Semi-festival links up with Opera North
OperaThe countryhouse opera festival at Nevill Holt, which was severely shrunk last summer, has formed a five-year partnership with the regional opera company to improve its future offer. Up to a point.
Here’s the gist:
A brand-new five-year partnership with Opera North will see in its first year a witty and romantic production of Mozart’s much-loved Così Fan Tutte. This co-production will run in Nevill Holt’s spectacular theatre from 6-8 and 10-12 June. The partnership with Opera North will continue in future editions of the festival.
Founder, David Ross said: “We are hugely excited to announce this long term partnership with Opera North. It secures a sustainable relationship between Nevill Holt and this world class opera company that will bring innovative and exceptional new operatic productions to the festival for at least five years. The partnership will allow us to celebrate young talent and give that talent a platform to shine in the amazing surroundings of Nevill Holt.”
General Director, Opera North, Laura Canning said: “We’re very excited to be entering into a five-year partnership with Nevill Holt Festival, enabling us to bring our award-winning work to this inspiring festival in the stunning surroundings of the Leicestershire countryside.
So ENO moves 200 miles north (sort of), and Opera North moves 100 miles south to an exclusive venue (in a limited way).
Support for Glyndebourne Touring is withdrawn at the expense of places like Liverpool, Canterbury, Norwich and Milton Keynes.
As for Welsh National Opera!
What a depressing mess.
As I understand it, this is in addition to Opera North’s performance calendar in the north, including its usual touring – at a time when the company isn’t usually performing opera (in the summer) at all. It hasn’t ‘moved’ in the least, it’s just doing something extra on a different scale. The midlands are starved of high quality opera, so I can’t see anything other than a benefit.
That’s why I said “in a limited way”.
I have nothing whatsoever against country house opera but I’m sure there are more deserving cases for ON’s time and assistance than the relatively exclusive Nevill Holt.
Leeds Insider, below, makes some excellent points.
Yes, that’s a valid point. But not the context that was given in your original post Iain. You lobbed ON in with the chaos, location moves and (by implication) artistic redundancies at other companies. Plus, I don’t think they’re doing it for charitable reasons, or to assist NH. I assume just business (which in reality, now, means survival).
Totally agree, but heartened that some people are still trying, and trying new ways, to keep afloat. Best of luck to them, and I suspect those lucky enough to catch that Cosi will be very lucky indeed.
First Northern Ballet and now this with rumours also suggesting that Opera North will appear at the Buxton Opera Festival this summer, replacing the ‘freelance’ Northern Chamber Orchestra. Meanwhile, ON has also managed to find time to steal some performances of Hacienda Classical from the similarly ‘freelance’ Manchester Camerata. Oh and let’s not forget they will soon be in the pit to accompany ENO’s northern residency.
So, this begs the question, what exactly are they doing with their annual grant of £10.3 million from the Arts Council? This current 2024-25 season features 4 productions when in past years they would present double that number. And one of those four is by Gilbert and Sullivan!
It would seem that the one thing ON is doing is to shamelessly undercut other orchestras in order to fill the diary. And in all cases, those are orchestras without the luxury of a huge public subsidy. But is that not a gross misuse of their funding? In the case of Nevill Holt, they are propping up a very successful, privately funded country house opera festival with Arts Council cash.
How can that possibly be right?
Meanwhile, spare a thought for us freelance musicians. If you are a Manchester based player, perhaps a named member of Northern Ballet Sinfonia and/or the Camerata, plus going in as an occasional extra to the Halle, BBC Phil and RLPO with other bits and pieces, you have a reasonable living but once all of those ‘freelance’ bands are put out of business, your playing career will be over.
Maybe there would still be the occasional date with Opera North I suppose but at some of the lowest freelance rates in the UK and at a significantly lower amount than they pay to their members why should we bother?
But if ON got enough funding to cover their core activities, including a greater number of operas in each season, they wouldn’t need to explore opportunities elsewhere. The grant hasn’t increased for years, which means very real cuts after horrendous inflation. But nationally, this is what it was always going to come down to – companies and freelancers fighting for the same work.
Opera North doing six productions this season 2024/25 – and why not G&S? Rumours of only four next season. In the early decades they did twelve. Our opera and ballet companies are on a knife edge, while ACE has pumped millions into Bradford UK CofC 2025..
Yes Geoffrey only 4 main stage operas next season and fewer performances of in Leeds due to the cost of hiring the Grand Theatre. Plus performances for Buxton and Nevill Holt….Plus 4-5 weeks of ballet performances….
Leeds Insider, personally I’m quite grateful the leadership of Opera North are committed to ensuring my continued employment. I chose to apply for a salaried job with Opera North 15 years ago to secure long term employment rather than continuing to freelance with an increased standard of living.
I have not had the luxury of developing a portfolio career and would struggle to start again if my position with Opera North was put at threat.
It is correct that the freelance music industry of the UK is struggling, but to suggest that we should instead bear the brunt of this pain is not entirely fair.
Hi Another thought…, I completely sympathise with the horrible situation that all of you find yourselves in and can see that you would want your CEO to look for ways to stabilise the company. I’ve said much more below but ultimately I don’t believe this is the way to do it.
I only wish that your CEO and David Collins at Northern Ballet would have the passion and confidence to stand up and tell the public what is happening and why they should join our fight for the art form. We sent videos of our colleagues’ inspiring speeches from WNO to our management and the response was once again very disappointing.
My final point to you is, in this race to the bottom, would you be equally pragmatic if our industry contracts further and in ten years time you are out of a job and the Halle takes your place in the pit?
Genuinely, sending you very best wishes for the future.
The financial stress the company is under is there for all to see. If you really want to know where the money is going, the yearly accounts are in fact available for anyone to view. Surely the company is entitled to supplement its income if the grant hasn’t changed for well over a decade? And isn’t this exactly what the Arts Council expect them to do? What would be the alternative? If you want to blame anyone, the finger needs to be pointed at those responsible for implementing the lamentable policies that result in cuts to basic arts provision in this country.
I absolutely agree that the root cause of the problems facing us are as a result of the policies of previous governments. However, I’m sure we are all pragmatic enough to realise that the new government can’t prioritise the Arts over the NHS for example. I have some confidence that our new administration will help us in the future but what do we do in the meantime?
Firstly, I absolutely don’t accept that it is in anyone’s wider interests to allow ON to use their Arts Council funding to undercut groups receiving much smaller grants. Opera North does not deserve £10 million a year to act as a pickup band for ballet or productions such as Hacienda.
Nor do I accept that Opera North’s survival is more important than Manchester Camerata’s for example.
What is almost certainly happening here is that ON is tendering for outside work at uncommercial rates. If we calculate what is a genuine daily rate for them to quote for the orchestra, based on salaries, NI, extras such as sick pay plus management, it must be in the region of £15,000 so to undercut that is being anti competitive and an abuse of their funding IMHO!
Finally, it is grossly unacceptable that Nevill Holt gets to benefit from Arts Council funding via the backdoor. Of course it’s understandable that the multi, multi millionaire owner of Nevill Holt should exploit this situation but is that actually good for anyone in the long run?
If we want everyone to survive this rough patch then it’s time for joined up thinking not cutthroat deals which will harm us all in the long-term.
But publicly funded institutions partner with private companies all the time. NHS patients are frequently sent to private hospitals which cuts waiting lists, at below market rates. There are hundreds of examples. What you describe is a binary world in which either the arts get the full level of appropriate funding (which you say is no longer pragmatic) or drastically reduce output and make redundancies. Further, ON isn’t in a position to engage in political ideology. As I understand it, Neville Holt (as a company) isn’t exactly flush either. But don’t forget ON’s grant covers education, participation, youth choirs etc etc for the good of society as whole, creating a bedrock for the future. Creating partnerships enable ON to carry on this important work. The implication given by so many contributors here is that £10.3 million is sufficient. Given ON’s brief, it really isn’t.