What a banker thinks English National Opera should do
NewsHuw van Steenis is Senior Advisor to the Chief Executive of UBS. Before that he was Senior Advisor to Mark Carney, when he was Governor at the Bank of England. He is also a trustee of ENO.
In an op-ed in the Times today, he attacks the Arts Council’s ex-London plan for the company. Less positively, he offers no alternative.
He begins:
What do you do when all the energy you’ve put into performing over many years is suddenly threatened? That’s how the amazing singers, musicians and technicians of the English National Opera feel. They’ve been told they have only 20 weeks left at the Coliseum in London.
And ends:
Audiences, artists, musicians and technicians all deserve better. The government and Arts Council need to think again and do a proper analysis of opera and audiences across the country — and show their workings, because this looks arbitrary. Opera is the embodiment of an essential human instinct: telling stories through music. Comedies, histories, and tragedies. The ENO wants to keep telling them to everyone.
And that’s it?
Here’s a pic, possibly more effective, from today’s pro-ENO demo.
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