by The anti-opera lobby at Arts Council England must be throwing up their hands in glee: their funding for the National Opera of Wales has dropped by 11.8 per cent in domestic funding from the Arts of Wales. Council. The result was to throw the company into financial crisis, and they have now announced that they will reduce tour weeks in the 2024-25 season, removing stops in Llandudno and Bristol, undermining the argument that mentioned (but always inconclusive) that rebalancing funding was involved. enabling more work out of London. The reach of their work is now reduced, and the future of the company is at stake.
It could be argued that OCC did not cry loud enough when the Arts Council’s original cut was announced. Unlike English National Opera, which campaigned politically and successfully to mitigate the impact on its work, WNO seemed to begrudgingly accept its inevitability. He thought he could struggle by canceling tours to Liverpool and making economies. He was in a managerial transition. He didn’t want to be entitled or make a fuss. But I heard a lot of grumbles locally that he wasn’t doing enough to argue his case, and having now appointed an interim director general in the experienced Christopher Barron, he’s resigned to the fact that level the cuts making its current operating model unsustainable.
So far from the musician, the audience and the cultural figures of Wales reaching the opera: the implications of the reduction of the company affects the artistic commitment of Wales, and this in a country where opera, singing and performing as an essential part of culture. This is the thin end of a big wedge that will soon lead to only part-time work for musicians and technical staff, offering less work to audiences, in fewer venues, driving less attendance in the future. Hence the joy of the arts councils: their anti-demand mission, they believe, is well on the way to being accomplished. But in Wales everywhere, opera has never been an elitist art form, and WNO’s excellent community and outreach work supports this, working hard to reach new audiences.
It is surprising, but not surprising in the current situation, that there has been no discussion between the Arts Councils of England and Wales on the implications of their cuts to grants, and there has been no attempt to involve the body in a strategic solution new. The arts councils now seem to operate like this, with great disregard for the art forms and artists they are supposed to represent and support, blaming their financial problems on others. Has anyone seriously assessed the quality of work produced by WNO, including two of the best performances of 20thoperas of the last century in recent years, Janacek’s The Makropoulos Affair last season and this season Death in Venice Britten, the latter finishing his sold-out tour in Birmingham next Saturday? These are achievements at the pinnacle of what musicals can offer the audience.
As the Arts Council of England’s recent grotesque report on opera and musical theater (an absurd attempt to retrospectively justify its actions) made clear, the hatred of opera as an art form is taking hold. His special target is a so-called ‘proscenium’ musical – that is, ironically, a musical designed to be played in the many theaters we have around the country ready to receive touring shows. Of course there are many possible innovations to be explored in various unconventional venues – a musical at the Roundhouse, for example, or Scottish Opera’s experiment at the Edinburgh Festival this summer to stage Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex as an immersive show in the National Museum of Scotland, with a 100-strong community chorus. But these one-off experimental shows must grow from the roots of an established company that has the ability to flex its resources and develop these models; They are certainly not a panacea for cheap, cut-price operas, and often (like ENO’s La Boheme in a north London car park) require serious investment for diminishing returns from the box office.
Now the writing is on the wall for WNO, and there is an urgent need to create a new business model. The proposed 15 percent pay cut for the orchestra from next April may, or probably will not, be enough to balance the books. They are definitely moving towards being a part-time ensemble – something that might work for the ENO orchestra in the London environment, where there is still freelance work to supplement income, but life in Cardiff cannot nurture
In a recent speech to Opera Europa (in the June issue of Opera Opera magazine), former WNO head David Pountney takes stock of Arts Council England’s decisions and arguments, and warns the WNO not to go down the path Scottish Opera has taken, with an orchestra contracted for 29 only. week a year and chorus completely free. But he then insists that positive change could be made: “There are many different ways to tell stories through music and theatre. Perhaps something smaller and more original can be achieved, in certain circumstances, of a higher quality than a reduced or compromised performance of ‘classical’ opera”. For the National Opera of Wales, it could be argued that this is part of thinking about the way forward, but only if there is unequivocal support from governments and their arts councils for the company, its excellent work, and its contribution to presence. Britain’s continuous on. world stage.
