The arguments given by Arts Council England ignore all the good work we do to bring opera to everyone – it should think again
- Stuart Murphy is chief executive of English National Opera
Last week was, frankly, grim. Having run English National Opera for the past five years, to be given less than 24 hours’ notice that our 100-year-old company must up sticks from London to Manchester, with a small relocation allowance to help us to do so, was galling. Particularly when it quickly became apparent that no audience analysis had been conducted.
However, what has been even stranger to witness are some of the baffling narratives originating from Arts Council England (ACE) in response to our shock, as seen in a recent opinion piece in the Guardian. The first of these is that large-scale opera has shown no growth – a point that has never been raised prior to this announcement, either with me or any of my other colleagues across opera. If the data exists, I would love to see it – or perhaps it was collected during the lockdowns of recent years? Additionally, why single out an organisation that has spent the past three years entirely focused on audience growth and future-proofing the audience, with our free tickets for under-21s and heavily discounted tickets for under-35s. Since September, 6000 tickets have been claimed through these schemes.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/tiJNb1k
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