Musical chairs in fragile English opera
NewsOpera North today picked its successor to General Director Richard Mantle.
She is Laura Canning, head of artistic administration at Garsington Opera for the past eight years, before that at Welsh National Opera and Houston Grand Opera.
She will need to start thinking without delay on a response to the Arts Council’s determination to push English National Opera out into the regions, destabolising an already struggling sector.
Opera North, it would appear, has chosen solid experience over innovative vision.
This is excellent news for ON. Laura brings a wealth of experience and there’s no reason why she can’t be both a safe pair of hands as well as provide the company with the vision it needs during what will no doubt be a difficult future for opera in general throughout the UK.
Excellent choice, ON are in great hands. Laura is experienced, empathetic and energetic bring a wealth of experience at a national and international level. Finally some good news.
Whatever comes next, don’t blame Canning, or say it’ll all be fine because she’s so good. Or indeed, blame the ACE. Fragile is understatement. Nobody should be left in charge of an opera company for 30 years. The ON Board are about to learn why.
That’s a rather sour headline comment. Opera North is not ‘fragile’ but thriving, and just because Laura is actually experienced does not mean that she lacks vision. In fact her time at Garsington shows that she has plenty of that.