English National Opera board member resigns over ACE plans

A member of the board for English National Opera (ENO) has resigned over plans for the organisation to establish a new main base outside London.

Lord Jonathan Sumption, who is also a Deputy Chair of the Royal Academy of Music, said the proposals, which were first mooted by Arts Council England (ACE) last year are a "travesty" and described the funder's approach as "philistine".

His resignation comes just a month after ENO revealed it has shortlisted five cities as potential new homes for its headquarters.

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Although it is no longer a member of the National Portfolio, ACE has set aside funding of £35.46m, or £11.82m a year for ENO for the 2023-26 period to complete the move, close to the £12.38m a year it received as part of the National Portfolio for 2018-22.

But Sumption has been stinging in his criticism of the plans.

“ENO will become a mere brand-name for a fringe offering, a pale imitation of the real thing that we have been putting on in London for decades," Sumption said in his resgination letter, seen by The Telegraph.

“Our advertisements used to promise ‘magnificent opera, sung in English’. What is now proposed is a travesty of our values, our traditions and our achievements.”

ACE had originally offered offered ENO £17m over three years to relocate, less than half the annual sum it previously received through the National Portfolio, but eventually upped the amount in response to a backlash.

'Delayed death sentence'

Sumption, a former Supreme Court judge who has been an ENO board member since 2015, said that even the largest venues outside of London will not draw the same audience for opera, leaving the ENO without enough revenue to support its activities.

He said this amounts to ACE “forcing" a model on ENO "which, artistically and financially, is no more than a delayed death sentence”.

“The only advantage in continuing under these conditions is that a change of personnel at the Arts Council may at some stage produce a less philistine approach and that a new government may have a more realistic view of the value of a great capital city," he said.

"But it is hard to be optimistic even about that. It is one thing for public authorities to save a thriving company such as ENO currently is. It is another thing altogether for them to help rebuild it once it has been emasculated in the way that the Arts Council currently proposes.”

Sumption's resignation brings the total number of members of ENO's board down to 14.

Birmingham, Bristol, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham are the five cities in contention for ENO's move, after being chosen from a longlist of 14 bidders.

The organisation has said it hopes to make a final decision by the end of the year, before moving to its new home early next year, to meet the funding conditions of the £24m offered by ACE for 2024/25 and 2025/26.

London Assembly objections

Meanwhile, the London Assembly has formally raised its objection to ACE's decision to remove English National Opera from the National Portfolio and require it to move out of London, in a motion receiving cross party support.

Equity members outside the London Assembly on Thursday afternoon. Credit: Equity

The motion called for no job losses at the ENO as a result of funding cuts, and demanded that ACE “end its requirement for the ENO to establish a primary base out of London,” a move that Equity, the union representing chorus and stage management workers at the company, has warned will lead to redundancies and rehiring creative workers on precarious, freelance contracts.

David John Newman, a worker at the ENO and Equity Deputy for the ENO Chorus said: “The Sword of Damocles hangs menacingly over the English National Opera whilst ACE are insistent they move to a principal base outside the South East.

“The impact of this uncertainty on the workforce, and in particular Equity members at the ENO, is causing huge anxiety and mental stress as members are unsure whether they will still have a job, even if they could feasibly move to a new location.

“This decision would deprive London of one of its most creative, diverse and accessible arts organisations. Levelling up is not about felling a well-established tree and plonking it somewhere else in the hope it will flourish, but leaving it where it is and feeding it further so that its fruit can be planted elsewhere to create new and exciting opportunities for all.”