The Slippedisc verdict: Arts Council bounty bar boils down to same old fudge
NewsWe had been warned to expect tough decisions.
Arts Council England faced a ten percent funding cut and some big beasts were about to suffer.
London orchestras were expecting to have their funding hinged to more out-of-town activities.
The National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company were put on warning.
Small companies were kept fretting for survival.
In the end – with one notable exception – no major decision was taken.
The South Bank Centre, a national scandal of subsidy over-consumption, was left almost untouched, just £2 million down. The London orchestras remain in a muddle. Apart from tinkering at the margins, ACE has lived up to its reputation of never knowingly being decisive.
The lone exception, demolishing English National Opera over a decade of ACE oversight failures, creates more problems than it resolves. ENO will reinvent itself as a regional opera, competing with several touring companies that receive ACE grants. Its orchestra will presumably be made redundant, at considerable cost. Likewise, its chorus. Its vital role – long negected – as a training ensemble for English voices will be consigned to the waste bin. The ACE decision to defund ENO is not just bad for ENO. It is pretty rotten for the state of the arts.
As for ACE itself, the moment its stressed-out chairman Sir Nicholas Serota (pictured) publicly admitted he had been ‘instructed’ to remove funding from London, he buried the last vestiges of arms-length independence. ACE is now officially a Government rubber-stamp. It does what it’s told. It has no wider purpose or vestige of authority. It deserves to be abolished.
“Its orchestra will presumably be made redundant, at considerable cost. Likewise, its chorus. Its vital role – long neglected – as a training ensemble for English voices will be consigned to the waste bin.”
None of those follow from being moved to Manchester. It might be that the orchestra and chorus will be let go (or won’t move when the company does), but if so, they’ll presumably be replaced after the move.
It doesn’t follow at all that training English singers will be abandoned just because of a move to Manchester. In fact, I’d expect the opposite.
How would basing ENO in Manchester affect Opera North I wonder? Manchester is usually included in their tour dates. Or might both companies possibly combine ? What with cuts at Glynebourne Touring and WNO a really worrying time for opera companies and their fans.
Surely relocation will be offered to the salaried members of ENO, as well as voluntary redundancies?
To coin a horrible phrase…with a lot of these reactions, London needs to check it’s privilege when it comes to having the loins share of historical funding. It has got used to getting the most, expects it and is horrified when it goes to other parts of the country. This should have been distributed more evenly years ago.
You need to look at subsidy per attendance.
London has a huge number of commuters and tourists. Dividing the subsidy by numbers on the electoral roll does not tell the whole story.
I live in the north and given the attendance of opera for as little as £15 a ticket in Leeds, there is no room really for a second opera company, and one in competition with Opera North that was invented by Lord Harewood and ENO as ENO North. The whole thing is a mess and threatens ENO with oblivion, not a reinvention. Most can’t afford Covent Garden.
Rupert Christiansen, writing in The Spectator, says that Opera North has never managed consistently to fill the Lowry.
I can’t vouch for that, but the Lowry did oppose the ROH’s last attempt to set up in Manchester, so perhaps it’s just realistic.
The fact remains, Opera North is a success story and should not be tampered with for political reasons. And attacking opera in the South out of some misguided move towards equality will not benefit the genre overall.
A mess, as you say.
You can’t expect ENO’s brilliant chorus and orchestra to up sticks and move to Manchester – these are people with homes and families in the South East. They will lose their jobs. Yes, they may be replaced by musicians in the North West but building an opera company orchestra and chorus doesn’t happen overnight. It takes years – and this region is currently well served by the fantastic Opera North (ACE grant increased today to 10.6million). This isn’t Levelling Up – it’s Levelling Down. London’s, and everyone’s, loss.
Say what you will about Russia but at least they care about the arts.
You first, Just Saying.
I doubt the family of Yuriy Kerpatenko would agree with you, Just Saying
This is a very blinkered view. Almost as if its what you’ve thought for years Norman.
£2m cut = almost untouched – Really? In which universe?
And as for the “instruction” – Nadine Dorries issued that in February, so hardly a surprise to anyone or news.
And what exactly would you replace the arts council with?
Norman, I find myself agreeing with you, unusually.
‘ACE is now officially a Government rubber-stamp. It does what it’s told. It has no wider purpose or vestige of authority. It deserves to be abolished.’
I would urge all to read the excellent paper by Alexander Adams and David Lee on this very subject, published by Bournbrook Press.
I cannot imagine what might be the consequences for employees, and not just musicians, of ENO, of the latest ACE policy.
Sounds interesting.Ordered a copy. Only £3.
Thank you.
Quite how you get from a philistine government muddying the waters to a conclusion that ACE needs to be dissolved is beyond me. It should be preserved so that the next government – expected by one and all to be more generous and less philistine (Angela Raynor loves opera) – can start again properly.
Statements like that give the appalling Tories an excuse to meddle further.
I know that party poltics has its appeal, but it’s not that simple. Gove and Osborne also like opera, and Portillo before that.
Angela Raynor defended her visit to Glyndebourne, and was right to do so, but the Labour party is not short of chippy, anti-elitist, inverted snobs. Grew up with them, unfortunately.
ROH whining as usual about their share but the level of wastage in that building is horrendous. A clueless team at the top and some very poor choices has diminished the place to franchises and eateries with a theatre attached. Grant and timeless productions binned in favour of disposable new productions directed by idiots. Beard, Mears and O’ Hare you need moving on immediately.
“disposable new productions directed by idiots”
Hardly confined to the ROH.
The Arts Council has neither the ability nor, I suspect, the incentive, to plan sensibly on a long term basis for the benefit of the arts generally.
It wanted a high-profile London scalp to parade for political reasons. ENO’s predicament and bad management made it the obvious choice.
My late wife and I saw one of the Tchaikovsky ballets @ ENO in ’18. The orchestra was excellent as was the ballet corps.
Eno have been mismanaged for decades. I’m sure mackintosh and Lloyd Webber are licking their lips to get that theatre.
What is the importance and value of types such as Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Bruckner, Brahms, Berlioz, Berg, Berio, Boulez compared to that of our incomparable BANKERS?
Not good for London as a creative hub.