Fading ENO confirms chief executive
OperaThe English National Opera board has appointed Jenny Mollica as Chief Executive of ENO and the London Coliseum. She has been Interim CEO for the past nine months.
No surprises there.
Mollica was previously Director of Strategy and Engagement for three years.
Her unenviable job will be to rent out the Coliseum while the reduced ENO company plays Manchester and elsewhere.
ENO have announced their Coli season for 2023/24 with a total of just over fifty performances and six full scale productions. A part time opera company with a full scale subsidy and no artists any musicians engaged on full time contracts. Time I think for Dr Brunjes and his Board to go quickly and leave it to a more competent team to salvage what they can.
ENO has posted a season launch video and playlist online. The playlist contains snippets from the eight operas they are performing in London. ENO has recorded at least two of those in English, so I was expecting to hear those in the playlist. Sadly not: we got Pavarotti and Sutherland, in the original language, instead.
but I presumed this is because they now being forced by ACE to be half the year in Manchester ? so they have to have a shortened season in London ? what did you expect ? a magic money tree was going to appear to fund this appalling decision ? it’s a very good season in my opinion and i will be travelling from
liverpool twice to see new productions as WNO no longer coming (thanks to ACE too) i think it is brilliant they are doing the 2 other less known titles semi staged and unfair that you are not counting them as other opera companies do them
as well. Bluebeard was outstanding and though advertised as a semi-staging was fully staged in my eyes. all this kicking of opera companies the UK on this site is unbelievable when they are being gutted by ACE. it’s clear some people on this board have an axe to grind. i can’t afford to go to the ROH or Glyndebourne and i don’t like their choice of operas unless its handel. in fact for the first time i’m going to join as a member of Opera North and ENO.
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I too will be travelling from Leeds to London to see ENO, when I can as I’ve done since leaving London in 2012. The last time I went was for Jenufa with mainstream singers like Susan Bullock. It was very, very poorly attended. I was upgraded from the back row of the balcony to a dress circle that was not full, so the above two layers of seats closed. Same with Opera North in Leeds from the Gods to the side Stalls in the Grand for two season tickets in a row. Says it all.
It’s telling that out of the next season of 8 productions (mainly revivals and shared) and 50 shows, there are only 2 brave male conductors showing their professional support (Richard Farnes with Rigoletto, and Duncan Ward with Turn of The Screw).
The other 6 Operas are conducted by non UK conductors, and favour unknown inexperienced female ones at that.
Could it be our established British male conductors have turned their backs on ENO since their Music Director and other male conductors rightly sent this hapless company to Coventry? (or should that be to Salford Quays/Docks?)
Or heaven forfend ENO is supporting new talent and giving women a platform when other opera houses aren’t. But of course we must think of all the “brave males” working in classical music who just don’t get enough opportunities do they…
ENO were doing a grand job taking opera to a new audience especially youngsters. EAC, a puppet of an incompetent philistine money-grubbing government, has closed them down on the pretence of a policy they never intended to honour, levelling up. Get this government out.
Don’t worry, all will be well after July 4th.
Except that it won’t. Don’t attach too much attention to Starmer’s interest in music, there are too many vote-winning causes competing for attention.
Happy to be proved wrong though.
Poisoned chalice?
Isn’t that part of an opera?
Scottish opera have become the example – WNO & ENO are following. GTO basically no longer exists.
If I were at Opera North I would be doing some serious risk management as I reckon the spotlight will fall on them next.
The long-term demise of our heavyweight, deeply loved, and excellent operatic cultural institutions has been a long drawn out, painful process coming at much cost.
Royal opera will survive thru a clever re-branding that downgrades opera- clever fire fighting there.
Meanwhile the seasonal country house opera companies- with their limited & deeply monied audience- thrive.
A sad state of affairs.
All part of a deliberate strategy by ACE.
Well said Thomas. Live staged opera is returning to the status it had when I was a kid: a cultural pursuit for the well off. A sad state of affairs indeed.
In a history of bad decisions this splitting of ENO is the worst. The quality of chorus, orchestra and regular principles was so brilliant it should have been lauded not destroyed. This ‘split’ may indeed make the company unworkable.
Was it my imagination or did SD choose to avoid posting the new ENO Season for discussion? I have tried to find it but perhaps I missed it. I can’t imagine any such bias Not printing it??/