Eyeless in Gaza: England’s philistine Arts Council

Eyeless in Gaza: England’s philistine Arts Council

News

norman lebrecht

June 06, 2023

When one of the country’s foremost legal brains uses strong language, those in power usually sit up and take notice.

The former Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption resigned this weekend from the board of English National Opera, condemning ACE as philistine, thoughtless and incompetent. How long its chief executive Darren Henley (pictured) can keep his job after this is a matter of months, if not weeks.

In the Telegraph this morning, Lord Sumption elaborates:

The Arts Council seems to have no grasp of the artistic and financial realities of musical performance. It thinks that a complex artistic organisation which has been in London for a century can simply be pulled up by the roots and transplanted elsewhere.

The decision was made in a hurry at a late stage with no idea where ENO might go so long as it wasn’t London. It was sprung on ENO with no prior research or consultation and little understanding of the implications. The Arts Council’s response to the difficulties as they
unfolded was to dig in rather than admit to what everyone else recognised as a historic mistake. Its chief executive, Darren Henley, started burbling away about the attractions of performing to small audiences in pubs or car parks with scratch crews and no sets….

No one will object to the idea of improving cultural provision for the English provinces. But this philistine, poorly researched and misconceived scheme is the worst possible way of doing it. It is simply a delayed death sentence for one of England’s brightest performing
companies. It will impoverish the musical culture of London, while patronisingly palming off the provinces with a pale imitation of the real thing.

Comments

  • Andrew Blake says:

    ‘One of England’s brightest performing companies’. Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he? But come off it, ENO hasn’t been ‘bright’ since the end of the Pountney/Jonas/Elder era. Even then the repertoire and stagings were arguably too camp to fill that enormous theatre. Meanwhile surtitles have killed off ENO’s USP.
    No, I don’t want it moved out of London, and especially not to compete with its much better sibling, Opera North. But I want it to reinvent itself as a successful and innovative opera company, not a serial disaster zone.

    • Paul Dawson says:

      I wasn’t the greatest fan of the Pountney/Jonas/Elder era (is the order significant?) but I am in full agreement with you on the surtitles.

    • Gregory says:

      ENO using subtitles for operas in English, with (mainly) British singers, gave singers the excuse to abolish diction once and for all.

  • Nil By Voice says:

    Echoing completely what Martyn Brabbins said a couple of weeks ago “robbing Peter to short-change Paul”.

    Let’s face it, ACE has royally ****ed this whole situation up.

    It can’t give money to every single arts cause, we’ve always understood that, and we’ve even accepted that no matter how ridiculous the reporting requirements have become, they need basic criteria on which to assess the value of their investment. BUT… once ACE started making operational decision for arts orgs, and having its funding priorities dictated not by the quality of the application and artistic output but by government policy, it crossed a line, damaged all trust with its stakeholders and brought its own future into question.

    I think on balance, it IS safer to have separate independent body than have decision marking on arts funding taking place in dingy DCMS back rooms, but it is going to require a massive changing of the guard at ACE to restore any form of confidence and return it to the status quo of mild resentment.

  • Tancredi says:

    Sumption is essentially spot on. I agree that ENO has made poor production decisions in recent years, but it should have been called out on quality. There is no contradiction between good provision in other UK cities, and London being the hub for those at home and abroad.

  • Mary Robinson says:

    Didn’t you say last year that moving ENO was a good idea?

  • Knowing Clam says:

    What does a developing occupied territory have to do with ENO? What a disgusting metaphor.

    • hullfair says:

      It’s a reference to Samson, in Milton’s poem, blinded and held captive by the Philistines. A literary reference, not a contemporary political reference.

    • Gareth Vaughan says:

      Get to know your Milton. The quote is from ‘Samson Agonistes’

  • Glynne Williams says:

    Lord Sumption is spot on! The loathing of anything approaching high art in this country and the terror in the governing classes of being perceived as ‘elitist’ is profoundly depressing. The Arts Council should change their title to The Anti-Arts Council.

    • Sonicsinfonia says:

      The very argument that depriving organisations of funding of culture/high art for fear of being seen as elitist is what actually causes it, since, without public support, it can only be afforded by the wealthy elite.

  • Tim Allan says:

    I’m not going to get into the rights and wrongs but until two years ago I had never seen an Opera. I was approached in the street whilst looking at a poster outside the ENO and placed on their mailing list. I have seen la Boheme and Carmen and loved both of them. The audience was a good mix of race and ages. Also many foreign visitors. There are nine million people living here plus another twelve million within an hour yet on neither occasion was the Colleseum full. How do ACE expect to fill a concert hall in Hull or Cardiff if you can’t sell out in the Capital?

  • bbcradiofan says:

    Why does ace get all the blame? It’s the tories wot done it and tories only destroy. Nadine Doris, former minister for culture set the destructive policy going. She also proposed the privatisation of channel four (no longer under consideration after she departed) and a complete end to the bbc licence fee (decision will come after next election). Tories are responsible for the failure and the chaos (see also under every other area of life in the uk).

  • Writer at large says:

    My beef with the Arts Council is that its website is so full of virtue-signalling criteria that you’re expected to comply with if you want to apply for funding that the ordinary mortal can’t actually apply for anything.

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