Top floor at ENO in total orchestra chaos
NewsEnglish National Opera has taken down its aggressive social-media response to Martyn Brabbins’ resignation announcement but there is no masking the disarray at the top of ENO, or the haplessness in handling the orchestra.
The team at ENO is headed by an interim chief executive, Jenny Mollica, who is the company’s former head of strategy and therefore presumably well versed in survival plans. She shares the top slot with artistic director Annilese Miskimmon, who was a confrontational chief of Norwegian Opera.
The board is chaired, unchanged since 2015, by Harry Brünjes. The atmosphere is said to be combative, but the tactics are confused.
The orchestra is a heavy overhead on the balance sheet, the more so when ENO is only engaged part-time at the Coliseum. Over the past 30 years, the following solutions have (to my knowledge) been presented to the board.
1 Merge with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which has more dates than its core players can handle.
2 Merge with the BBC Concert Orchestra, which has a patchy diary.
3 Merge with one of the under-employed chamber orchestra, ECO, Mozart Players, etc.
4 Become a pick-up orchestra, augmented by one of the post-grad training ensembles.
None of these ideas came to fruition but some have a good deal more coherence than present plans to strip the permanent orchestra down to Mozart size and achieve further cuts by attrition.
What a Harry mess.
I work a lot with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and they certainly don’t have a patchy diary. In fact, it is sometimes a struggle to get dates that fit – and that is at a range of 12 months and more. The orchestra is very well managed by Bill Chandler, and travels within the UK and also internationally.
The latest Annual Review on the ENO’s website is for 2017/2018 – the Annual Review contains the financial statements of the company.
The Charities Commission’s website shows that the Annual Return and Accounts for the year ended 31 July 2022 was not filed by the deadline and are now 135 days late.
Companies House also records the missed deadline and shows that a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off the company was made on 10 October 2023. I guess that this may have been due to the missing financial statements. The notice was discontinued on 11 October 2023 – presumably because of a response from the company. Compulsory dissolution is a serious matter and
‘Upon the Company’s dissolution, all property and rights vested in, or held in trust for, the Company are deemed to be bona vacantia, and will belong to the Crown’.
Disgraceful corporate governance.
I’d put my money on the delay being difficulty with their auditors getting over the line about being a going concern. ENO would be desperate not to draw up accounts on a wind-up basis but the auditors would be thinking there is a very high risk to the company (ACE announcement was only in July) and so possibly the delay in posting accounts is to allow for the clarity over their going concern status.
But yes, doesn’t look good. The strike-off notice is automatic and easily resolved.
I’ve played lots, as a freelancer in the ENO orchestra – while they’ve been treated badly for many years they are still an orchestra capable of playing all the repertoire associated with a major opera house.
Combining them with students, making it freelance, or merging with a freelance chamber orchestra would completely the entire company and what it can do.
I still don’t understand why ENO orchestra is not represented by Association of British Orchestras, who could be making the case for the orchestra in a high profile way.
It’s often been the case that companies have undervalued their orchestra – Miskimmon will not be able to fulfil her own objectives without a cared for, nourished orchestra.
How awful for ENO orchestra members – getting a job in a London orchestra is very difficult, they all deserve far better representation and treatment.
It’s extremely obvious to anyone in management meetings internally that Miskimmon has been the one fighting this decision every step of the way without Brabbin’s help. He has made himself look a fool and a hypocrite in resigning. The ACE are making ENO destroy themselves. A change of Government is the only hope.
ACE was set up to be arms-length funding separate from government. A Labour government is hardly likely to pile more funding into what even Conservatives view as elitist entertainment. When was the last time a member of the cabinet, even a Culture Secretary publicly attended an opera?
On Good Friday every year , the entire Netherlands cabinet attend a performance of the St Matthew Passion. Sigh!!
Michael Gove regularly attends the opera, as do several other cabinet members.
Although she’s not (yet) a member of cabinet, Angela Rayner attended a performance of Figaro at Glyndebourne recently (summer 2022?).
I can say categorically that the above is entirely untrue, and reeks of being written by someone in the management.
As usual, ENO management failing their artform, employees and legacy.
This is very sad. I am reminded of the strategy of closure by stealth used for UK railway lines for decades. The service is gradually run down over a period of time, until there are so few users that closure is seen as the obvious step.
Can’t see a way out of this mess – which is probably what ACE want.
Pity Brabbins took the cowardly route at exactly the time his musicians need him fighting their survival. I suppose that’s what you get when appointing Music Directors who are using an opera company to conduct opera and further their CV’s.
Give it a rest with the gutter sniping. On top of a bad sitution all around, this is an obnoxious statement to make about Martyn Brabbins.
Starting the process now may help ‘sell’ the move to whichever receiving venue is unlucky enough to actually get the gig. The musicians are hardly likely to want to move out of Central London to some dreary provincial backwater. Ditto Brabbins. And so getting the clearout started before the announcement, always assuming they get the necessary ‘volunteers’ may mean one less confrontation when they have to get the whole lot of them out of the Coliseum. “Look, take the opportunity to go now and stay in London, or we will be forced to try and get you out of the Greatest Cultural Capital in the World [sic] and make you go to the back of beyond on less attractive severance terms”
ACE are digging their heals in and I have no doubt that ENO felt the cries of the London great and the good would actually stop it from happening. It might still not happen but what I do know is that whoever is persuaded to accept the company should have its head examined. Leave it where it is. Close it down. But spare those of us outside London the indignity of being seen as nothing more than internal cultural exile for our metropolitan elite!
Confrontational chief? Allegedly, she was give a one year termination notice in Oslo, just at the time Stupid Murphy offered her the job. Industry rumor has it that she has been going for every AD position across the EU over the last year. We shall hope the Europeans have more intelligence than (repeat) Stupid Murphy and that Board.
I’m afraid the ENO riposte is still on the ENO website https://www.eno.org/news/a-statement-from-the-eno-regarding-martyn-brabbins-resignation/
And has this morning been emailed to members of the Friends scheme. Never before had ENO turned on it’s own Music Director in such a viscous and potentially libellous manner. Receiving the email has provoked my resignation as a Friend.
Incompetent arts management strikes out again so performers and audiences suffer! But the administrators live on to create more chaos.
This is clearly rubbish from some misogynistic poisonous pen. she is incredibly highly regarded and could walk away from ENO into a better job anytime she wanted. you don’t get jobs if you get fired from others- the international opera community all talk to each other. presumably she’s not ditched ENO yet out of loyalty to the company and knowing how it would leave them even more vulnerable to the ACE. Gloriana and Die Tode Stadt and Peter Grimes have been brilliant. the bigger question is how on earth is ENO going to get her to stay now? they have lost Brabbins , how do they keep her?
Spot on!
The photo is a scene from Gilbert & Sullivan’s THE YEOMEN OF THE GUARD at ENO recently, featuring a ridiculous change of setting and other stupid stuff.
Disgraceful
Pit orchestras usually are smaller than symphonic ensembles.