Breaking: English National Opera dumps Tippett
NewsThe cancellation below has just gone out to agents and their artists. It smacks of confusion and desperation. Rehearsals were due to start in August.
Dear [ ]
Please see below an email from ENO’s Chief Executive, Stuart Murphy regarding King Priam in the 22-23 season:
Dear [ ]
Covid 19 is continuing to have a significant impact on everyone right across the country, and the ENO is no exception. One only needs to look across the culture sector to see cancelled films, truncated exhibition tours and delayed opening nights, among a whole range of remedial actions, as we all adapt to this unpredictable climate.
This means we unfortunately have to take some difficult decisions. Regrettably, I am therefore writing to you today to let you know that in the 22-23 season we will no longer be going ahead with King Priam. We are extremely sorry about this.
It is really important to us that we notify you as soon as possible to give you as much time as possible to find alternative work for your artist.
We have looked to find suitable replacement opportunities in our 22-23 and 23-24 season but unfortunately there simply aren’t any suitable roles currently available, as they are already cast. However, if do have any suitable short notice cancellations, we will be in touch straight away.
Throughout the pandemic, and now as we open our doors to audiences again, we have done our utmost to try and look after our freelance artists as best we can. We trust that you will do all you can to find your artist some alternative work in the period and we will also contact our colleagues in other opera companies to assist, should you wish us to do so.
The freelance artists we work with are extremely important to us so to demonstrate our commitment to them we would like to offer to make an ex-gratia payment of 70% of the rehearsal and performance fees they would have received, if they find no alternative work in the period. This payment would be due on 19 October 2022 (the date on which King Priam was due to end).
Total Rehearsal & Performance fees due: £ 14,400
70% of total rehearsal & performance fees: £10,080
Before we pay the 70% fee, we have to take into account any income that your artists may earn in the period, or from this engagement being cancelled and your artist being able to fulfil another overlapping contract, that they would otherwise not be able to do had King Priam gone ahead. We hope you understand.
Put simply this means:
· If your artist earns over 100% of their total King Priam fees in the period, no fee would be payable by ENO
· If your artist earns less than 30% of their total King Priam fees in the period, then ENO will pay 70% of the total rehearsal & performance fees
· If your artist earns more than 30% of their total King Priam fees in the period, then ENO will deduct anything earnt above this amount from the 70% figure quoted above
We please ask that agents and artists make every endeavour to find alternative work in the period and we will ask you to confirm that you have been actively seeking alternative work. We know that the climate is very different at the moment and there are still many short notice engagements coming up, with plans constantly changing. Paying these fees will have a significant financial implication on the ENO which in turn will directly affect the amount of money we have to spend on future work – all the same it feels the fairest thing to do in the light of this decision. We could not leave our freelance artists financially vulnerable.
This is not a decision that we take lightly, and it is a huge loss to us artistically but we feel we have no choice to do so.
I would be grateful if you could reply and acknowledge your receipt and acceptance of the terms and conditions above and once again accept our deepest apologies. We will get through this unique period together, and intend to come out the other end stronger, with our values intact.
Best wishes,
Stuart
Stuart Murphy
Chief Executive
ENO and London Coliseum
pictured (centre) Priam composer Michael Tippett
Dumped it for the fourth time….
Tip it out, that’s all ENO can do. They only get £12 Million a year now from the Arts Council, or maybe it’s more, to put on just sixty-five or so performances. The rest of the year they take in substantial rent for the theatre, largely from commercial producers (Hairspray, My Fair Lady). What is ENO for if not to produce challenging opera? What a complete disgrace. And where is the Arts Council in all this? Darren Henley – where are you???
Are they living in cloud cuckoo land? Finding artists work in the next five months on an equivalent level will be basically impossible. Covid is not an excuse to cancel something just before the new season launch. The set should have been built by now, for example…. So did they waste all their money on set build, or did they know for much longer that it was going to be cancelled. It’s also not JUST a financial question for many of these artists, it’s a question of having good seasons AFTER a pandemic has taken so much from them. Why should artists invest in ENO if this is how they behave.
‘We please ask that agents and artists make every endeavour to find alternative work in the period and we will ask you to confirm that you have been actively seeking alternative work. We know that the climate is very different at the moment and there are still many short notice engagements coming up, with plans constantly changing.’
Not surprising that the commercial appeal is limited but it’s a shame that this masterpiece, which has rarely been performed since it’s premiere, will miss an additional performance.
I saw King Priam at the ENO the last time they did manage to stage it, which was either late 1990s or early 2000s. Personally I appreciated it (enjoyed would be too strong a word) much more than the other Tippett operas I’ve seen, mainly because uniquely for Tippett, it doesn’t have a batshit crazy libretto, but even then, long before COVID, the auditorium was far from full and appeared to be heavily papered too. I don’t see this move by ENO as desperate so much as simply bowing to commercial reality. Staging King Priam in the current climate would be a financial disaster, and it’s better for them to have cut their losses now in the hope of salvaging something for the future.
But getting rid of it five months before the premiere, when they were first scheduled to perform it in 2020? Could have planned a bit more judiciously?
Also it is perfectly plausible to create commercial success with difficult pieces, especially in a city like London with a curious and intelligent public. Instead they think that opera belongs on ‘tik tok’ and in a collab with Holly Willoughby. Whatever. This regime will be shortlived at this rate.
I agree with you that it could have been handled better. But even judicious planning won’t deal with ENO’s fundamental problem, which is that it’s saddled with a venue that’s nowadays far too big for its natural audience. According to Google, the Coliseum has a capacity of 2,359 seats, making it the biggest venue in the West End. Assuming a modest run of four performances of King Priam, that means they would have to put almost 10,000 bums on seats to sell out and almost 5,000 just to half full the auditorium. Even if the London public is as curious and intelligent as you claim, I just don’t think the audience is there anymore for this kind of work, certainly not at the prices that ENO is now charging.
Agreed. What London needs (beyond the Royal Opera House, obviously) is a medium-sized, intimate venue – something akin to the Komische Oper, where more offbeat and challenging work can be staged. Is there any way for ENO to escape the Coliseum?
His Knot Garden, a lesser opera that was due to be performed I. Germany In 2020, fell victim to Covid cancellations.
My only exposure to Tippett – live – was an unforgettable staging of “The Knot Garden” at Theater an der Wien, in 2005, before it became a full-time opera house and was playing host to the annual summertime KlangBogen Festival (administered by the same team that took over in 2006, when it finally became the company we now know). Please, may I have some more?
We lost a Knot Garden (English Touring Opera) in the UK, too.
I’m curious as to how ex gratia this offer is. Does the standard ENO contract allow uncompensated cancellation at such short (by operatic engagement standards) notice?
I am also curious as to how ENO will be able to audit the supplementary earnings.
If I were a young singer out to make an impression on the world, I’d offer my services to alternative companies cheap or free of charge. I’d get the exposure I wanted and ENO would pick up the bill.
The artists involved in the project had already been offered a percentage (30 percent or so) in 2020 with similar conditions. Many of them deferred that payment out of good will knowing the circumstances as they were.
This offer by ENO is generous, actually, as if you were to add the 2 percentages from the two large scaled cancellations, it does add to 100 percent. They’ve done the right thing based on what was necessary!
With that said, never ask an artist at the level of a place like ENO to take cheap or free of charge. Many of those who were meant to sing there are coming from very, very prominent careers and are paid for their work.
An absurd over-reaction.
They couldn’t sell one ticket, and they put the blame on Covid…
There was a big audience in the RFH for the critically acclaimed concert performance of The Midsummer Marriage by Ed Gardner and the LPO last September – and much talk of a long overdue Tippett revival. So much for that, it seems.
The audience for Midsummer Marriage was heavily papered too. I know this because I was one of the beneficiaries.
There are some signs of a revival. The symphonies have been popping up more frequently.
I admire both Britten and Tippett, but it always seemed unfair that The War Requiem, which like King Priam was premiered at the Coventry Festival, became the reference anti war work. King Priam was miles ahead of the Requiem in originality and power.
https://tickets.eno.org/en-GB/donations/production-%20king%20priam%20(philanthropy)
OH LOOK, you can still donate the their King Priam production set up. Come on ENO, figure it out, it’s not that hard…