The reprieve is a tacit admission that the funding body’s approach to opera was seriously wrong
The announcement that the demand by Arts Council England for ENO to leave London have been deferred to 2029 is a massive climbdown by the funding body, and a tacit admission that ACE has got its approach to funding opera seriously wrong. It was always terminally naïve to believe that anything as radical as a national company’s move out of London could be ordered overnight without internal and external consultation.
The initial threat to ENO (soon rowed back) that no work would be expected at the Coliseum from 2023-26 while it developed its plans was a gross betrayal of its loyal audiences. It was equally naïve to blame the decision on former Secretary of State Nadine Dorries’s pursuit of moving money out of London in the cause of levelling-up, since the cuts to large-scale opera funding hit across the genre, from Welsh National Opera’s valued appearances in England to Glyndebourne’s highly regarded national tour.
The brutal fact is that the Dorries agenda was seen by those within the Arts Council who regard opera as a high-priced extravagance as an opportunity to penalise the art form. They took the chance as they had someone else to blame, and it has backfired badly.
English National Opera was the wrong target to choose: of all the organisations who might have been penalised, ENO, with its tradition of opera for all, with both popular and high-quality work that is innovative, lively and accessible, was meeting all of Arts Council England’s agenda for change. The prospect of making work available out of London was one the company welcomed.