Just in: Naxos buys Royal Opera House label
mainHong Kong-based Naxos has just announced it has acquired the Opus Arte video label from the Royal Opera House in London.
No price was mentioned, but this can only have been a disastrous deal for Covent Garden.
Tony Hall, when he was head of ROH, paid £5.7 million to buy into the video market when he swooped for Opus Arte in 2007. This was, I wrote at the time, about four times over what the industry reckoned its value to be, and it came just months ahead of the global economic crash.
It was the first swoop by a UK public arts company for a music label, and it has never been repeated.
Covent Garden had neither the expertise nor the will to exploit its asset. Today’s sale to Naxos is an admission of Hall’s failure. On the other hand, it may give ROH productions wider global exposure through Naxos sales.
‘We are delighted to hand over the reins to Naxos, the world’s leading classical music label,’ said Alex Beard, ROH CEO today. ‘Naxos will take Opus Arte on to its next exciting phase, ensuring the multi-platform production and distribution company remains at the forefront of delivering high-quality opera, theatre and ballet to audiences worldwide.’
On another note (if I may) – yesterday, the violinist Christian Tetzlaff played the Beethoven concerto in front of the presidents Macron and Steinmeier in the cathedral of Strasbourg. It must have been a memorable evening, and as we can see in the video, Tetzlaff gave really everything:
https://youtu.be/OFPmPbp65kk?t=113
Tetzlaff’s playing in the short clip blew me away.
Yes. I hope Mr. Lebrecht will write something about that concert. Better still – I hope a recording has been made and will be issued. The effusive embrace at the end with the conductor, Theodor Guschlbauer, was telling of how very satisfied Tetzlaff was.
Klaus Heymann of Naxos will have driven a hard bargain to bag the label, but if anyone can develop Opus Arte he will.