Opera North chief urges Labour to reverse ACE ‘onslaught’ on ENO
NewsSir Richard Mantle, speaking to an audience that contained members of Labour shadow cabinet, issued an attack on Arts Council England for its assault on English National Opera and called on the next government to put things right.
His speech was posted by by the conductor and repetiteur Michael Papadopoulos.
Watch his address below.
Wise and brave words about ENO from Sir Richard Mantle at the end of tonight’s opening night of La rondine at Opera North. Take note @DCMS @ace_national pic.twitter.com/rP6p032G7T
— Michael Papadopoulos (@michaelpapopera) October 20, 2023
I am just on my way into Leeds to Opera North to hear Richard be in interviewed by Nicholas Kenyon as a good-bye event with retirement. People forget it was Lord Harwood et Al from ENO who brought opera to the north in September 1978 as English National Opera North (ENON) that then went to become independent later as Opea North. ACE need to take note that there is not just a great history but two opera companies doing fine work at affordable prices too! Remove ENO out of London or close it down, and then London is far more the poorer and everyone is left with ROH, good as it is, which S barely affordable except for the rich, so the choice has gone. I have no problem of saying that I actually like a lot of opera in English as the first language of most of the audience speaking contemporary and colloquial English, mostly sung by first language English speakers, even Americans!
Hear, hear, Sir Richard.
Well said, Sir Richard, finally a high profile arts administrator willing to ruffle some feathers! As a member of Northern Ballet Sinfonia, we would’ve loved a mention in your speech as our management and board seem petrified of saying anything publicly about our own funding crisis.
Personally I have to wonder why anyone would want to work in Arts admin. In most cases, it won’t be for the huge salaries and all of us performers are only too aware of how difficult these jobs are in this climate. But, we need visionaries to manage our organisations willing to shout loudly and articulately about how vital we are in society. Where are you? If the bosses are scared of Arts Council England then that is a serious problem because the same applies to ACE if not more so. If the Arts and Entertainment sector reduces significantly then the high streets of our towns and cities will suffer as well as the economy.
It would seem that in public sector arts management particularly, the only priority is to reduce spending. Do that and you are rewarded with a step up the ladder. In the case of Northern Ballet, one of the main architects of the recent mismanagement has now gone off to be CEO of a national ballet company on the other side of the world, congratulations!?
Coming out of Covid, the NB budget was healthy with a substantial seven-figure amount in reserve. We may well ask how that could just disappear so quickly. We know that once the severity of the situation became clear, panic set in and the management culled performances. And now of course the almost inevitable next step is to reduce the scale of the company. Shame on you!
Sir Richard mentions the levelling-up agenda, how can it be fair that young children in the south will get their first experience of live orchestral music by going to see Nutcracker at Christmas yet in the North, they would hear a recording?
It’s time for everyone involved in the Arts in the UK to join together and make our voices heard.