ENO’s last music director backs musicians’ strike
OperaThe condcutor Martyn Brabbins who resigned as music director of English National Opera in October, has spoken out in support of the company’s musicians who will strike on February 1 over threats to their jobs.
Brabbins said: ‘When is an opera company not an opera company? When music is no longer at its heart. This is the tragic reality of where English National Opera will find itself, should it go ahead with proposed plans to make deep and sweeping cuts to musicians’ contracts…
‘These are some of the hardest working, most dedicated people you would ever hope to find, working as a team for one shared purpose – to create extraordinary art and bring that to as wide an audience as possible… Yet as a result of Arts Council England’s narrow-minded and negligent decision to push ENO out of London, these brilliant musicians face devastation to their livelihoods and untold stress to their families.’
He ain’t wrong…
Sweet comment from an artful dodger himself. He stayed on board to conduct Peter Grimes – an opera he would never have been given anywhere else in the world – then jumped ship the second his interests were satiated. A more selfish, political player I have rarely seen. Too little, too late. Why didn’t he stay when they needed him? A mediocre “safe” pair of cowardly hands at best.
I wonder which member of ENO’s senior management you are? Perhaps Dr Brunjes himself?
Brabbins was very clear about his reasons for leaving and no doubt lost a lot of work in the diary as a result, so this is factually incorrect and indeed bordering on libellous.
Grimes had 4-5 star reviews across the board btw…
Brabbins is one of the leading exponents of C20th and C21st British music working today – with a huge list of premieres to his credit as well as two of the best recent Tippett and Vaughan Williams symphony cycles on disc. Britten is absolutely core repertoire for him and your comment is as uninformed as it is spiteful. Not a great look.
I’m not sure I have ever read a more ill-informed poisonous and unfounded comment. If ignorance is bliss you must be ecstatic.
What could be more cowardly than hiding a poisonous and ignorant comment behind a pseudony? Shame on you.
I dont suppose insisting on staging things like Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus helped the ENO balance sheet much. Neither the MDs nor general management of ENO have paid any attention to the financial realities the company was facing for a long time, Brabbins himself is part responsible for this mess now and jumping ship late in the day and then crying about the state of things is not that impressive.
When does the ENO self-reflect that they have been in this near-death cycle for over ten years now? The company is over. Yes, life is unfair, but this company has been limping along, draining public funds for years now. Opera is not a growing demand: face facts. It happens across many industries. Move on: find new jobs, and if you can’t, like many in life, change career paths. Change is not easy, but how many times do we have to read about them groping for their failing company to survive. Time to move on.
The whole thing is a total disaster a real shame. Yes a wonderful company where music has been ripped out of its soul by the Arts Council.
With everyone who was (really) behind the funding cut in the first place now put well out to pasture, why doesn’t ACE just throw its hands up and say “we made a mistake, and we’re undoing the decision”? By the end of all this the only thing ENO is going to be sending up to Manchester is a couple of sets and 50 administrators.
I think a full u-turn is the only way any of us will ever trust or have respect for the Arts Council again.
P.S. Brabbins is a legend.
when you have right around the block the roh and in the same street , the best musicals produced…..one needs to provide alternative, rather than compete with the same rep. Great Company and lovely people indeed, yet…..the move to the north now puts a sword to the neck of Opera North………solution? unite WNO, ON and ENO in to a two sit Orchestra and double Chorus that is able to tour nation wide with a joint budget. jobs are always at risk, but latest actions by the Gov proves to be dangerous to the future of all companies in the UK.
Congratulations, you are the winner of most stupid comment on SlippeDisc of 2024. Considering it’s only January, this is particularly impressive.
1. ROH/ENO clash check so they never do the same rep in the same season.
2. Your solution would result in far fewer people having access to opera.
The position at ENO is terribly sad, and particularly, as Martyn Brabbins says, for the bodies at the heart of the company: the orchestra and chorus.
I would like to set out a few facts for Slipped Disc readers. ENO management are on full time contracts, so are suffering no financial hardship. Presumably they reckon they can ride out the storm. However it looks likely that if the company moved its operations to Manchester it will have to set up a new orchestra and chorus, and then compete with another opera company (Opera North, formerly ENO North) based 42 miles away in Leeds. Both companies would be touring, which Opera North have been doing since 1978. This is of course bonkers.
If it’s not too late could I suggest another model, and the clue is in the name: English NATIONAL Opera. Make ENO a full time touring company: base it at the Coliseum, with a reduced season there, and for the rest of the year to tour around the U.K.?
This would achieve the original aim set out by former DCMS Secretary Nadine Dorries, of moving subsidised arts out of London. And now that ACE have removed funding for touring in England from WNO and Glyndebourne, there is a huge opportunity for a properly funded national touring company.
This would be something worth striking for.
Excellent idea.
The spiteful comments towards Martyn Brabbins by some contributors above are unwarranted and completely wrong. Martyn Brabbins is a total professional. Always demanding of the highest standards, but using a genuine collegiate approach, Mr Brabbins secures first class results from the orchestras, ensembles and singers under his direction.
Mark Wigglesworth is a first class, world respected conductor. Ed Gardner, too. But this undo praise above is what happens when we lower our standards gradually, as ENO has done over the last 8 years. We cannot pretend Martyn Brabbins is in the same category as the aforementioned maestros. Yes, musos enjoy him as he presents as a kind old man. (Despite rumors of his very cruel two faces behind the scenes). We cannot pretend he has ever been one of the great conductors in the UK. A champion of contemporary music, yes, a safe pair of polite hands, yes. It’s nice he stepped in to help ENO in hard times. But as for his actual musical skills: dazzling articulation, danger, dynamism, sensuality, inspiration, vision – I’m sorry, he has none of these skills which past MD’s have had at ENO. And he did leave the musicians when they most needed him to stay and fight. While not needing to take him down, we must not also nostalgize some great talent which was merely proficient.
It’s been said before but the move from Rosebery Avenue may have seemed ideal in the late 1960s, whereas for many years now it has been a near disaster. It’s magnificent Ring could just as easily have been created at Sadlers Wells, for example. I saw Scottish Opera’s Tristan there with Helga Dernesch. Besides I also saw the ENO’s Walkure in the even smaller theatre in Newcastle. Size was not essential to the move.
Just as Jeremy Isaacs disastrously dithered by not moving the ROH to the Lyceum before becoming a wandering ensemble during the renovations, so the Board of the ENO should have been at least considering alternative bases many years ago. The present auditorium size could never justify its activities as the 21st century progressed. Unquestionably it has produced some splendid work since then, but not consistently and many not essential for such a large house.
Had it moved further from central London, it could in my view have survived there, the more so if it had reactivated some of the touring it used to do extensively prior to the establishment of Opera North. If companies like Opera North and the Scottish and Welsh companies can and do continue to tour, there can be little reason for ENO not to tour to some other parts of the country.
Now we have the present mess. Yes the Arts Council must take responsibility. But the ENO Board and its CEO’s must surely take as large a share of the blame.