Stars warn cuts will ‘severely dilute quality’ of famed WNO
DRASTIC funding cuts imposed on one of Wales’ leading artistic institutions by the governments in both Cardiff Bay and Westminster are putting the nation’s reputation as “the land of song” at risk, some of the nation’s most pre-eminent singers and actors have warned.
Katherine Jenkins, Michael Sheen, Rob Brydon and Bryn Terfel have all signed a letter calling for emergency cross-border funding for the Welsh National Opera.
The 80-year-old WNO, Wales’ largest arts employer, is being forced to make its orchestra and chorus parttime and the rest of the company has been offered voluntary redundancy because of the huge funding cuts it is facing.
Arts Council England recently cut its funding to the Cardiff-based opera from £6.2m to £4m. And the Arts Council of Wales reduced its annual funding to the opera company by £500,000 to £4.1m.
The cuts have already forced the WNO to curtail its touring programme to England.
Some 175 actors, musicians, singers, sports people and others have signed the letter to say that the cuts will result in the loss of vital skills and “severely dilute the quality and output of Wales’ flagship arts organisation”. Among the letter’s 175 other signatories are Julian Lloyd Webber, conductor Simon Rattle, former rugby international and WRU president Gerald Davies, harpist Catrin Finch and former England cricketer Simon Jones.
The Welsh National Opera was founded in 1943 by a diverse group of miners, teachers and doctors from across south Wales. From its amateur roots it grew into one of the UK’S foremost arts institutions and has performed across the UK since the 1950s.
In the letter, the signatories write: “If WNO ceases to be a full-time company operating year-round it will be very hard to come back from that as the organisation becomes unable to retain its talent within Wales. What has painstakingly been built up over 80 years will be eroded and a vicious cycle will have begun.
“The potential dismantling of one of Wales’ finest national institutions would be devastating for the nation, for the organisation and its 222 employees, and for home-grown cultural excellence. The worldrenowned quality of WNO’S output will be eroded, as the true ensemble nature of the company is undermined, with top musicians unable to sustain jobs in the orchestra and chorus on a part-time salary and no real freelance work in Wales with which to supplement their incomes.
“The cultural life of communities across Wales and England will be impoverished and diminished as a result.”
For 2023-2026, Arts Council England slashed its annual grant from £6.2m to £4m, a 35% cut.
Then the Arts Council of Wales – dealing with a 10% fall in its own budget – reduced its annual investment in WNO to just over £4m – a 12% cut.
Arts Council England then encouraged WNO to apply to its emergency Transform fund, which provided it around £1m a year, but that came with the proviso that the company makes millions of pounds of savings.
The letter is being sent to First Minister Vaughan Gething, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, UK Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire.
Soprano Elizabeth Atherton, who organised the letter, urged Mr Starmer and Ms Debbonaire to persuade Labour colleagues in Wales to open talks with Frazer and WNO about a cross-border funding agreement.
Earlier this year, WNO’S music director, Tomáš Hanus, sent an open letter, external to Arts Council England, warning the company would “struggle to maintain its national opera identity and standards on a budget that is not even sufficient for a small regional theatre, by comparison to other European countries”.