82 % of chorus members would quit if English National Opera leaves London, with 2/3rds leaving profession altogether

10 comments

1. A classic example of policy without thought. I understand the desire to make the UK less London-centric, but blindly diverting funding to encourage the arts elsewhere without taking more than 10 minutes to look at where those people are is just stupid.

   And who actually wants this?

   When people say they want things to be less London-centric they mean public transport investment, they mean setting up of new industry, encourage a new opera to set up in Birmingham or Manchester, not moving the bloody opera to Nottingham where no one wants to live or visit.

2. This is the stupidest way to ‘level up’. Moving existing and established institutions, ripping them from their existing networks and possibly staff who can’t move as easily. They’re not economic units that be simply be relocated as if you were playing a strategy game.

   I also think it’s stupid that you’re moving something that requires audiences and has found them in London already. London is a great place to find a large audience, there are 9 million people within commuting distance of the Coliseum, and whilst I am sure Opera would command an audience in other British cities it’s a needless risk to take to assume it can sustain it across a year with multiple shows a week.

   Finally, the article talks about the family commitments of the staff/performers but what about career opportunities? Would the ENO end up being the only game in town and if so would performers be stupid to put themselves in the position where they would need to move back to London for future work, including auditions, or would it be better they remain in the West End of London – one of the biggest theatre and musical communities in the Western World?

3. Levelling up has always been an intellectually-void populist slogan at heart. The problem comes when it’s turned into a policy.

4. I could have sworn there was a yes minister sketch on something like this. Maybe as a northerner I don’t understand London but half the time it feels like the entire country revolves around it, if it can’t be in London it can’t be anywhere else because (gasp) imagine having to live and work somewhere that isn’t London.

   Although to be fair Nottingham is not where I would put an opera house. Not sure if the residents know what opera is

5. I work in theatre (have done opera & ballet), and one of the biggest talking points for us was where are they going to put them? The ENO owns the Coliseum, so they can programme a full season…but leaving London means selling the Coliseum so they won’t have a permanent base of a similar capacity. None of the theatre owners are going to be willing to give them a permanent residence because they’d have to give up the big lucrative tours (I think Hamilton is spending something like 15weeks in Manchester). ENO does fanatic outreach work with their schools, workshops and tours…it makes no sense to send them out of London without a permanent base and the funding to continue their work. Opera and ballet aren’t for everyone but everyone should have the opportunity to experience them.

   TBH, I reckon someone has dibs on the land and has secret plans to turn the Coliseum into flats.

6. Who could have guessed that people would have kids in school and spouses who work in London? People these days, they won’t even rip up their entire lives to move across the country to do the same thing with the same people. When I was a kid we’d happily cut off all our friends, parents, and relatives for the chance to move to some randomly allocated city.

7. Jobs for the local musicians then, that sounds positive. But I really doubt that would be the correct percentage once they pick a place and people can actually assess how long it would take to commute or if it might actually be better to move.

8. Pretty much proving that they’re as far up their own arse as expected.

   To be honest, I think it’d just be better if we stopped publicly funding the aristocratic arts altogether. I don’t think I know a single working class person I grew up with who is *remotely* interested in Opera or likely to want to spend their money on going to one, with or without subsidy.

9. I would say London is perfect for the English National Opera. Opera tickets are very expensive, it’s very niche, and it is as strongly established in London as anywhere in the world. After three hundred years I doubt moving it will work terribly well. Moving opera elsewhere will just hasten the decline of opera.

   I’m fairly ambivalent about that anyway – I don’t have an interest in it and it seems a bit strange for public money to fund entertainment that is overwhelmingly for the benefit of wealthy, older White people.

10. London is the beating heart of high culture in the UK. Ripping it out to satisfy the bigoted whims of Doris in Doncaster isn’t going to benefit anyone.