The end of ENO?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Arts Council chief: to survive funding slash, opera should move to car parks and pubs

What an idiot!

[Master Jacques]

What an idiot!

I hope Darren Henley enjoys his recent CBE during his long retirement, which must surely be imminent. The fact that such a shallow buffoon can become CEO of the Arts Council of England (as successor to Radio 3's own Alan Davey) tells us everything about a gravy train for mediocrities which has trashed the old-fashioned idea that the Arts Council exists to facilitate bringing the best art to the largest number of people.

[Simon Biazeck]

Fiona Maddocks uses her review column in today’s Observer to highlight the cuts made by ACE, not just to ENO

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/12/the-yeomen-of-the-guard-eno-english-national-opera-review-coliseum-london-arts-council-england-ace-funding-cuts-relocation-alcina-royal-opera-richard-jones

She mentions there will be a protest outside the Coliseum at 11 am on Monday, should anyone be in the area.

The event is now an in-house - no police to grapple with unruly choristers and no room for supporters beyond ENO, for now. There may be a march on 22 November.

[Ein Heldenleben]

The event is now an in-house - no police to grapple with unruly choristers and no room for supporters beyond ENO, for now. There may be a march on 22 November.

Any idea what time the March is ?
Good article by Fiona . As she says the cuts to contemporary music performance in both London and Manchester are equally baffling. As a massive generalisation, and leaving aside the global shortage of top quality spinto singers, I would say that overall musical standards in Opera in this country have never been higher - particularly on the orchestra and chorus front. It seems a wrecking ball is to be taking to these achievements .

[Master Jacques]

That "wrecking ball" has been in place since before the lockdown. ACE's 'Shaping the next ten years' consultation document, published in 2019, contained the following paragraph - incidentally, the only reference to opera and ballet in the entire prospectus!

That across the population, there are significant differences in how ‘arts and culture’ are defined, understood and valued; many people are uncomfortable with the label ‘the arts’, and associate it only with either the visual arts or ‘high art’, such as ballet or opera. At the same time most people in this country have active cultural lives and value opportunities to be creative.

Quite which research the Arts Council had to support this - highly debatable - sweeping statement was questioned at the time, but it signalled their readiness to move funding away from what they label 'high art', towards projects more obviously aimed at local amateurs, populism (e.g. Blackpool Illuminations) and/or social services.

That's why the Arts Council of England much prefer us to call them ACE, avoiding this dirty word "arts". Darren Henley's Guardian article this morning could hardly be more explicit about the right-wing governmental pressures to which his organisation has succumbed. It's ACE needs reforming, much more than poor old ENO. It is simply no longer fit for purpose.

[oddoneout]

Setting aside for a moment the question as to whether ENO moving out of London is practicable or desirable, I would question the wisdom of handing £17 million to ENO towards relocation costs and devising a business plan. I am not an opera person but even so concerns about ENO management have filtered through to me over the years; against that background what likelihood that £17 mill will be spent to any good purpose let alone wisely? Wouldn't it be better directed at supporting the opera touring activity(including possibly ENO) which already exists, especially in view of the grave difficulties venues are facing paying energy bills (on top of already existing pressures) which is jeopardising their viability and availability? Given the lead time that I assume is involved in coming to its decisions I don't imagine that ACE has factored leccy bills into its bean counting.
That approach would also enable ACE to tick the "alternative venues/reaching the people" tick boxes it seems to have latched on to.
The more I read of the funding decisions the more I get the impression that music is not generally considered worth supporting - but I could be wrong, just picking up on those organisations which seem to have been sidelined, such as Britten Sinfonia.

[Ein Heldenleben]

That "wrecking ball" has been in place since before the lockdown. ACE's 'Shaping the next ten years' consultation document, published in 2019, contained the following paragraph - incidentally, the only reference to opera and ballet in the entire prospectus!

Quite which research the Arts Council had to support this - highly debatable - sweeping statement was questioned at the time, but it signalled their readiness to move funding away from what they label 'high art', towards projects more obviously aimed at local amateurs, populism (e.g. Blackpool Illuminations) and/or social services.

That's why the Arts Council of England much prefer us to call them ACE, avoiding this dirty word "arts". Darren Henley's Guardian article this morning could hardly be more explicit about the right-wing governmental pressures to which his organisation has succumbed. It's ACE needs reforming, much more than poor old ENO. It is simply no longer fit for purpose.

The arts are being crushed by parts of the left who perceive high art to be elitist and parts of the right who don’t think the state should be subsiding them. There are all sorts of anomalies . A lot of what the Arts council are pushing money towards I don’t think is any good and is such low intensity “art” it probably doesn’t need subsidy anyway. I’m all for opportunities to be creative but don’t take away from the best to subsidise my footling attempts to be the next McCoy Tyner . Oh go then do..,I’ll have it in tenners please.

[Master Jacques]

Setting aside for a moment the question as to whether ENO moving out of London is practicable or desirable, I would question the wisdom of handing £17 million to ENO towards relocation costs and devising a business plan. I am not an opera person but even so concerns about ENO management have filtered through to me over the years; against that background what likelihood that £17 mill will be spent to any good purpose let alone wisely? Wouldn't it be better directed at supporting the opera touring activity(including possibly ENO) which already exists, especially in view of the grave difficulties venues are facing paying energy bills (on top of already existing pressures) which is jeopardising their viability and availability? Given the lead time that I assume is involved in coming to its decisions I don't imagine that ACE has factored leccy bills into its bean counting.
That approach would also enable ACE to tick the "alternative venues/reaching the people" tick boxes it seems to have latched on to.
The more I read of the funding decisions the more I get the impression that music is not generally considered worth supporting - but I could be wrong, just picking up on those organisations which seem to have been sidelined, such as Britten Sinfonia.

There is a great deal of sense in your post. ACE has it in for professional music-making of all stripes. For many years now, the organisation has preferred to issue generalised "aspirational" and "celebratory" sound bites, rather than spend time helping formulate logical or practical means to reach their desired goals. I'm told that the defunded Britten Sinfonia made the mistake of putting the maintenance of high quality music-making above box-ticking exercises of diversity, outreach and populism. ACE regards the idea of art as a transcendent, human activity available to all, as hugely suspicious.

[Ein Heldenleben]

There is a great deal of sense in your post. ACE has it in for professional music-making of all stripes. For many years now, the organisation has preferred to issue generalised "aspirational" and "celebratory" sound bites, rather than spend time helping formulate logical or practical means to reach their desired goals. I'm told that the defunded Britten Sinfonia made the mistake of putting the maintenance of high quality music-making above box-ticking exercises of diversity, outreach and populism. ACE regards the idea of art as a transcendent, human activity available to all, as hugely suspicious.

That’s pretty much what emerged in the interview with the ACE director of music on Music Matters . She spoke in code no doubt trying to avoid a “culture wars “ escalation. Music Matters being the absolute high altar of political correctness there was no chance of her being challenged anyway. If the Arts council was really serious about diversity why aren’t they pouring money into Jazz ? That’s something I could get behind . They just hate jazz even more than opera ….

[Simon Biazeck]

Any idea what time the March is ?
Good article by Fiona . As she says the cuts to contemporary music performance in both London and Manchester are equally baffling. As a massive generalisation, and leaving aside the global shortage of top quality spinto singers, I would say that overall musical standards in Opera in this country have never been higher - particularly on the orchestra and chorus front. It seems a wrecking ball is to be taking to these achievements .

No idea, I'm afraid. 22 November is the next date set aside for protest, details to be decided.

[Ein Heldenleben]

No idea, I'm afraid. 22 November is the next date set aside for protest, details to be decided.

I ask because I’m paying a rare London visit and will be in the West End pm.
Many years ago the local theatre here did a protest outside the Arts Council singing “ Do You Hear The People Sing “ from Les Mis . It struck me as a bit weird as any musical less in need of subsidy would be difficult to imagine. Then of course I remembered it was originally (in English ) an RSC / Mackintosh co- pro and the pre first night gossip was that it would be a career -destroying flop.
That tiny subsidy to the RSC has probably earned enough back in taxes to fund the Arts Council for years - literally hundreds of millions of pounds.
They are not just killing art they are undermining one of our most successful sectors - the creative industries.

[LHC]

.... Given the lead time that I assume is involved in coming to its decisions I don't imagine that ACE has factored leccy bills into its bean counting.

As it's now clear that 'Arts' Council England didn't consult with ENO, Opera North, other touring opera companies, theatres in Manchester or Manchester's Mayor before demanding that ENO move to a new theatre in Manchester that is unsuited to opera, and has no intention of becoming ENO's home, I think it's safe to say that their bean counters didn't factor any practical issues into their decision-making processes.

[LHC]

There is a great deal of sense in your post. ACE has it in for professional music-making of all stripes. For many years now, the organisation has preferred to issue generalised "aspirational" and "celebratory" sound bites, rather than spend time helping formulate logical or practical means to reach their desired goals. I'm told that the defunded Britten Sinfonia made the mistake of putting the maintenance of high quality music-making above box-ticking exercises of diversity, outreach and populism. ACE regards the idea of art as a transcendent, human activity available to all, as hugely suspicious.

I can only assume that someone at ACE has read Oskar Schmitz's polemic "Das Land Ohne Musik?" and took it as something they should aspire to, rather than a criticism.

[Master Jacques]

I can only assume that someone at ACE has read Oskar Schmitz's polemic "Das Land Ohne Musik?" and took it as something they should aspire to, rather than a criticism.

In addition to which, the broadening of the word "culture" to include every human activity from strip clubs to street fighting has allowed ACE to fund "cultural activities" which have precisely nothing to do with art.

[Simon B]

I would question the wisdom of handing £17 million to ENO towards relocation costs and devising a business plan.

ENO has around 300 employees. A half-respectable package of redundancy compensation to them would absorb 50% of £17m on its own. Without this £17m and unless ENO were allowed to sell the Coli and distribute the proceeds to creditors and in redundancy payments (at a guess the legalities will prohibit this), sudden removal of the ACE grant would likely cause it to become bankrupt instead and unable to do even this.

IMO the Manchester thing is a sophistry confected ad-hoc in a cynical attempt to deflect responsibility from ACE for what they are actually doing, which is intentionally closing down ENO. The cavalier sloppiness of it is a dead giveaway. They should at least have the guts to take responsibility for what they are doing rather than airily wrap it up in a conceit and attempt to Teflon away.

...the more I get the impression that music is not generally considered worth supporting...

Exactly this, is the broader context IMO. Opera is the easiest initial high visibility target as it's i) a lot of funding for not that much "product" by its very nature and ii) the biggest "elitist arts subsidy" bogeyman. The likelihood of a broader public outcry against this is negligible - tacit support is more like it. However, as has been noted, look beyond this and it is notable that ACE has also taken a wrecking ball to support for what might be loosely described as "contemporary classical stuff". Taken together this is indicative of the broader direction of travel - having started with the two easiest targets first.