As the company was started on a shoestring, its first director didn't want to cause the fledgling company any extra expense in putting him up!

In 1950 he also founded Opera magazine, the art form's 'trade journal' ever since, endowing it with funds enough to keep its independence intact for the foreseeable future. We owe him a huge debt, and I think it is fair to say that this current fiasco would have been averted had he still been around, such was his beneficial influence.

Thing is when Hitler ,no less, has signed your death warrant dealing with the Arts Council is a walk in the park.
I didn’t realise the exact reason for the Leeds base . Good for him as Leeds is always losing out culturally., Having ENO based in Manchester is a non starter. It would be better off in Brum.

[LHC]

One other point I've noticed in the Arts Council's proposals for ENO concerns the Coliseum, which is owned by ENO.

Part of the ACE proposals are that, even though ENO will be forced to move out of London, it will retain the Coli and rent it out to other organisations (presumably to help pay for its future unsubsidised existence) and perhaps even make use of it for occasional visits to the Capital. However, ACE has also proposed in its small print that ENO should make the Coli available to the remaining ACE-funded organisations 'at preferential rates', thereby undermining any commercial benefit to ENO from retaining and managing the building.

Lebrecht has also reported on his site that DCMS has opened discussions with the Royal Albert Hall about it taking over the Coli and managing it, although this seems a rather speculative story (rumour) given that neither DCMS nor the Arts Council actually own the building.

[oddoneout]

It's a good and illuminating article, but I'd advise against reading the comments BTL, which show a level of wilful ignorance worthy of the Daily Mail. Apparently tickets for Covent Garden cost between £400 and £500 each, all arts organisations should be removed from the Capital immediately, and because lots of people pay to go to the Glastonbury Festival, arts organisations (and opera in particular) should not be subsidised.

I've read through the comments and that's not the impression I got, or at least no more such comments than would be expected, and far far fewer than you would find for instance in my local rag about anything to do with "poncey arty-farty stuff" that might have the temerity to want a bit of cash to put on a concert or a theatre production. The comments you refer to were early ones.
There seemed to be quite a few people who know at least something of the opera scene in this country and plenty who questioned how moving to Manchester would help either ENO or any of the existing companies already based in/operating in that territory. There was also reference to the different situation on mainland Europe with regard to provision and funding of opera.

[LHC]

I've read through the comments and that's not the impression I got, or at least no more such comments than would be expected, and far far fewer than you would find for instance in my local rag about anything to do with "poncey arty-farty stuff" that might have the temerity to want a bit of cash to put on a concert or a theatre production. The comments you refer to were early ones.
There seemed to be quite a few people who know at least something of the opera scene in this country and plenty who questioned how moving to Manchester would help either ENO or any of the existing companies already based in/operating in that territory. There was also reference to the different situation on mainland Europe with regard to provision and funding of opera.

I read the article quite early this morning. Some more balanced and knowledgeable responses have clearly been added since then.

[ChandlersFord]

Thing is when Hitler ,no less, has signed your death warrant dealing with the Arts Council is a walk in the park.
I didn’t realise the exact reason for the Leeds base . Good for him as Leeds is always losing out culturally., Having ENO based in Manchester is a non starter. It would be better off in Brum.

Birmingham already has its own opera company and a very famous symphony orchestra. Despite this, it's barren grounds for the arts as Brum is now (and has been for some time) a philistine city. Liverpool, which has never been a philistine city, would actually be a better bet, but hardly ideal. Bottom line is: the english regions can't sustain more than one full-time opera company.

[Pulcinella]

From York (where we go to Leeds for ON) it is of course quicker to get by train to London than to Manchester.
We need The Northern Powerhouse to get us moving here first!

[Master Jacques]

Birmingham already has its own opera company and a very famous symphony orchestra. Despite this, it's barren grounds for the arts as Brum is now (and has been for some time) a philistine city. Liverpool, which has never been a philistine city, would actually be a better bet, but hardly ideal. Bottom line is: the english regions can't sustain more than one full-time opera company.

It is frustrating. Opera has been popular when it's been given a proper shot. When we think that in Germany every town of the size of (say) Nottingham has its own, dedicated theatre and opera company, performing a wide repertoire of baroque, romantic and modern opera all year round at prices everyone can afford, there is no reason - apart from the cult of Anglo-American commercial pop music and television with which our country is uniquely cursed - why Liverpool, Nottingham or Sheffield deserve so much less than their German counterparts.

We choose not to maintain opera and the performing arts properly here, dimly assuming that somehow they jolly well ought to "stand on their own two feet", which very little good art in the West ever has. Good theatre, musical or otherwise, has almost always needed subsidy in one form or other. So every year we allow our people to slip deeper into spiritual poverty, without doing anything to address their physical poverty either - something Germany suffers from just as we do. The centre of Bayreuth is as run down as the centre of Matlock (a town of comparable size), but they have two opera houses, to keep civic pride and hope alive.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This is interesting…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/arts-council-england-funding-opera-fighting-life-prepared/

It’s all out of some cunning plan apparently . Yes I agree smaller scale opera has its place. But to be honest WNO are pretty much providing that on tour - reduced string desks etc.
From the comments pages in this and the Guardian you do get some free marketers saying stand on your own feet and as the article admits the success of country park opera (largely in the south east for weather and wealth reasons ) partially proves their point. And then on the other side the left(ish) wing think it elitist .

Poor old opera….like Millwall :”no one likes us , We don’t care.”?

Thing is country park opera does shriek elitism in a way that ENO never did even when run by a genuine Aristo.

[Master Jacques]

This is interesting…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/arts-council-england-funding-opera-fighting-life-prepared/

It’s all out of some cunning plan apparently . Yes I agree smaller scale opera has its place. But to be honest WNO are pretty much providing that on tour - reduced string desks etc.
From the comments pages in this and the Guardian you do get some free marketers saying stand on your own feet and as the article admits the success of country park opera (largely in the south east for weather and wealth reasons ) partially proves their point. And then on the other side the left(ish) wing think it elitist .

Poor old opera….like Millwall :”no one likes us , We don’t care.”?

Thing is country park opera does shriek elitism in a way that ENO never did even when run by a genuine Aristo.

Thank you for this. The Telegraph article is certainly taking things a stage further, as well as pointing us to Bryn Terfel's petition:

https://www.change.org/p/reinstate-the-english-national-opera-s-ace-funding-immediately-a2c61aac-4331-4673-ba2f-ab14514caf77

Having run a small-scale opera company, many years ago (performing such diverse rep. as Handel at the Bloomsbury Theatre and Rimsky-Korsakov at the King's Head in Islington!) I totally agree about the need to refresh the repertory and production in this way - theatre in the round, especially, ought to be developed operatically, as in has in Birmingham. But this has to be in addition to the larger opera houses, which need to be increased in number as bases from which to tour. What does Newcastle get at the moment, I wonder?

I think everyone now has tumbled to the fact that ACE's suggestion to ENO of "get thee to Manchester" was nothing more than a convenient fraud, without any attempt to think it through, practically or fiscally. That is one reason (of many) why Serota must resign.

Like you, I find "country house opera" distasteful, and decidedly retrogressive for music and theatre in this country. It's not about art at all.