ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA’S CLASSIC REVIVAL OF
BENJAMIN BRITTEN’S DEATH IN VENICE 12/6/2013
JOHN GRAHAM-HALL / ASCHENBACH (RIGHT)
SAM ZALDIVAR / TADZIO
PHOTOGRAPH / LAURIE LEWIS
Gosh, it was 2 1/2 years ago when I wrote No, No, ENO. It concluded with the hope that ENO would extricate itself from its travails. Well it hasn’t.
This month they staged Chess, an ABBA/Tim Rice musical that has received lousy reviews because it is a lousy show; opera it ain’t. But this morning I come to praise ENO, not bury it.
Eleven years ago, I think, I saw Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice, directed by Deborah Warner, at ENO and again at La Monnaie in Brussels; it was a joint production. ENO was on a high in those days and this production was movingly sung, had atmospheric lighting that evoked the Venetian lagoon and a special extra feature – wigs by Richard Mawbey.
In those days La Monnaie received a subsidy from the tax payer of about 70%, whereas ENO’s was around 30%. That level of support from the tax payer is typical in European opera houses and is, in general, a disaster. It encourages directors to mount experimental productions like the atrocious La Bohème in Paris at Christmas. One of the worst offenders is Munich. I cannot remember what the opera was but it was set in an empty swimming pool. It’s a good discipline to put on opera that people will pay to see. This year top price tickets at unsubsidised Glyndebourne are £260. It is sold out.
I am perfectly aware that no opera company can pay its way through ticket sales, although full houses do help. So money has to come from somewhere and personal and corporate sponsorship seems preferable to tax payers’ money being spent in a way highly objectionable to many tax payers. Consequently I am delighted that Opera Holland Park is no longer paid for by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. In round numbers it costs about £4 miiion a year to put on four operas in the summer at OHP and RBK&C was stumping up some £2 million. Incidentally, OHP plays to circa 95% capacity. The empty seats on opening night were Investec seats. They ask clients who cannot be bothered to turn up. I am an Investec client and I subsidise, to a small extent, OHP but I don’t get an Investec “invite”. No complaint because I like taking friends to OHP.
I suspect that there is still some support lurking in the wings, perhaps from Arts Council England (ACE) and in other ways. An example this year is the landscaping of the area around the venue paid for by the council where the chief beneficiary seems to be OHP, although it may allow the venue to be used at other times of the year and that may be a nice little earner for the borough. It cost about £800,000 and has annoyed this blogger. I’m grateful to a reader in for putting me onto this blog; thank you James.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to Germany to see a subsidised (euros 95) opera on Sunday evening.
So you think public subsidy of the arts is “highly objectionable” and “encourages directors to mount experimental productions”. I am very disappointed that you should hold such absurd doctrinaire reactionary view.
I suspect you know but this Summer ENO will embark on a new collaboration with Regents Park Open Air Theatre. The first production is Britten again but this time Turn of the Screw. I have been invited to design the wigs.
Apparently it was decided that this first outing should not be on a grand scale with a Traviata or the like. Although the Park’s usual audiences might be more likely to turn up for an operatic favourite. Having said that, Benjamin’s chamber opera working of the famous ghost story is quite popular with the opera crowd and it is hoped that the 9 performances in June will do well.
They have enlisted a top notch creative team, great singers and are certainly giving the piece a beautiful production, set in the original Victorian period. I’m looking forward to working on this and hoping that the recent crop of thunder storms keep away so that my hairdressers don’t have to cope with sopping wet wigs too often!!