Supreme Court judge quits ENO board
NewsThe Telegraph reports today that former Supreme Court Justice Supreme Lord Jonathan Sumption has resigned from the board of English National Opera in protest against Arts Council plans to move the company out of London.
In his resignation letter Sumption, 74, called the Arts Council a ‘philistine’ organisation and said its plan would ’emasculate’ the opera company.
We rather suspect that ‘philistine’ tag will stick.
It is a shame that Sumption is going – he was very much his own man in the Supreme Court , and I imagine he would have been the same at ENO – although obviously he could not carry others with him
I agree. I was surprised he stayed as long as he did. It can’t have been comfortable for him to be a trustee of an institution with declining artistic standards and poor financial management.
The brightest man at the English Bar, combining a career at the very top of the legal profession with an almost equally brilliant sideline as a Fellow of All Souls and author of books on Medieval History.
He certainly knows a Philistine- and a Charlatan – when he sees one.
Shame he isn’t the Chair of the Arts Council.
He has seen the latest ENO submission to ACE. That’s why he’s resigned.