Wales 2025: The Land Without Music
NewsWelsh National Opera yesterday inducted two new artistic directors in the hope of digging itself out of a deepening hole. Arts Council England has abolished its touring grant and Wales will not make up the shortfall.
Cardiff, the capital, has meanwhile shuttered its concert hall for the indefinite future.
Conductor Kenneth Woods reports from a land that is losing its music:
Musicians here in Cardiff are putting their homes on the market while Welsh National Opera shrinks daily and St Davids Hall, the NATIONAL concert hall of Wales, sits empty and derelict, with no progress on repairs in nearly 2 years.
This happened under a Welsh Labour Government. Blaming the Tories won’t cut it – what’s the point of devolution if you don’t take responsibility for protecting your own cultural heritage? The national conservatoire ditched their pre-college programme this summer and made dozens of fine teachers redundant.
It’s sadly typical of the #Artspocalypse unfolding in communities all over the UK. Why are @uklabour so slow to act when arts organisations and arts education are crumbling in real time. We don’t have years to wait for task force results and white papers. We need urgent action and emergency funding. And serious reform of our system of funding the arts.
The country that gave the world Richard Burton, Michael Sheen, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Jonathan Pryce has killed off the National Theatre Wales. It’s industrial scale neglect bordering on overt intentional destruction.
Lies have consequences.
Being poorer together (i.e. Brexit) has its consequences.
Right-wing lies especially have long-term consequences that will go well beyond the Presidency of convicted felons, as we are all about to learn here in the U.S.
Whatever happened to people remembering their days of childhood, when our parents told us not to accept candy from strangers?
A life in right-on standup awaits.
Not convinced Brexit has anything to do with it, as for right wing lies, this is happening under a hard left labour government in Wales. Labour have been in power in Wales since the formation of the assembly 25 years ago
The country that gave the world Richard Burton also gave it Reginald Watkins, the originator of Reggietheater, a doctrine which has vastly increased production costs and sometimes vastly decreased ticket sales simultaneously.
Sadly, Wales has got more pressing issues to deal with than opera or the theatre. And besides, as I understand it, anybody who wants a career in the performing arts has to go to London.
Well, I came from London to Cardiff, as do many others.
Sad to see the heritage of Wales which a few decades ago brought us Robert Lloyd, Stuart Burrows, GwynethJones, Margaret Price, Gwynn Howell, Bryn Terfel, Geraint Evans and many more.
Many, many, many more. The RNCM of the 1980s was awash with Welsh vocal talent, but many had no ambition whatsoever, a great shame.
Thinking about the Concert Hall: does Cardiff need one? There must be a host of other buildings, especially ecclesiastical, where concerts could be given by choirs, small orchestras and chamber ensembles.
It’s quite possible that Wales, and not just Wales, can no longer afford a big 20th century symphony orchestra.
I’ll rephrase your question:
Do Welsh people deserve culture the same way that other nations do? Although London can afford to have many halls, and Manchester, and Liverpool, and Glasgow, and Edinburgh, and countless cities in Europe etc, should the Welsh REALLY have their only proper concert hall? Maybe they can’t afford one anymore, and opera in the parking lot it is for them from now on
Unfortunately the Welsh assembly would rather spend money on more usless politicians or 20mph speed limits. The arts, even the Welsh NHS, are not important to them
So here we are, and comments are not disappointing either. I wonder, what people who don’t care about the arts are doing on this page at all?
The Arts Council has made a very specific decision (in Wales, and in England), to take the money out of big organisations in favour of a number of smaller, more grassroots ones. There is a very definite attitude against elitism in art, and that reflects in less money to professional arts and more money to community based projects. I’m sure many will argue that everyone should be able to create and access art, but in my opinion, there is amateur art and professional art: akin to comparing Queen of the Night opera singer, to me singing in my shower. (I don’t expect funding for my rendition of it). If we don’t have any more of these excellent, world-class organisations, everyone will suffer. There has to be complicated, grand, amazing quality out there for us to strive for, otherwise we become a nation of celebrated mediocrity. We must encourage education instead, so everybody can understand opera, so that even the most disadvantaged kids have a chance to listen to symphony orchestras, so that we push the public to be the best, the most educated and inspired they can be, and not simplify the arts to the lowest denominator to suit whatever current political agenda is