Exclusive: ENO starts firing musicians
NewsWe have received this message from a trusted insider:
’15 Feb
‘Members of the chorus and orchestra started receiving formal redundancy notices from the ENO ‘Director Of People’ Denise Mackenzie this evening- beginning in the hour before curtain-up of the final performance of ‘Handmaid’s Tale’, and continuing through the evening. Many singers and players first saw their sacking emails during the interval. ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ is one of the most technically and emotionally demanding works in ENO’s recent repertoire. The conductor, Joana Carneiro (pictured), was horrified when she learned what was taking place, and then astonished that the performance showed no signs whatever of the turmoil being inflicted on the performers in real time.
‘The ENO Board and senior management’s contemptuous disregard for the people who make its core product- and therefore for opera itself- is self-evident. They’re only interested in their AirBnB Coliseum plan, alongside the minimum possible quantity of condescending crumbs for ‘lucky’ Manchester. Individual Board members, will still get to attend first nights of commercial tat and neck champagne with ‘celebs’. For the senior management, individual self-preservation is now the only game in town as they polish their CVs ahead of jumping shop as soon as possible.’
UPDATE: Message from Susan McCulloch: I made my professional debut at ENO straight from the NOS as the Countess (jumping in for the indisposed Helen Field) many years ago. I cannot begin to imagine the sad hearts, tight throats, veiled tears (and anger) at the ENO today. It’s the most incredible, wonderful company and unthinkable to have the British Opera scene without it. That the members were served redundancy notices MID-PERFORMANCE last night is cruel, wicked and thoughtless beyond belief.
UPDATE: Who gave the order to fire?
Having got the cart firmly before the horse, they now decide to shoot the horse.
Alma’s ears were burning again! She’s spot on the scene.
The existence of a ‘Director of People’ immediately tells you that you are entering a world of Orwellian DoubleSpeak. The mere fact that redundancy notices can be sent out mid-performance – without any human contact – is a disgrace; the ‘D o P’ should be fired immediately. How do such third rate managers get to work in a great opera house? And why are the Board not supervising the whole wretched process at close range and trying to mitigate the damage?
The same Director of People who was surprised to find out that ENO staff work evenings and weekends!
You’re kidding …
… aren’t you?
I was always suspicious of titles when Personnel – aka to with people became Human Resources (HR) – Human Remains as it got called, to be ordered along with stationery and loo rolls.
ENO for me has always been a wonderful company. I was taken, along woth four others doing A level Italian, by my Italian teacher from my east end of London school to see The Italian Girl in Algiers at 17. I went on to see very fine singers to learn my trade, finally having Neil Howlett for singing lessons until he died in 2020. Reverse the numbers, a retired singer, I have travelled down from my home in West Yorkshire many times, particularly matinees during the pandemic years on a day return, to see several things. I also happen to be unusual as a singer that I really love opera in up-to – date English, the language of the audience. I’d never had got through Wagner’s Ring or Parsidal without Reggie and in English, nor Debussy’s Pelleas – another of Neil Howlett’s as their principal baritone.
If half this posting is correct, then it is a total disgrace on the cast, and someone else with the fancy HR title should be sacked. DOP? Just the dreadful title says it all.
I’m afraid the DoP, the Board and the entire administration are on the same page and that the DoP is simply executing orders. We are not talking here about people who are capable of any sort of empathy, but of cold and callous administrators who look at this from a purely managerial standpoint and who are, at best, utterly clueless as to the human impact of their decisions. People, for them, are strictly commodities to be disposed of when it no longer suits their bottom line. It’s not simply Orwellian — there is a psychopathic element to it. They are merely managing a bottom line — there’s no humanity involved here, no regard for others whatsoever. And it is always delivered with a smile and in the most proper, corporate and soulless language.
This is so so so true
I observed the exact same managerial attitude within the Evangelical churches. Professionals,actually more qualified colleagues, were treated as minions, suspiciously too independent to suit the power and control nature of The Session.
Uncomfortable setting for the classical musician.
HR merely do the bidding of others..
With respect, people are a crucial asset to an organisation and there should be a person or department dedicated to overseeing them, ironically to avoid situations like this. You wouldn’t make the same comment about a Director of Finance would you?
This person, however, is clearly diabolical at her job.
You think these managers are 3rd rate? You should see what qualifies as management at Covent Garden!
Overseeing the demise of English National Opera might not look too good on anyone’s CV!
On the contrary, in certain political and business cultures it will be a badge of honor
Alex, a banker, one of the last of the great lunchers, used to entertain clients at both the ROH and Glyndebourne until Compliance stepped in. His favourite piece was a certain Wagner prelude, whose performance was a signal to wake up in time to get to the bar in time for the interval and some valuable networking …
An algorithm has removed a URL from my post which makes it meaningless to most people. It led to the website of Peattie and Taylor’s ‘Alex’ cartoon about a shamelessly mercenary banker , which appears daily in London’s ‘The Telegraph’ newspaper.
httpcolontwoforwardslasheswwwdotalexcartoondotcom
It won’t be called that – that’s the problem. Down as working with in budget. Back to the ACE.
It does happen here & there that a musical institution is not managed to make its functioning as best as possible but the other way around: the operahouse or orchestra is used to provide income or/and status for staff. That is why some orchestras have as many staff as players, or even more, or an opera house is run by staff who could not care less about the art form.
Just like a music college!
Worse! Then call the music college a ‘conservatoire’!
Sorry, John, but that’s garbage. No question: the specific situation at ENO is a disgrace and the long history of top-level mismanagement there has been well documented. But there are few musical institutions in the UK where any but a tiny handful of senior managers earn more than the artists on the payroll. I can’t think of any major orchestra in Britain that have “as many staff as players”, but when they do have sizeable admin teams it’s because classical music is a loss-making activity and if musicians are to be paid fairly and regularly, someone needs to be doing all the labour-intensive additional fundraising, marketing, applying for grants etc that makes that possible.
No-one (apart from agents and big-name artists) is getting rich in this business but the typical member of orchestral management in the UK is working roughly twice the hours of the musicians for less than two-thirds of the pay. Why? To sustain that high-rolling fat-cat lifestyle? Don’t make me laugh. It’s because they love music and musicians and are willing to sacrifice income, family time and the possibility of owning their own home in order to support them. So please, let’s have fewer of these divisive, inaccurate generalisations.
Incorrect. The LSO has more administration than orchestral members on its payroll, which effectively means, the orchestra (self governing members) employ. There are tensions due to this situation.
I know of some orchestras in the USA where staff has grown beyond the number of players, but that can also be due to the need to put a lot of efforts into sponsor recrutement. Still, to have a large sponsoring department, where people chase wealthy donors and companies, to pay for themselves and the orchestra, seems truly odd.
Yes, let’s have fewer of these divisive, inaccurate generalizations. Do you not know of how many hours these artists and musicians put in outside of the theater?
The Vienna Philharmonic is run by the players themselves and that is a handful of people. I have seen it myself and I was astonished to see that their office is a small group of informally-working people, in the best of moods. No big office with an army of staff. And this is a truly very busy orchestra, and yes, they have much support, but the point is: better avoid large overhead where it is not necessary. Too many people are attracted to music life who don’t belong there but like to sponge of its resources.
Sorry, The Vienna Philharmonic is not a good comparison. The Philarharmonic is the orchestra of Vienna State Opera and as such is paid by the Austrian government. As a self-governing orchestra its concert schedule is much less full than Berlin or Concertgebouw or LSO etc. The size of its office might not indicate management numbers.
Hmmmm. Is this how this dreadful management team justified awarding themselves hefty salary increases then, IC225, literally AS they slashed away at their company’s highest quality product? Notably their company accounts remain off limits to everyone (they were almost struck off by Companies House last year for failing to publish them) which is surely highly questionable when they accept public money. It absolutely stinks, from head to toe. Not only is this hugely talented, and wonderful company being disbanded with barely a whimper from the media and government, but the vast majority of Londoners and people from the home counties will no longer be able to afford to see opera in our once great capital city. It’s devastating and there is NO excuse for any of it.
Ridiculous comment. To compare the training required to be an orchestral manager (maybe a degree? Or working up the ladder?) to the sweat and tears and literally the entire childhoods sacrificed to the art form of being a performer, is laughable. The skill required to play in an orchestra and the competition to win a place, is enormous, nobody in an office stands anywhere near that. So the musicians should get loads more than any manager, which they don’t of course.
Replying to this and comments below that may not be as opposed as they seem: in the past few decades a new category — that of “arts administrators” — has made its appearance across the performing arts. It can prove a burden on the organizations it purportedly serves but from diverse motives, including people who wish to be close to say, music without having talent for the making of it; they may want to serve those who do.
They often have money or access to money and can work for very little. This has ossified with time into a Profession that wants to be well-paid and can get its way since it includes fundraisers and publicists who live in the world of money and can make the claim: without me, nothing!
Of course it was better before but before, there was an audience.
‘As many staff as players’ – BSO
Parasites
Of course, this was the post they were advertising for “Director of People”!!! I am SO angry I have no words.
Appalling. Love the ENO; outstanding singers & musicians with brilliant set designers & support staff. Redundancy notices to be received mid performance is either vindictive or gross incompetence. The Colliseum is an amazing venue & should remain at the heart of the ENO.
. . . and, although it should perhaps do more touring, it needs to remain for at least half the year, in the capital. Nothing against Manchester, but that (and the surrounding region) is already well served by the excellent Opera North.
Touring? Where? Opera North do that, which was instigated by Lord George Harewood in 1978 out of ENO as ENO North to bring opera to the north of England. Scottish Opera were also touring into England then. Opera North are struggling to get the audiences so putting ENO into Salford, Quays, not even Manchester. Anywhere else, apart from the barn of the Liverpool Empire, the country doesn’t have the theatres to stage ENO in England. Southsea? Isle of Wight? Lincoln? The days of them going to the Met are over! Covent Garden went to Manchester once only in 1982 after a special refurb of the Palace Theatre to accommodate them. The Garden came to the conclusion that it was cheaper to bus everyone down to London than for they to tour with both opera and ballet. To save money and overtime, they employed the BBC Northern Singers but changed to the Stephen Wilkinson Chorale who sang the Poulenc Gloria, not ROH Chorus, for the ballet to dance! I was in it, and an Opera North soprano was the soloist.
There will never be a full touring opera company again . Sure, both the Met and the Royal Opera toured, but life was cheaper then. It’s just not affordable in today’s world.
But we had a touring company until the Arts Council of England (!)
caused Glyndebourne to close it. It was a beacon of excellence in the cities where it played, created a young company of singers, a youthful orchestra and took the productions from the main house. Not exactly cheap, but wonderful value and experience for young singers. And all of this in the low season.Too good to last, at least for the ACE
Why can’t the ACE realise that you can’t expect talent to straddle London and
Manchester, and that the success of a house depends on it maintaining a consistent pool of talent at the core.
Formal redundancy notices doled out less than an hour before a performance, but the show went on. Executive level not so good at facing the music – Interim CEO is on leave until Monday. Cowardly.
There is never a ‘right time’ to serve redundancy notices, but to do it mid-show (and ‘drip-fed’ across all concerned to boot) shows nothing other than crass wider awareness / people skills.
Shocking.
That the show went on without a hint of what was happening in the performers’ lives just goes to show their professionalism and dedication to their Art Form.
Oh, yuk. How demoralizing, not only for the musicians, but for any decent members of board and management.
Stuart Murphy ran ENO into the ground and got a CBE. Harry Brunjes ran ENO into the ground twice and gets lauded for “saving” it. Lilian Baylis House was left to rot and is now derelict, the Coli is going the same way. People are treated so callously and are expected, and do, behave like consummate professionals. ENO and the opera lovers of the nation need a hero, certainly not found amount the current Board and Management
Totally disgusting no regard for the art form whatsoever. Sack the managers it would save far more money
here here!¡
This is all just making me incredibly sad. However this has all come about, it is a tragedy. Growing up in London the ENO is where I was able to learn about and hear opera, contributing wonderfully to my and other young people’s musical education. It is absurd to think that London cannot afford to keep two opera houses, and clearly the move to Manchester is going to destroy the company as we know it.
It all seems to me to signify a decline of classical music, opera and ballet generally in the UK. Brexit of course hasnt helped.
People here in Germany ask me all the time what is happening to the music scene in the UK, noone can quite understand.
Firing these musicians and company members confirms also that the people suffering the most are the chorus members and musicians in institutions like the ENO and the ballet company… this is also true of the problems Brexit has created for exactly these individual musicians. The large institutions like LSO, LPO Halle etc etc find ways to carry on and find the means to cope with all these problems, but so many really wonderfully talented UK musicians and singers are suffering from closing insititutions, lack of ability to afford to tour to the EU due to visa and work permit cost and hurdles, and from really poor pay from companies still operating in the UK.
Musicians iun the UK are some of the most flexible and talented anywhere. Can this decline be reversed?
Just explain to your German friends that there was never nearly as much public finding available in the UK arts scene as in the German one – and that now there is even less.
I imagine that they would be able to comprehend that, pretty easily…
Director of the People.
This after the strike was canceled.
Dirty business, this management.
The LSO has a Director of People.
A ‘director of people’ hired by Stuart Murphy, who previously worked for Virgin Active, with no knowledge of the industry.
Stuart Murphy deliberately advertised for a “Director of People” from outside the world of the arts.
Absolutely disgusting.
The standards have reached the bottom. Oh wait – do I hear them knocking from BELOW the bottom…?
This is a sobering read, and perhaps points to the problem:
https://www.stanleyroycejones.com/case-study/english-national-opera
‘Denise Mackenzie was the Head of People at The Big Table Group (which includes casual dining brands such as Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas) and formerly held senior roles at Virgin Active and Sodexo.’
Ditto for the Head of Marketing:
‘The successful candidate was Hollie Costigan who was Head of Marketing for Lancashire Cricket Club.’
Voilà.
I think this is incredibly telling.
I have had multiple experiences working with ENO’s marketing and communication teams and have not had a single positive experience. This isn’t just an external perspective, as I know of creative teams on productions having had to chase for updates as to why shows weren’t being advertised mere weeks before curtain up.
“Challenging conventional thinking” does not mean bringing in people who have no experience of the industry whatsoever. I could name 10+ people right now with exceptional track records for innovation and success, all of whom know the industry inside out.
This is pure (Stuart) Murphyism, to re-coin a phrase: To see anything that you haven’t had direct involvement in as being a failure – even if it works, shoehorn in experts outside of their expertise to fix these perceived failings, and then get out as soon as it looks like it’s all going to sh*t.
Yes, ACE/DCMS/Dorries are ultimately responsible for what is going on, but I would not be surprised if there will be more aftershocks to come from systemic internal issues.
Shocking and inexcusable. As bad as the arts Council!!
Can’t see anything not accurate in it … publish or not your choice!8
If anyone is in any doubt, I’ve just had it confirmed by orchestra members. As an ex ENO musician, although I find it shocking, I’m not surprised by their total insensitivity.
The culture of ENO has been deeply, deeply unpleasant for many, many years. The management are like a revolving door of some of the nastiest and incompetent people you could have the misfortune to come across. The culture in that place is truly toxic- rotten to the core- and it affects everything. Probably the most unhappy staff of any arts organisation in the UK.
disgraceful.i’m a member of the friends.my family have medically looked after many members of ENO Company.i hope management rethink their tactics.don’t let them get away with it.
Commercial interests, profits and share holders run this country now. This is an utter disgrace. Does no one have any idea of the expertise , hours of practice and sacrifices these players have made.
I’m sure that the orchestra and chorus are under strict instructions not to comment to the press as they await their meagre part time contracts, but as a musician who was performing last night, I can tell you it was as bad as it sounds.
We came off after an incredibly tight and impactful first half of “The Handmaid’s Tale” (under the faultless, supportive leadership of Joana Carneiro) and in the approximately 5 minutes of rest before preparing for the second half, huddles of staff members looked in horror at their phones and exchanged the looks of the wounded as their 40+ year careers were summed up with something like “We thank you for your contribution to ENO”.
Then they straightened their jackets and marched on to deliver a second half of the most powerful music and drama that they are so rightly renowned for. Utmost professionalism in the face of utter disdain.
I’m so proud of my colleagues and if you’re reading this, they can’t take away your talent and your skills. You are exceptional and your resilience has been remarkable.
Un bloody believable
Remove the board
Tell the media
Stop it now
Sad all around – and terribly handled to boot. ENO was a really fascinating place to be a guest artist back in the day and I have nothing but fondness for the company. Have great memories of times in the rehearsal studio, on stage at the Coli, and downing pints in Piss Alley late after shows.
Truly disapointing but this is how things go, and will continue to go in the opera world, I suppose….
The ‘new reality’.
This shocking, brutal behaviour reminds me of the behaviour by the board at Garsington Opera, who let Laura Canning (now at Opera North) and Douglas Boyd (somehow still there) carry out their dirty work and sack the orchestra.
The UK has now lost 2 of it’s very best opera orchestras (both of which I played in many times) – the ENO orchestra and Garsington Opera Orchestra.
So much talent, expertise and experience lost. Surely boards and managers only job is to protect, nourish and enrich their institutions? You don’t recover what you’ve lost, and the UK has lost so much in the last few years.
Britain management doing what it does best. Heartless, stupid, unthinking, unintelligent and in thrall to dumb technology that they will – guaranteed, now – use as an excuse. Just watch.
I used to work ENO, the chorus and ochestra are one of the best, it’s a disgrace what they have done The Elite don’t care
To be fair to Denise Mackenzie, knowing nothing whatsoever about opera or the arts was actually a pre-requisite for the job. The headhunters engaged by Stuart Murphy (at unknown cost) make that explicitly clear in their online ‘case study’:
“With a real passion for Diversity & Inclusion, their inspirational CEO, Stuart Murphy, instructed Stanley Royce Jones on two critical appointments, a Director of People and a Head of Marketing. The brief was clear, to identify candidates from outside the arts sector who would bring a fresh perspective to ENO and challenge conventional thinking.”
https://www.stanleyroycejones.com/case-study/english-national-opera
The ENO should stay in London. They should create the world’s first truly online opera company.
Home theater is actually the best place to watch and hear opera. Since I built my first HT room 18 years ago, I have watched and enjoyed more opera than I ever have, by BD, the Metropolitan Opera player and offerings on Medici TV. All performances should be streamed in 4K video, loss less audio and if possible Dolby Atmos. The Berlin Digital Concert Hall have led the way with this technology. They now have 2.5 million subscribers worldwide. By my count that gives the BPO a budget of a half million dollars a day.
I’m here in Minnesota, but if the ENO were smart I could enjoy their offerings in my home here in Minnesota, just like I enjoy all the BPO concerts.
You don’t need government grants. Harness this new world of amazing technology, and your company will grow and not hand out terminations of employment. There is no need in this day and age for what is happening at the ENO.
Shame on ENO’s management, particularly the “Director of People”. Shame on you!
Unfortunately this is happening across the entire arts industry in this country. The managements especially HR scarcely acknowledge they are anything to do with the arts or have no concept of what performance involves. Look at Covent Garden. Some of the most inept management anywhere. Is it any wonder they are bankrupt (financially and artistically)?
I can’t imagine why the entire orchestra didn’t walk out at the interval.
The English National Opera has recently appointed a new Director of Marketing, yet has no performances taking place or announced beyond March to market, either at the London Coliseum or elsewhere. The postholder was previously in charge of marketing for Lancashire County Cricket Club, so will be on a good salary. What prey is the Director of Marketing going to be doing?
ENO has become totally disfunctional. A company with an expensive managerial bureaucracy that is presenting no opera for the next six months. Its managers are still on full-time contracts, unlike the musicians. Why the disparity? The company’s Artistic Director has been silent for months, rumoured to be on long-term leave.
And now we learn new highly paid managers are being specifically recruited for their lack of working experience of an opera house. The Director of People, now busy firing and re-hiring the orchestra onto part-time contracts was previously employed by a conglomerate of restaurants.
This is all so scandalous and idiotic it defies belief. A Parliamentary Select Committee needs to launch an enquiry into this perverse mess.
Further more, what precisely will the Director of Audience Insight be doing, given the lack of any performances taking place? Similarly the Director of Commercial and Visitor Experience is going to rather bored given the London Coliseum appears to be closed for months from April.
Currently there are thirteen Directors or Assistant Directors at ENO listed on their website. Although no Music Director following Martyn Brabbins resignation.
Perhaps this explains why ENO cannot afford to present any opera for many months to come.