Richard Morrison
ENO’S new critics scheme needs more thought
At the risk of writing a column of interest to about 12 people, I am applying my raddled old brain to the question of why English National Opera has decided to give opera critics just one complimentary ticket, rather than two, to its first nights. The second ticket, known as a plusone, is undoubtedly a perk, but a very long-established and widespread one. I could live without it. Indeed, I often turn down the second ticket, miserable loner that I am. But I accept it’s a courteous gesture, a recognition that even critics have the right to a social life – especially as, in these constrained times, they have probably come straight from a full-time day job.
And the fact is that every other opera house, theatre and orchestra in Britain gives two comps, except when the tickets are so expensive and so in-demand that the company would be losing thousands of pounds in revenue. Or if the venue is so small that plus-ones would take up too many seats.
Neither is true at ENO’S home, the Coliseum. It’s one of London’s biggest theatres and, sad to say, rarely sold out. What’s more, on first nights a large proportion of the stalls often seem ‘papered’ – filled by people deemed to be ‘influencers’ who are given freebies, theoretically so they can rave about the show to their followers. According to Stuart Murphy, ENO’S boss, there’s no plan to abolish those plus-ones. No, it’s just critics he’s gunning for.
Could that be because ENO has been getting very mixed reviews, particularly for its casting decisions and gimmicky stagings? Perish the thought that an organisation receiving millions in subsidy each year would be so vindictive. Or so hostile to the notion of a free press offering the public independent, expert reviews.
No, ENO’S stated reason is that it wants to give the critics’ plus-ones to novice critics instead. These will be people who have never previously been published or paid for their writing.
They will submit a review that will then be placed (‘unedited’ apparently) on ENO’S own website. And to help these newcomers get into their stride, they will receive ‘writing advice and feedback’ from someone called Lucy Basaba, the founder-editor of a reviewing website titled Theatre Full Stop.
Always eager to improve my own writing, I clicked on Theatre Full Stop and found only two opera reviews. The first, of ENO’S production of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, includes such insightful lines as: ‘The children bring the animals to life and are so sweet in doing so’.
The second is of Verdi’s Macbeth. ‘English Touring Opera incorporates the bloodthirsty and murderous Shakespearean favourite and balances it alongside the bellowing yet crisp tones sang [sic] by the vocalists,’ we are told. Hmmm. Why don’t we read sentences like that in The Guardian or The Times?
As Macbeth, Grant Doyle ‘demonstrates he can have a fiery bite’, which sounds painful, while Madeleine Pierard’s Lady Macbeth ‘compliments [sic] her onstage husband’ with ‘her bird like voice’. The reviewer concludes that ‘if you find yourself lacking in the funds to afford a trip to the Austrian capital to capture the Viennese opera, why not attend the next best thing.’
Er, Vienna? I thought we were talking about Verdi’s Macbeth. Or am I just an old fuddy-duddy, imagining there should be a link between opera criticism and a working knowledge of opera? Or between journalism and the ability to write in English?
Murphy isn’t worried by any of that. ‘We think people should be able to review opera more emotionally – not just from a technical standpoint about how sections of the orchestra played or how the soprano sang,’ he told The Observer. ‘The question is: did it make you cry, did it make you happy?’
I wish I could say I was surprised to read this superficial twaddle. But ENO has been peddling such tosh for years.
Its management really does believe that arts organisations don’t need informed newspaper and magazine coverage anymore, because they can generate enough sales through sycophantic bloggers and self-generated hype on social media.
Well, good luck with that! But at least be honest about it. Don’t pretend to be training new opera critics, just because you are giving away tickets to amateurs, then putting their grateful effusions on your own website.
Perhaps we critics should start a scheme to train new opera administrators. At least we’d make sure they knew that Verdi wasn’t Austrian.
Shouldn’t there be a link between opera criticism and a working knowledge of opera?