The end of ENO?

[Ein Heldenleben]

Bizarrely, GTO continue to visit ……Stoke on Trent, of all places.

Bizarre but curiously heart warming …

[oddoneout]

Not bad news for all? https://englishtouringopera.org.uk/n...sfer-programme
They come to this neck of the woods, and I notice that GTO is in the city next week. I think if I was into opera I could in theory attend several assorted performances a year in the city at sensible cost, and there are usually one or two other stagings elsewhere in the county from indigenous groups. Not bad going for a large rural county I feel, and probably just as well as travel down to London is slow and expensive and travelling elsewhere is that plus, for the most part, not easy.

[kuligin]

A German journalist once came to Plymouth and asked which was the best Opera house …

When the World Cup was in Germany, a radio 5 commentator was based in Gelsenkirchen which has famous team Schalke O4. He was interviewing some one perhaps the mayor.

Interviewer: What else is Gelsenkirchen famous for?

Reply As well as Schalke we are proud of our Zoo and of course our opera house is well known for of its productions of Bel Canto Operas

Long pause from stupefied Radio 5

[ChandlersFord]

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.

I didn’t think Matlock looked all that bad the last time I looked - certainly compared to some of the middens that surround it.

[Master Jacques]

A German journalist once came to Plymouth and asked which was the best Opera house …

I'm going to steal that one, for my personal repertoire!

[ChandlersFord]

Saw the same production in Sheffield - outstanding as was the Katya Kabanova they did either shortly after or before . GTO don't come here any more - Opera North seldom do and we get ETO once a year.

Bizarrely, GTO continue to visit ……Stoke on Trent, of all places.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite so. A German city that size would have a major Stadtstheater, AND the Crucible!

As for Glyndebourne, I personally wear a perfectly normal suit, as it seems more and more people do. Nobody bats an eyelid, to be fair.

A German journalist once came to Plymouth and asked which was the best Opera house …

[Master Jacques]

My word when you think how big Sheffield is …

Quite so. A German city that size would have a major Stadtstheater, AND the Crucible!

As for Glyndebourne, I personally wear a perfectly normal suit, as it seems more and more people do. Nobody bats an eyelid, to be fair.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Saw the same production in Sheffield - outstanding as was the Katya Kabanova they did either shortly after or before . GTO don't come here any more - Opera North seldom do and we get ETO once a year.

My word when you think how big Sheffield is …

[Barbirollians]

Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed going to Glyndebourne : but wearing a dinner jacket to opera rankles. One of the single most memorable opera experiences I’ve had was GTO on tour with Jenufa many years ago in Plymouth . A night where every thing came together - maybe 1 in 20 perfs are like that. Guess what following past cuts GTO don’t come to Plymouth any more.
Thanks a bundle ACE ..l

Saw the same production in Sheffield - outstanding as was the Katya Kabanova they did either shortly after or before . GTO don't come here any more - Opera North seldom do and we get ETO once a year.

[Ein Heldenleben]

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.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed going to Glyndebourne : but wearing a dinner jacket to opera rankles. One of the single most memorable opera experiences I’ve had was GTO on tour with Jenufa many years ago in Plymouth . A night where every thing came together - maybe 1 in 20 perfs are like that. Guess what following past cuts GTO don’t come to Plymouth any more.
Thanks a bundle ACE ..l

[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.

[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]

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.

[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!