English National Opera goes for stop-gap chief
OperaJenny Mollica was named this morning Interim Chief Executive of the English National Opera. She will take up the job in September when Stuart Murphy leaves.
As Director of Strategy and Engagement for the past three years, Mollica ‘ has been leading the company’s transition and business planning work in the context of Arts Council England’s 2023-26 funding outcome’.
Make of that what you will.
Dr Harry Brunjes, Chair of the ENO and London Coliseum, said: “The Board were unanimous in their decision to appoint Jenny Mollica as Interim Chief Executive of the ENO. At this time of change for the ENO it is important that there is a sense of continuity for the whole organisation and we have been extremely impressed by her commitment and dedication to ensuring a bright and positive future for the ENO following Arts Council England’s 2023-26 funding decision.’
Insiders had been expecting artistic director Annilese Miskimmon to be promoted to the CEO office.
Maybe she will make a very good appointment and I sincerely hope so because they will find it tough getting attracting anybody remotely qualified from outside to take this on. It’s astonishing that Dr Brunjes is still in situ – the first thing any potential CEO should insist on is the immediate replacement of Dr B and his boardroom acolytes.
Hmm… Not sure how anyone could ‘insist’ on that when it is Dr B and the board that interview an appoint the CEO. Of course, you are right in that until they have a board with some idea of how to run an opera company, they will be stuck in (badly) managed decline. RIP ENO.
‘Insiders had been expecting artistic director Annilese Miskimmon to be promoted to the CEO office.’
No they hadn’t. Not in a million years.
It’s good to hear that Ms Miskimmon wasn’t in line for the top job at ENO. She showed contempt for ENO’s audiences at The Valkyrie last season. Coming before the curtain prior to the first performance, she indicated to them that, in the wake of Westminster Council’s refusal to allow the performance to go ahead with the real “magic fire” that ENO had planned, no attempt had been made to simulate the magic fire and that the audience should “use its imagination”.
That contempt was compounded by the fact that this situation persisted throughout the run of The Valkyrie, despite the fact that any decent lighting technician could have rigged up a ring of red light within a day or two. I assume that the designer of the production had a hissy fit when s/he heard the Council’s decision: “Well, if we can’t have MY magic fire, then you shan’t have ANY magic fire!”
This debâcle illustrated not only contempt but also incompetence on the part of ENO’s management. Given that they had decided to use real fire in an old theatre with – as I gather – a wooden stage, why on earth was someone from ENO not liaising regularly with Westminster Council’s safety inspectors, starting from the day that decision was made, which was presumably months before opening night? For ENO to announce that (I paraphrase) “the nasty Council told us only last week that we mustn’t play with fire” was fatuous and disingenuous.
Sorry for a long post, but this episode seemed to epitomise ENO’s current malaise. I wonder how much the real, but unused, magic fire cost?
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss. Of course, what people ‘want’ and what people ‘expect’ are two very different things…
Insiders have been expecting bland artistic director Annilese Miskimmon to be demoted back to Oslo, a more correct statement. Please take Martyn Brabbins and Dr. Harry Brunjes, too.
May we ask the ENO Board why no public appointment process was undertaken?
A public appointment process is **to be** undertaken. Every report on this has stated clearly that this is an interim appointment.
Another rash, weak choice by ENO. A convenient puppet for Murphy and Brunjes to enact their future business plan, even though they themselves failed to make the last 5 years work? Good Lord, please close it tomorrow and end all our misery. What a failure on every level.
Surely this is a practical joke? Please?