ENO up the creek?

[Sir Velo]

English National Opera appears to once again be heading over the financial cliff. ENO's 2011-12 results were sneaked out after Christmas with no official announcement. Hardly surprising when you see the actual results.

In the space of one year, a modest surplus of £48K has turned into a massive loss of £2.47M.

Not a good result, but to understand the financial standing of an organisation one also needs to look at the Balance Sheet. LHC, do you know what the net assets/liabilities position was; what its liquidity looks like; how its reserves (restricted vs unrestricted) are organised; interest cover; level of debt etc?

[Flosshilde]

Also at 6' 5" tall, "the Gods" when I've been there were akin to medieval torture...

Just try the top tier in the Usher Hall for torture! Lovely acoustics so the sound is great, but my shins are pressed against the top edge of the back of the seat in front, & the person sitting in it has their head resting between my knees (& if that doesn't sound a little indelicate I don't know what does )

[mangerton]

Just try the top tier in the Usher Hall for torture! Lovely acoustics so the sound is great, but my shins are pressed against the top edge of the back of the seat in front, & the person sitting in it has their head resting between my knees (& if that doesn't sound a little indelicate I don't know what does )

Oh yes! I remember that from my schooldays. A vertiginous position, but worth it to hear (inter alii) Ashkenazy and du Pré.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I do know what you mean about silly productions. I'm finding them offputting, too, and ENO has been guilty of some of the worst.

Opera North too. For example, hiding behind a tree the size and shape of a hand mirror in The Marriage of Figaro.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Just try the top tier in the Usher Hall for torture! Lovely acoustics so the sound is great, but my shins are pressed against the top edge of the back of the seat in front, & the person sitting in it has their head resting between my knees (& if that doesn't sound a little indelicate I don't know what does )

- the gods in the old Free Trade Hall were just the same. I once sat behind someone who got very excited in the fight scenes in Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet: he nearly broke my shins!

[gingerjon]

I don't see how ENO is sustainable - not at 71% capacity and with prices only going one way.

[LHC]

I've never been to an opera, except once when I was a march-on extra in AIDA. I can't bring myself to worry about it. whereas the problem highlighted in this link...

http://www.southyorkshiretimes.co.uk/news/local/brass-bands-under-threat-due-to-snobbery-claims-mp-1-5274203

... worries me a lot.

Michael Dugher appears to be suggesting that the relatively low funding of brass band music is due to this Government's 'snobbery', when the Grant was decided by the Arts Council rather than the Government. However, as last year's grant of £23,000 is consistent with the sums given to brass bands by the Arts Council when Labour were in power (£23K in 2008 and £29K in 2009), it would seem that brass band funding was actually 'protected' by the Arts Council as its cut was very small in comparison with other areas of the arts.

Mind you, the Arts Council might have been able to give some more money for brass bands if it hadn't just spent £8,000 on a lavish leaving do at the British Museum for its outgoing Chair, Dame Liz Forgan. Without a hint of irony, Dame Liz (who is also Chair of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian) used the expensive shindig to attack Government cuts to the Arts.

[Mandryka]

I'm afraid I'm no fan of ENO - for various reasons, some straightforward (don't like translated opera, the variable quality of singing and the downright dreadful - at times- quality of production), others harder to articulate (the Coliseum, for some reason, lacks atmosphere for me).

For all that, this can only be saddening news. Yet, as others have noted, we've been here before (haven't we?) and I doubt if anyone need seriously worry about the company's continued existence: the idea of 'opera in English' seems to be such a virility symbol to the British arts establishment that emasculation is not an option any administrator, or politician, would contemplate.

Hst, my last experience of ENO was unusual: the recent (not new) Julietta was one of those rare cases where the production (imo) was superior to the work itself.

[anotherbob]

However, as last year's grant of £23,000 is consistent with the sums given to brass bands by the Arts Council when Labour were in power (£23K in 2008 and £29K in 2009), it would seem that brass band funding was actually 'protected' by the Arts Council as its cut was very small in comparison with other areas of the arts.

It was the startling difference in the number of noughts involved in the amounts, rather than the relative "generosity" of different administrations which caught my eye.

[rauschwerk]

Not a good result, but to understand the financial standing of an organisation one also needs to look at the Balance Sheet. LHC, do you know what the net assets/liabilities position was; what its liquidity looks like; how its reserves (restricted vs unrestricted) are organised; interest cover; level of debt etc?

Have a listen to last night's Front Row and you will hear from John Berry (ENO Artistic Director) that this loss can be made up from reserves which have been prudently built up in recent years. They could afford another year like this, then the reserves will all be gone. Part of the trouble is that they have such a huge theatre to try and fill.

[french frank]

For all that, this can only be saddening news.

Yes, as a 'specialist' opera company - and for reasons you state, many productions would be less appealing to some regular opera-goers which suggests a smaller venue might be more viable.

I'm still trying to fathom whether WNO have now cut back their visits to Bristol to one a year (it was cut from three to two a few years ago). But their priority must be their musical standards, repertoire, Cardiff, rather than touring productions which are expensive.

Sorry to deviate from ENO - but there does seem to be a balance to be kept between production standards and costs, where priorities have to be sorted out, changes made.

[Sir Velo]

Part of the trouble is that they have such a huge theatre to try and fill.

I have to say I don't necessarily agree with this unless you are saying that there are additional overheads (e.g. lighting, heating, council tax) which are directly related to the building's size.

Conversely, although no-one enjoys playing to half-filled auditoria, the larger capacity at least allows ENO the opportunity to increase revenue from ticket sales when it plays to full houses. If the capacity were to be reduced or the ENO played in smaller venues, it would never be able to increase ticket revenues. In turn, this would lead to it having to cut its cloth accordingly; i.e. by working with lesser artists, musicians and scaling down its productions.

[jean]

I'm still trying to fathom whether WNO have now cut back their visits to Bristol to one a year...

They've done that for Liverpool, too - and one of the reasons is that

...they have such a huge theatre to try and fill...

Because of this, they only offer one date for most of the operas they bring here, and if you can's manage that, you've had it. And so have they, as far as your attendance is concerned.

But I suppose it's different if you're performing in the same theatre all of the time.

[jean]

I've been recently (2007) to opera/concerts in Poland, Hungary, Slovenia. In Wrocław, I was asked what price of seat I wanted. Not knowing what to say, I timidly suggested the equivalent of £20 and was told I could have the whole theatre for that. In Budapest - the State opera - I paid £5. These were not the best seats, of course, but they were absolutely satisfactory. But that's not very different from what I pay for the WNO (being an utter cheapskate).

In the mid-nineties I used to attend the Szczecin Philharmonic for two zloty. I can't remember how much a zloty was worth, but it was very little. The standard wasn't high, which I imagine had something to do with the players having very little time for rehearsal what with all the other jobs they had to do to make ends meet.

You could regularly see orchestral musicians from newly-liberated Eastern Europe busking in Berlin.

To my eternal shame, I once crossed a picket line to attend a concert in Krakow.

Cheap tickets come at a price...