Arts Council considers opera shakeup as ENO posts £2.2m loss

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/16/arts-council-opera-eno-loss

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Arts Council England is considering a shakeup of the provision of opera in England, as one of the largest companies it funds, English National Opera, posted losses of almost £2.2m.

ENO has blamed its financial woes on disappointing box-office figures and a drop in its public subsidy – and becomes the first high-profile national company to have fallen into the red in the wake of the economic downturn and reductions in public spending.

Over the financial year in question, 2011-12, the company, which operates in the largest theatre in London, the 2,358-seat Coliseum, filled only 71% of its seats.

At the same time its Arts Council grant, which accounts for about half its income, was reduced by £1.3m to £17m. The current deficit, according to an ENO spokeswoman, is being covered by the company's reserves, which amount to £2.6m.

ENO's problems will intensify debate about how to share out increasingly scarce resources among the arts in England. Opera accounts for 11% of Arts Council England's total investment, a slice of the cake that its detractors see as unfairly large, though its defenders argue that opera is by its nature a large-scale artform, and concomitantly expensive. The Royal Opera House (including the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet) receives £25m this year, the largest grant of any arts organisation in England. The National Theatre receives £17.5m and the Royal Shakespeare Company £15.7m.

The Arts Council's opera and ballet review centres "around how the organisations work and the level of investment they receive from the Arts Council in line with this", according to documentation.

A spokesman for the Arts Council said: "We have had conversations with [opera and ballet companies in England] and will be working with them to look at new models that would enable opera and ballet to continue to thrive.

"We are still at an early stage in this analysis and are currently collecting data and looking closely at business models. We have not formed any recommendations or reached any conclusions yet … However, we are clear that opera and ballet are a fundamental part of our portfolio."

The review is due to report in late spring.

At a time when public funding is on the wane (the Art's Council's grant was reduced by 30% at the last comprehensive spending review) there is increased pressure on the opera companies to find ways to operate more economically, including sharing resources. At the last funding round for arts organisations, announced in 2011, opera companies' grants were "salami sliced" rather than subjected to detailed strategic scrutiny, pending the review. With a large workforce of 341, including a 62-strong orchestra and 41-strong chorus, ENO has large fixed costs. It has in the past shed jobs – around 100 in 2003 when it received a £10m rescue package from the Arts Council, and, in 2007, a further 45, when it posted a deficit of £375,000.

Among ENO's stated purposes is an undertaking to "nurture new talent" and provide "an adventurous programme of distinctive and dynamic work" – presenting productions that are distinct from, and frequently more "edgy" than, those at the nearby Royal Opera House.

However, according to some in the opera world, it is questionable whether a company operating on the cutting edge of the artform can sustain the challenge of nightly filling up London's largest theatre, all the year round.

According to an ENO spokeswoman: "We are tackling this on all fronts: continuing to work with international collaborators and fundraising creatively … In this challenging financial environment we are also looking at the balance of work that we offer to our audiences and the ticket prices we charge."

The company has already reduced the number of performances it stages: in 2011-12 it put on 115 performances, down from 134 in 2010-2011. It achieved box office of 80% capacity in 2010-11, and its deficit was £55,000.

Artistically, the 2011-12 ENO programme was judged a success, winning an Olivier award for "the breadth and diversity of its artistic programme". But some productions proved hard for critics and audiences wholeheartedly to endorse. A controversial production of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream saw "boos fighting with cheers in a playground-style brawl" on its first night, according to the Observer critic Fiona Maddocks. The premiere of the American composer Nico Muhly's new opera Two Boys was judged "a bit of a bore" in the Telegraph, and a production of John Adams's controversial The Death of Klinghoffer was deemed "a long and not unproblematic evening" by the Independent.