Opera

The Royal Opera House is ending its sponsorship relationship with oil giant BP after 33 years.

In a statement the opera house said an agreement between the two parties to not renew the funding partnership has been made.

“We are grateful to BP for their sponsorship over 33 years which has enabled thousands around the country to see free opera and ballet through our BP Big Screens,” a spokesperson told the Guardian.

The move leaves just two major arts institutions – the British Museum and Science Museum – with fossil fuel sponsorships.

The British Museum is currently in a five-year funding deal with BP, which is due to finish on 19 February, but it is yet to comment publicly on whether or not the partnership will be extended.

The Science Museum is currently sponsored by Shell and Adani despite long-running protests and the resignation of several board members.

Director of Campaign Group Culture Unstained Chris Garrard said: “What we are witnessing is a seismic shift, a near total wholesale rejection across the arts of BP’s brand and the climate-wrecking business it represents.

“By bringing down the curtain on fossil fuel funding, the Royal Opera House can now play a leading role in creating the culture beyond oil we so urgently need.”

Buxton Opera House in Derbyshire has announced that it will close every Monday next month as part of efforts to reduce its "soaring" energy bills.

The BBC reports that staff at the venue will work remotely or at offices nearby while all of the building's lighting and heating are turned off.

The venue's management said the decision was taken to "lessen the impact of soaring energy costs".

The closures will be on days with no shows, with people being asked not to try to collect tickets in person on those days. The box office will remain open as normal on other days of the week.

Paul Kerryson, the venue's Chief Executive, said: "All our shows are happening but on those Mondays, we will be turning off the lighting and heating to save some money and keep our costs down."
 

English National Opera (ENO) will close permanently in April next year if it is forced to move out of London, its Chair has warned.

The organisation was one of the most high-profile casualties of Arts Council England's latest investment decisions having been dropped from the National Portfolio, through which it was provided £12.5m a year.

ACE has offered it up to £17m over three years to relocate, potentially to Manchester, but The Stage reports that, speaking at an All-Party Parliamentary Group for opera last week, ENO Chair Harry Brünjes said the idea of moving the ENO out of London needed to be "flattened".

"There is a lot of discussion around relocation to Manchester, and we have got to flatten that immediately. There is no relocation," Brünjes said

He criticised ACE’s decision, insisting supporters should not be distracted by the word "relocation", as he argued that, unless the cut was reversed or additional funding found, it would be the end of the ENO.

He added: "This is closing ENO down. This is losing 600 jobs from London of talented and devoted and able people across all departments – so let’s get this clear."

"Manchester is the final scene of The Wizard of Oz – you pull [back] the curtain, and there is a bloke turning a wheel and puffing smoke in the air.

"So as it stands, ENO will close in April after nearly a century, and that’s the end of it."

Chair of Arts Council England Sir Nicholas Serota should resign over the decision to cut funding from the English National Opera (ENO), a former Director of Productions has said.

In a letter to The Times Sir David Pountney, who was at ENO from 1982-93, described plans to withdraw ACE funding as "brutal and irresponsible".

"There is an argument for rebalancing cultural funding between London and the regions but this requires serious planning," he said.

"The fate of several hundred employees and an institution with a history of 90 years is not to be decided so arbitrarily."

Pountney added that there was no evidence the suggestions by ACE that ENO could potentially be relocated to Manchester had been seriously considered.

"There have been no discussions with Manchester’s existing cultural bodies, let alone with Opera North, which already performs in Manchester, nor any analysis of the necessary investment to create a venue in Manchester appropriate for a national opera company," he said.

"Slashing the money first and considering the resulting options afterwards is totally unprofessional. 

"Sir Nicholas Serota should not have put his name to such a procedure, whatever the pressure from the government (what happened to the 'arm’s length principle'?) and should resign."

Speaking earlier this week on the proposals Serota said that ACE was faced with "some very difficult choices" in making its funding decisions. 

"We decided that we should not spread the misery across every company in the country," he said.

"We should actually identify those companies that we thought could survive a withdrawal of their funding and on which we had faith that they had the ability to respond."

Access charity Stagetext has reported a marked drop in demand for the digital subtitling of theatre productions following the return of in-person performances.

It has received 39% fewer requests for digital subtitles during 2021/2022 compared with 2020-2021.

At the same time, the number of captioned live theatre performances has not returned to pre-Covid levels. The deaf-led charity said captioned performances have dropped by 7.5% in 2021/2022 compared with 2019/20, representing 24 fewer captioned shows. 

A recent survey of museum and heritage websites paints a similarly bleak picture for those who would benefit from subtitled video content. The Heritage Access 2022 survey – launched by charity VocalEyes in partnership with Stagetext, Autism In Museums, and the Centre for Accessible Environments – found 53% of videos across more than 3,000 websites were not subtitled.

Stagetext Chief Executive Melanie Sharpe said: “Deaf people in the UK want to visit a museum and be able to watch video exhibits; they want to see the trailer for a theatre production, with subtitles, and then be able to book a captioned performance for the same show.

“There are millions of people who would pay to visit an exhibition, see a performance, or share a venue’s content, if the venue just made these things available to deaf people.”

Stagetext's report comes ahead of its annual Captioning Awareness Week 2022, which will run from 14 to 20 November.