A war is being waged against opera, and it must be stopped
Last week in the Commons, MPs debated a subject that rarely rears its head in the Palace of Westminster. They sang the praises of opera.
It feels a world away from strikes and the cost of living crisis. But opera too is in crisis. For some unexplained reason, there is a
clear campaign to diminish and quite possibly destroy some of our best-known and best-loved opera companies.
I have already written about the startling and frankly appalling decision by the funding body, Arts Council England, to cease giving money to English National Opera (ENO) unless it leaves London and sets up in some unnamed city, without of course most of its company of singers and musicians. (Just this week it was given a year’s reprieve. But after that the future looks just as uncertain and bleak.)
And that, it now turns out, was just the beginning. Glyndebourne Festival Opera has just announced it has been forced by that same funding body to close its touring arm, which has traditionally taken its best productions across the country. Welsh National Opera, for exactly the same reason, is cutting the number of cities it visits. Because of this, Liverpool, a home of music if ever there was one, may have no opera at all.
It’s not just opera: theatre, too, is suffering, with Hampstead theatre, a home of new writing, also axed from the Arts Council portfolio. But it is opera that is reeling the most. And Tory MP Sir Bob Neill succeeded in securing an adjournment debate in the House last Wednesday to discuss this funding crisis and what genuinely seems to be a war on opera.
The opera world is cheering him on, while expressing its shock and sadness. The acclaimed mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston tweeted: “Liverpool now has no live staged opera thanks to cuts. WNO [Welsh National Opera] and Glyndebourne have been the only companies touring to us as a city. That will inevitably affect life choices of some of our talented young singers who can’t afford to travel to see opera.”
Sir Bob says greater scrutiny is needed on how these decisions are made. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Let’s get rid of this assumption that the young don’t like grandeur, don’t like opera in beautifully designed opera houses, and cannot be enthralled by the drama and sensuality of the canonical masterpieces
I first called for Arts Council meetings to be open to the press and the public 30 years ago. But a secret society it remains, with an utter lack of transparency as to how it doles out millions of pounds and why some are winners and others losers.
But, at least on opera, we do have a public statement. Darren Henley, the chief executive of Arts Council England, while acknowledging that traditional opera in grand opera houses can create “an eternal sense of awe”, makes it clear where his preferences lie. He says: “A new generation of audiences is embracing opera and music theatre presented in new ways: opera in car parks, opera in pubs, opera on your tablet.”
What patronising claptrap. So, young people will only accept opera if it’s put on in a car park. The lower orders can make do with an aria in a pub. And the rich and middle-aged have their country-house operas. It is deeply depressing that the people doling out the cash seem to think in this divisive way. And the unspoken assumption behind it all, of course, is that opera – with its grandeur, plush seats, and sometimes foreign languages – is elitist. Let’s face it, that has been alleged for years.
The truth is rather different. The doomed ENO has at its core a commitment to affordable prices for all, including very cheap prices for teens and twentysomethings, and it sings in English. Yes, Covent Garden’s prices are obscenely high, and action on that is long overdue. But it is alone in that regard. So, let’s get rid of this assumption that the young and new audiences don’t like grandeur, don’t like opera in beautifully designed opera
houses, and cannot be enthralled by the drama and sensuality of the canonical masterpieces.
Without going to a single car park for my pleasure, I have been captivated by opera for decades (along with rock music, theatre, ballet, and all the other art forms not banished to the multistoreys). I have swooned to the sexiness of Carmen, cried at the tragedy of Rigoletto, marvelled at the transcendent epic that is Wagner’s Ring, and had my breath taken away by radical productions and stunning singing from both international stars and homegrown talent.
Everyone should have access to that enjoyment. But, in their thinly disguised war on traditional opera, our arts leaders are set on betraying audiences and performers, and dealing a death blow to levelling-up in the arts.
Want your views to be included in The Independent Daily Edition letters page? Email us by tapping here letters@independent.co.uk. Please include your address
BACK TO TOP