For any ArtMuseLondon readers not following the story in the media (social or otherwise), it’s important that we post about latest developments at English National Opera (ENO). 

Anyone familiar with my articles will know the extent of my admiration for this ensemble, both Chorus and Orchestra. They have continued to give powerful, committed performances across years of instability, uncertainty and financial mismanagement. 

The most recent directive from Arts Council England made ENO’s ongoing funding – its lifeline, essentially – dependent on ‘levelling up’ by somehow running a new base in Manchester while maintaining an operatic presence at the London Coliseum. However, no solution seemed to emerge for how the indispensable London-based ensemble were supposed to work in two places at once, or – if separate forces in London & Manchester were needed – how any of them were meant to earn an actual living.

Now – even *after* union negotiations – the ENO ensemble (the performers, please note, not the management) have received redundancy notice & will have to take up new contracts covering only 7 months of the year. Apparently accepting this outcome is the only way their jobs will continue to exist at all.

It might interest fans of common decency to know that the ensemble received these notices in the interval of a performance. (ENO’s Director of People seems to have misread their role as pointing creative employees to the door.) It was midway through Ruders’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’: an intense adaptation of the Margaret Atwood classic with a score that showcases both Chorus & Orchestra at the top of their game. While telling a story of, among other things, artistic suppression. No doubt the timing was deliberate: to the team’s great credit, they suppressed what must have been overwhelming hurt and anger, and the show went on to an unaware, appreciative audience.

If anyone still clings to the idea of an ‘elitist’ opera receiving special treatment, they should consider ENO: a situation where the colleagues with world-class talent, skill and dedication – the people that make the company what it is – can be discarded in such a way by an inept, thoughtless & heartless management.

AA