What’ll happen to musicians when ENO is moved to Manchester
NewsOver the next five years until the move to Manchester, members of the English National Orchestra and chorus will be offered a stark choice between redundancy and relocation. Most, I suspect, will take a reasonable pay-off and go since the upheaval in mid-career is unsustainable for themselves, their partners and families.
ENO has no music director who might call on their loyalty and try to change their minds. There is not much to keep anyone at a company that is being shunted up north without even a fast train connection.
The remnants of English National Opera that reach Manchester in 2029 will be bundled together with existing organisations to provide a full orchestra. That could mean a partial merger with the Manchester Camerata or the BBC Philharmonic, or a fast-stream audition process into the orchestra for new graduates from the Royal Northern College of Music.
These are the options presently on the table. None of them inspires hope or foretells glory.
As for the backstage staff, no-one even mentions them.
It’s a ghastly scheme for gutting ENO and cutting musician jobs.
pictured: Manchester Camerata
Not even that choice will be offered. ENO has neither intention nor means of paying relocation expenses. The 6-month contracts currently being proposed for the singers and players are to cover only the London ‘season’- in reality two 2-month token spasms allotted the worst times of the theatrical year amongst the Coliseum commercial hires.
The chorus and orchestra will not be invited to move to Manchester, hence the management-speak about ‘partnerships’ and ‘collaborations’. In any case, very little of what’s being discussed for the new base is ‘opera’ in any recognisable sense. Manchester should check the small print very carefully: if they think they’re getting Puccini or Britten, they’re in for a shock.
Terrible move especially for the members of the orchestra themselves.
Don’t Manchester’s arts companies already do community and creative health projects pretty well? No need for ENO to come in and offer something that ENO have no experience in. ENO’s main USP is proscenium arch opera- that’s what they (try and most often, fail) to do well. Community work isn’t their bag- has anyone seen a community show that the ENO has actually done? Also worth noting that opera north struggle to get an audience in Salford at the best of times! It’s a lose, lose.
Opera North doesn’t get full audiences in Leeds either. My really cheap balcony seat was upgraded to side Stalls for the past two seasons.
I have attended Opera North in Leeds for the past two years and every show I have seen has had a nearly full house! (and was VERY good!)
You’re right Peter. Opera North is a fantastic music group based in Leeds ( 40!years ago it was an offshoot of ENO!) and it has worked very hard to build a mid size band of loyal followers and educational outreach in Yorkshire which has been award winning.
But to be viable Opera North needs sponsorship by “friends” in each of its touring bases ( Newcastle, Nottingham, Salford etc). In the Lowry Centre, Salford it achieves 50-80% audiences on the 10-15 days it plays there. How on earth is ENO going to build a similar audience in Manchester 1 mile away) for another 30-50 days a year???
It’s not even Manchester – it’s Salford, so a ride around Manchester on a tram before you even get there!
All same conurbation and is minutes on a tram from Manchester City Centre.
A national opera company should be in the capital, though that does not preclude touring productions around the country, perhaps combined with a shorter season in London. And, yes, as many have commented, Manchester puts them firmly into Opera North territory.
And as for Andy Burnham: can he tell us when he last attended an opera production – anywhere! – or even a classical music concert?
Perhaps the Arts Council should move to Manchester instead?
Too expensive to tour. That was why Opera North was founded by Lord Harewood and ENO in 1978 to bring opera to the north.
I think the Arts Council should be rehoused in the Thames! I’ve been going to ENO since I was 17 at school, and then after wherever I’ve lived in the country
It’s not just about you Una. About time 17 year olds in the NW had their turn to access high quality opera too.
That is what Opera North offers in spades. Do your research Rawgabbit!
A national company doesn’t have to be in London.
Opera North is in Leeds. Leeds is not Manchester. Opera North occasionally tours to Salford. That is a completely different prospect to Manchester and the NW having a resistant company, forging links and new audiences in its new base.
If Manchester audiences should be content with Opera North’s provision in Salford, then using the same argument, why can’t London audiences be satisfied with the new ENO touring to London?
What on earth has this got to do with if Andy Burnham has been to Opera or not? Sounds like you are being a bit of a snob Garry. Perhaps don’t believe that Opera can attract new audiences, so it should just stick to current low audience numbers and slowly let the medium die out.
Anyone would think that Manchester was beyond the Arctic Circle. It’s a mere almost two hours away by train from Euston and there are very regular services there.
Not if the government can help it!
Nobody from the ENO chorus and orchestra will be taking the train to Manchester for the simple reason that the chorus and orchestra aren’t included in the move to Manchester. ENO plans to lay them all off on zero pay for the Manchester part of the year. The only ENO staff in Manchester will be managers.
Not last Sunday, when Avanti cancelled all trains Manchester- London. And my ticket, a day return booked three weeks before travel and with a railcard ‘discount’ cost £78.95. Despite Avanti having my e-mail address and travel details, they sent no notification that my train was cancelled so I only realised this the day before travel. I also had to submit a request for a refund with a photo of the ticket – which they must have on their computer system – so zero customer care from this private, tax payer subsidised, train operator.
Maybe some day someone can explain to me why privatising the train services was a good idea. All I hear, from people in north and south, is of difficulties and cancellations and lateness and high cost of train travel. Hugely unreliable.
When I was last tooting around the UK, in the late 80s, I rarely bothered even to inquire about trains — I just turned up and waited for the next one. I did arrange for travel between London and Scotland, and London and Cardiff, but it was a doddle and lots of choices.
What genius thought a useful, USED, pretty well-running service ought to be turned over to people whose only concern would be to eke as much money as possible out of a captive public with minimal concerns for customer service? Oops…late 80s. Hmmmm.
It would be acceptable if it had WORKED.
100% in agreement. Avanti deserve to go bust, Mick Lynch given a one way ticket to Moscow and whoever in government renewed the Avanti contract should have to endure a 365 daily per annum return journey on their stinking creaky trains
Your comment is London centric, even now. London audiences and tourists will not come to Manchester. The accessibility is irrelevant.
Nor will northern audiences flock to Manchester. Late closure of show and poor late night train connections will make this a no no for many or most without overnight hotel stays. Unless ENO provide better day after day opera presentations, which they can’t even do in London, they areooking at minimal audience exposure over the north.
Exactly, and I speak as someone who is a Londoner who chooses to live in West Yorkshire, so a train into Leeds, and then the TransPennine to Manchester that’s hit or miss to do 65 miles or so. Can just about make it over to the Royal Northern College of Music or the Halle for something really special at the Bridgewater for a concert for those two places are in central Manchester. But Salford is not Manchester and requires another train ride on a tram around Manchester to get there.
The boundary between Salford and Manchester meanders through streets in places and even bisects buildings in parts in Cheetham Hill….Is one conurbation…Just stay in Leeds and do us all a favour maybe.
Just looked at train times between Penrith, Cumbria and Manchester, obviously getting there no problem (strikes permitting) but only matinee performances would allow us to return home on the same day. The last train, change at Preston, is 20.33, or sit in Manchester until 04.57 next morning.
The powers that be don’t want opera, or classical music in general, to survive.
The national train timetable isn’t an evil villian’s plan to bring about the end to opera and classical music
That is a good and fair comment. London has a huge catchment area meaning people can visit for a day opera trip. For many of us a trip to opera in Manchester means we need overnight accommodation, meals and the rest. This is not viable unless a company offers a string of performances. Fortunately Opera North has offered that at the Lowrie. It is very doubtful whether ENO will be able to bring top quality productions to Manchester in the near future.
Have you seen the cost of train fares on that line compared to Leeds? Then when you get to Manchester, you’re not even there. You need to stay in a hotel to go to the opera.
A daily commute from London to Manchester returning after a 10pm curtain down.Are you serious Elizabeth?
This is just awful news. In fact it really is dire, as one commentator has said. it will also impact on Opera North’s future too with Salford Quays being one of their main touring venues. Ironic that Opera North was founded by Lord Harewood [Hahr-wood in London] from the North Yorkshire village of Harewood [pronounced Hair-wood up here] as ENON – English National Opera North in 1978, who then went independent as Opera North in, yes, Yorkshire – Leeds. You do wonder if the Arts Council will try and kill off Opera North next with insisting that ENO has to tour to Leeds as part of their touring programme. The whole idea of Lord Harewood was for opera to be brought to the north of England than have the north of England travel to London, and certainly not have its creation of Opera North be put in jeopardy. A bit like killing your own kids. Now it is all a total mess. Don’t know if this is worse than when Chris Smith, the Labour politician of arts and fun, tried to get ENO to amalgamate with ROH, Covent Garden in London as one company as things were falling apart financially, yet great artistic achievement from all three companies – 2 x London and 1 x Leeds. At the moment, far, far easier for me – and many others I have met at the Coliseum – to do a day return to London Kings Cross even on a Sunday, as I often do when ENO have a matinee than try getting to Salford to see them from Ilkley via Leeds, and the last train home plus a tram out of Manchester to get there and back. Just about do the Royal Northern College of Music or the Halle for an evening show, but not Salford Quays!
If they want to hire recent graduates, there’s dozens of each instrument coming out per year from each of the national conservatoires, not just RNCM, who would dream of landing a job playing for a ‘real’ orchestra. There’s no need to fast track from just one organisation. For example, RWCMD run an Orchestral Masters with placements in Welsh National Opera and BBC Welsh. You’d think the top graduates from there would waltz into an opera company champing at the bit for new, cheap players, but they don’t. They have to have the savings or the income to practise another 5-10yrs before they get their first job. There’s hundreds of spare orchestral musicians doing nothing who’d love to play for ENO, wherever they end up, provided ENO and the arts scene in the UK could cope with a slight reduction of quality and a slight increase in passion and devotion.
Increasingly now, players are gaining prime jobs far earlier than previously. For example, the new Principal Clarinet coming into ROH is straight out of RCM with no previous positions I’m told. Unheard of when I went to RCM.
It’s all about quality. Northern audiences are very discerning. They are also used to the Halle and the BBC Philharmonic.
It is not going to be difficult to find musicians. The new ENO can work with current Manchester orchestras, the RLPO or freelance players, depending on their need. This will even be seen as a plus point. Though not talked about widely yet, it could be a huge boost to orchestral musicians based in the North.
Identity is not as important to the audience as us in the Arts think it is. LPO musicians regularly talk of Glyndbourne audiences asking ‘are you just a collection of local musicians’ or even ‘Gosh, I didn’t even realise there was a live band’.
‘It’s not going to be difficult to find musicians’…
While this may not the time or place to debate the [huge] merits of the ‘corps de…’ concept in respect of the Orchestra, please just step back a moment and consider we are talking about Opera – a high-level art form that requires some of the ‘musicians’ (let’s call them ‘singers’) to memorise hours of music AND detailed stage direction. Ditto a large number of unseen stage and production staff.
And so yes, while arguably any ‘freelance players’ *could* deputise in the pit should the need allow, not any ‘freelance singer’ can turn up to stiffen an Opera Chorus or part-time stage hand turn up to help put on a show.
Presumably too ENO will want [need – very much need] to put on ‘bums n seats’ shows … revivals of old favourites. So who knows these productions already? The existing Chorus [and unseen stage and production staff], of course.
‘Not necessarily’, I hear you say, ‘for why cannot new singers learn these productions?’ – granted, not an unreasonable question on the face of it.
Because notwithstanding the 10s of YEARS of training to be an Opera singer (so, respectfully, not a whole chorus of ‘just out of RNCM’ jobbing singers), it takes months to learn a production from beginning to 1st night.
Further, it is usual for an opera Chorus to be in the middle of learning [music and production, don’t forget] and performing up to 4 or five shows conterminously at any one point in the season.
Something a ‘freelance player’ doesn’t have to do in the pit, reading his music…
And just because they are not seen or part of the performance, consider too staff who make and oversee the production: Wigs, Costumes, Make-Up etc; or the Stage hands and technical staff; lighting and sound engineers… (with apologies to any I’ve missed!)
Yes – like your ‘freelance players’ *some* of this work could now be undertaken by new, local employees.
But much of it is extremely specialised work where (rightly or wrongly), being in the Capital city allows ENO to employ those who are the best at their craft – for they have migrated to London so that they can be gainfully employed across a number of theatres and other outlets (TV dramas etc).
As others have voiced above / below / on the other item, this is not ‘just’ about objecting to moving to Manchester; it is about what will become of ENO as a provider of ALL forms of Opera from outreach programmes (Bayliss) to Grand Opera productions while wanting (and rightly so) Glyndebourne, Opera North and WNO etc to thrive alongside.
And so by ‘selling’ the notion of ‘freelance players’ in your comment – which I do believe was not said to provoke – you only go to show up the wider ‘slippery slope’ towards opera oblivion.
A specialist Art Form needs specialists in AL areas, and so if Manchester wants its own ENO, that’s fantastic to hear.
But as so many others have said, you don’t take away from one area to provide in another; provide it in both (ACE, sit up and listen – I’m talking to you!)
All good points.
Summer season Operas seem to work well with temporary teams in all areas.
I wasn’t trying to provoke by mentioning freelance players and I certainly don’t think a project/freelance orchestra is a ‘slippery slope’ to ‘oblivion’! It works well with two orchestras at Glyndbourne. I just can’t see a full time orchestra being formed at ENO
It was actually praise for freelance players. They are unsung, but make up a greater number than members of orchestras. In London you’ll find 10-30% of the line ups of most concerts by a named orchestra, are freelance players.
You persist in (pardon the pun ) singing the praises of the opportunities for orchestral players, and that is of course not in itself a ‘bad thing’.
But we are talking about an *Opera* company, and one (with respect to Glyndebourne et al) that is arguably 1st equal (with ROH) in the land and not made up of just its orchestra.
By all means shout out the players (of course, ALL musicians deserve our support. Always.) , but in this instance, it’s not just about them…
Without highly skilled opera singers (and other opera-related professions) the end result will be no work at all for these orchestra players, freelance or otherwise, that you rightly laud.
Unless you want it to become English National Overtures, of course !
(Sorry, that was very flippant, but you get my point.)
And so no singers (of sufficient ability) will simply equal no more ENO [the ‘oblivion’] and so ultimately no company employees at all – whatever job spec they might previously have had…
Pipe dream it may be, and to repeat, but if there is a market in Manchester and its surrouds for Opera as provided for in London, then it should be provided for in addition to, and not instead of.
You are missing a big important point. It takes years and years to build up a house orchestra and a chorus. This is not just picking up buskers off the streets.
Death by “levelling up”.
Levelling down
Not for the NW
I hope it’s more successful that the ROH’s two attempts to set up a base there. Remember those?
I’m from the North, not London, but I have serious doubts about this.
I certainly have my doubts about it all as a Londoner living in the North. Have lived in Manchester and now in West Yorkshire, having had a career myself as a singer.
Yes. RO came twice to Manchester, once with the RO orchestra, once with the Hallé in the pit. Never came again.
Will the the weird Aviva Studios be ENOs new home or is Manchester going to have to find the cash for two potential millstones?
Up North?
The utter contempt for the plebs drips from every word
I should think the contempt is on the part of the ACE and the government instructing them, who keeps sending “up North” (they don’t care where, as long as it’s North) the scraps they don’t want in London. They wanted ENO out, Manchester can get them. And let’s screw over the actual northern opera company – Opera North – in the process. They wanted some office space, so they sent a random assortment of civil servants to Darlington. Etc.
Manchester deserves opera. The North deserves classical music. But they deserve to have their own solutions and companies, not just picking up the morsels who fall off London’s table. An opera company with no chorus nor orchestra being a ‘good’ solution for “The North”, that’s contempt.
How is moving a name such as ENO to the NW contempt?
It will bring employment to the NW.
London opera fans don’t like the idea of losing their heavily subsidised tickets so are plucking any bad faith excuse out if the air to justify their view.
Job losses are bad, without a doubt. This isn’t rare in any walk of life though and the Arts aren’t sheltered from this.
This move is potentially huge for the NW and new audiences. ENO as we have known it, is gone. Its future is not with dwindling audiences in London, pretending it is the 1980s.
It is contemptible in many ways:
1- they’re moving, as you say, a “name.” No orchestra, no chorus. It’s a shell of an opera house.
2- the only reason it’s moving is they decided it was not good enough for London, not that it is an asset for Manchester.
3- It blatantly steps on and displaces the actual Northern opera company – Opera North – which is already doing marvellous work on tight budgets, AND employs an orchestra and a chorus. In effect, the London exilees take precedence on Northern institutions.
4- it comes as they’ve also gutted the WNO next door. They create a desert, then they ‘fill’ it.
5- They present this as an initiative for “The North”, which is an outrageously provincial view from London. As if Durham, York, Newcastle, will benefit from this…the North is more than Manchester, but they wouldn’t know that. And if they want initiatives and partnerships “across the North”, Opera North is already doing that.
Among others…
Emil,
1: Yes, the ‘brand’ is moving. I’m not sure the new audience will mind when the productions are good and orchestra sounds great. The reality is so stark now to years ago. It would be wonderful to have full time orchestra and chorus, but I can’t see how that will happen. My guess both will re-form on terms similar to Royal Ballet Sinfonia, English National Ballet Orchestra or short contracts such as summer season Opera orchestas.
2: ACE have been very complimentary of ENO’s work recently. They just want them to do it in a new area.
3: Opera North play Leeds, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle, Salford and occasionally London. Their education and outreach is Yorkshire based and targeted there. New ENO should concentrate on building local and new audiences in the whole North West, big productions in Manchester, Liverpool, even Stoke. Smaller scale productions could take place the many local venues from Chester to Carlisle.
4: See Liverpool above.
5: I agree. Durham, York and Carlisle are lacking. See point 3 for further coverage in the NW. I feel this must happen, or an ENO move just creates another mini-London, where only Manchester gets the spoils.
Newcastle is interesting point. Opera North play there as much/as little as they do Salford.
ON at Salford for some is given as reason why ENO shouldn’t move to Manchester! Opinion here is that this is not enough for Newcastle! All rather inconsistent.
The reality is, very few people are watching opera and something has to change or the medium will die as opera will run out of audience. What worked 50/30/20 years, probably won’t work today.
There will be no orchestra moving anywhere. I know. The false narrative on this subject has been astounding.
I honestly think that there is a lot of clear misinformation here. Fake news and I hope mainstream media pick up on it. As reported all over social media, ENO is not moving to Manchester. ENO is in fact staying in London for a greatly reduced season at the coliseum & putting all its company on part time contracts. There is absolutely NO sense of what ENO is going to deliver in Manchester, where they are going to deliver it or how they are going to deliver it. A load of hot air and nothing tangible beyond a load of corporate babble. This is not an ENO anyone would recognise. It is also not an ENO anyone can begin to conceive of as there are NO plans being reported. Like a speech bubble with no text in it. It’s sort of outrageous, really.
But their season has been short for years.
Most sensible comment on this.
Of course there is “no sense” yet of what ENO is delivering in Manchester, they’ve only just confirmed the move! It’s six years away and this, along with finding new home(s) will be the next stage of the development. It’s completely unrealistic to expect them to have announced that at this point.
Don’t dispair! There is some culture up here in the north, contrary to some London based rumours (and the ‘ad lib’ quips at the recent eno production of Iolanthe I travelled down to see). There is also glorious countryside, some excellent schools, other artistic work and a reasonably fast train service (though no longer hs2 in prospect, it seems). I don’t underestimate the upheaval for families, but many of us have moved around at various stages of our careers (my own exit from London was 30 years ago) and it is not always bad, sometimes it opens welcome new doors!
The North is not a cultural desert, but it is not the capital city, and ENO is a national company that should be in the capital city. We are not federated like Germany, and wonder what Andy Burnham, Mayor of London, would say about it after his battle for Manchester folk during the pandemic in Tier 3 for months.
Scottish Opera isn’t in Scotland’s capital city..
ENO are not offering relocation to any of their permanent company. This is simply not a case of people not wanting to move- they would if they could. This is a case of bare faced lying.
Don’t be so chippy. People are well aware of the Halle, RLPO, Opera North etc, but the fact remains Manchester does not have a deep association with opera. The ROH’s past experience attests to this. The UK is not Germany, as pointed out immediately below.
Furthermore, this has not been well thought out, or thought out at all. The main motive seems to be a vague idea of levelling up and an excuse to reduce spending on opera. It’s not clear just exactly what will be moving to Manchester – a bit of signage and a few ENO leaflets?
And what about Opera North?
“…the fact remains Manchester does not have a deep association with opera.”
This is not a good enough excuse not to move.
Why doesn’t it have a deep association? It might have something to do with not having resident opera company for the last century!
The potential is huge for this move for the NW. If people can’t see this, they are acting in bad faith or just want to keep the status quo of having a part time opera company in London, where they can enjoy heavily subsidised tickets.
It’s time for audiences and importantly NEW audiences, to enjoy the fruits of major Arts funding, just as London and the SE has had for decades.
Opera North is in Leeds. That’s not Manchester.
Opera North play Leeds, Hull, Nottingham, Manchester and Newcastle. It also has it’s education and outreach firmly based in Leeds and Yorkshire.
ENO (if it had sense, which is another debate) should focus on Manchester and the NW in various city venues: Lowry, Aviva etc & develop audiences in many nearby towns, such as Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Chester, Stockport, Macclesfield, Warrington etc. Even Blackpool, Preston and Lancaster.
Liverpool is a short distance too.
“Why doesn’t it have a deep association? It might have something to do with not having resident opera company for the last century!
…… to enjoy the fruits of major Arts funding, just as London and the SE has had for decades.”
So why did Manchester virtually reject the ROH’s approaches twice when other towns and cities welcome touring by companies like Glyndebourne Touring (when they had the chance, that is)?
And being from Bradford, I’m VERY familiar with the North’s geography, thank you,
I agree. Companies of all kind relocate regularly, with much larger forces. Why do the Arts think it is protected from this?
I doubt there will be any relocation anyway. The new ENO will collaborate (both artisitcally and in funding) with existing orchestras. At the most they’ll be a contact based orchestra of local players based in Manchester.
As harsh as this sounds, protecting fifty part time (some very part time) musician jobs, is not enough motivation keep ENO in London. This move is about the long term future of ENO, opera and new audiences in the NW.
Many moved with The BBCand never regretted it…
I did and I can’t wait to move back South you lot are Feral in Salford.
Berlin, with a population of around three million people – in other words a quarter of the size of the London metropolis – supports royally THREE world class opera companies! Shame on the Arts Council and shame on London.
Shame on the malign Board and supine management of ENO who have ruined a once-great company
If there’s ONE point that needs to be made, this is it! Life and imagination are elsewhere.
I’m not sure what the point of this argument is. Why is this “shame” on the Arts Council and on London?
Maybe read what I wrote?
I did. You don’t have to like what ACE are doing but it’s not their “shame” that more people watch opera in Berlin than in London.
What is a shame is that ACE has been trying to marginalise ENO for decades. Consistent underfunding and aborted plans to fuse ENO with the ROH have taken the stuffing out of this once brave company. That is nothing short of scandalous.
I’m afraid the many poor management decisions at ENO are likely the reason for ACE’s wariness of funding ENO more. Also, why should they always get all the money?
That is all a shame. Consistant funding cuts all round but ENO have still been a relatively large benefactor. With management trashing the company for years, ACE could have pulled the plug years ago.
Too right, but the opera is in the German’s DNA whereas football is in ours. Sadly, our education system doesn’t promote it.
Yuck. The usual snooty attitude. ‘If only we were a cultured as the rest of Europe’ etc
I’d argue many more Germans are much more into football than opera!
I’d also argue that comedy, via Shakespeare, music hall, theatre, then radio and TV is the British cultural DNA.
Berlin hasn’t produced a single piece of commercial (ie unsubsidised) music theatre of global significance since – well, let’s be generous and say ‘Im Weissem Rossl’ in 1930. London, along with Broadway, pretty much drives world theatre; at least the stuff that audiences are prepared to pay for at cost.
Berlin has an entirely different cultural ecosystem, rooted in a profoundly different history and socio-economic context. Except for the purposes of midwit Euro-jingo Brit-bashing it’s simply not a useful or intelligent point of comparison.
You’ve hit that nail firmly on the head. Excellent points.
Get a life.
Yes the arts are generously supported in Germany, and erlin in particular. They should be praised for that, and having three opera houses playing to enthusiastic audiences.
London has two, soon to be reduced to one. It is shaming of this country.
All you London Nationalist Opera goers. No need to worry, 2029 is a long way away, rather like Manchester it seems, and by then something will be bodged up to ensure that it never happens. Keep your part time Opera Company and the summer imports of Broadway musicals. We already have the BBC in exile with their treks into the back of beyond, I’m sure we can live without another load of disgruntled Metropolitan whingers forced beyond the M25 into the equivalent of cultural no mans land.
Which part of ‘the ENO chorus and orchestra will be laid off on zero pay for the Manchester part of the year’ are you struggling with? Manchester is buying a brand name and nothing more- like a football franchise with no players and not much money. A pig in a poke. I’m surprised at Andy Burnham’s gullibility.
To those of you looking forward to ENO in Manchester: beware, you are being taken for a ride.
You are getting a brand name and some management only. You are not getting an award winning chorus, and award winning orchestra, or any large scale opera productions. It has been made quite clear to ENO’s performers and technical staff that they will not be travelling to Manchester en mass, and will not be employed beyond the ever-shortening London season.
I’m not exactly sure what you are getting, but it’s not that.
ENO can create something new in the NW. Protecting current part time roles isn’t motivation enough not to move.
The secret to a full and wholesome life is to grasp and enjoy change. Seeking out and implementing the opportunities that change presents, enriches and enhances people’s lives. Welcome to Manchester ENO, the best city on the planet.
Who are you welcoming? None of the singers, players and craftspeople who presently make every sound and image in every ENO performance will be in Manchester. They’ll be laid off on zero pay. You’re welcoming a dozen or so senior managers- that’s it.
Do not blame the ENO management entirely (although Mr Lebrecht has pointed out their failings in recent years, with some accuracy) blame the many government ministers for their indifference to the arts, and blame Serota and the ACE for their folly in pursuing a policy of supporting anything that is outside London, a policy that has already reducing touring opera markedly -no Glyndebourne/WNO tours-and will promise much but deliver little with this latest “move” of ENO to Manchester, that will be nothing of the sort.
Or musicians could move to Manchester and have a better quality of life….not everything needs to be in London!
….. Musicians are not being offered transfers from London (despite what NL is saying)but they are having their lives ripped apart.The government and AC seem determined to kill off grand opera.
Since when was Machester in the North of England? It’s about 200 miles from London and there’s more than 200 miles to go to reach the border at Berwick.
Please don’t operate any heavy machinery today David
Is in the clearly defined region of NW England..Cheshire Greater Manchester Merseyside Lancashire and Cumbria.
Won’t it bring jobs to the North … instead of London….isn’t that the point??
Good grief, it’s only 200 miles. Isn’t that what cars are for?
I have been an ENO fan for over 40 years. I have seen most of their productions. My experiences will live with me forever. Watching their operas make me feel connected to humanity.
Thinking, feeling, life changing. I recently left Britten’s Peter Grimes feeling that I’d experienced something truly reflective of the cruel, devastating world we are living in. It was incredibly moving and powerful. It stayed with me long after I’d left the Coliseum.
I am utterly appalled at this vile, gut wrenching government’s ignorance and the vicious slash and burn policy with which they have destroyed this precious company.
At a time when music education in state schools is woefully inadequate, ENO’s outreach educational programmes bring life changing opportunities for children to make music.
Shame on the Arts Council.
Shame on the government.
Where is the protection of the Arts for future generations?
I could weep that my grandchildren will never experience what I have.
‘Thank you’ ENO for the joy you’ve given me.
I mourn your loss greatly.
Which table are those options on?
There is no talk about merger with Manchester Camerata (very old picture btw, but facepalm is quite apposite), but I’m sure organisations in the North West will want to collaborate where it works artistically and financially.
Both Manchester Camerata and BBC Philharmonic are very different entities which are not suited to such a merger (one freelance, agile and paving it’s own independent way artistically and in its community-with very meagre public funding, the other under the broader banner of the BBC and supported through licence fee). I remember NL as a proponent of merging BBC Philharmonic and the Halle back in an article the 90s so a return to an old theme.
My heart goes out to all the musicians and ENO company in general. They and their families are facing massive uncertainty, financial insecurity and meanwhile trying to give their all for the public day to day at an extremely high level.
Patrons and supporters of ENO also must be beside themselves; donating money only to see political mishandling and large pay rises for those responsible for mismanagement (quite the opposite for the demoralised musicians) whilst artistic output is threatened and demeaned.
Thanks for a balanced and local view.
I can see orchestras and players across the NW used in partnership for different projects, rather than mergers.
Camarata’s recent production of Dutchman could be a blueprint of a small scale opera with high artistic ambition. Prepare to see more of productions to audiences in art centres, small theatres and town halls, rather than expecting all their audiences to come to a city centre at 7pm, to then plod home late at 10.30pm.
I for one won’t be visiting Manchester to watch the opera I still can’t fathom out why the RNCM is in that city and not Liverpool seeing that the oldest professional orchestra in the UK is the RLPO.
What an absolute national disgrace that this should be the fate of ENO. The Arts Council is no longer fit for purpose and the ENO management have failed in their most basic responsibilities
Yes modern britain is a rather brutal and uncaring place isn’t it.Never,at least those that make these decisions are well looked after.