Welsh National Opera says it is committed to finding a solution for orchestra members that recognises the 'reality' of its financial situation following significant cuts to its public funding.
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The Musicians' Union has called upon management, Arts Council Wales and Arts Council England to agree on a sustainable funding package to secure Welsh National Opera's future.
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The online singing, songwriting and breath control sessions are aimed at helping people with aphasia improve their confidence around communication.
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Arts Council England said the timing, nature and content of a letter critical of funding cuts imposed by the public body had 'caused it concern'.
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A scheduled House of Lords debate on government support for opera has been cancelled due to the dissolution of parliament.
The debate, planned for 6 June, was to consider the question: “Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour) to ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support opera.”
It will now not take place due to the dissolution of parliament early in the morning of 30 May ahead of a July 4 general election.
A briefing on issues to be considered outlined concerns about the state of the opera sector in England and the financial pressures it is facing.
Organisation becomes sixth taking part in Arts Council England's Transfer Programme to announce plans to relocate with 18 yet to publicly confirm a move ahead of October deadline.
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Members of performers' union Equity have voted unanimously to pass an emergency motion supporting the Welsh National Opera (WNO) chorus in a dispute over contract changes and compulsory redundancies.
The vote was taken at Equity’s Annual conference on Sunday, lending weight to the union's previous statements resisting changes to reduce the ensemble's current full-time contracts, which would lead to a 15% annual salary cut.
Equity says that WNO’s plans to reduce and rebalance the chorus's size “can only lead to the real threat of compulsory redundancy” and hopes the vote would "send a message of solidarity" to the chorus members affected.
The conference asked Equity's Council to "provide whatever support is required" to amplify the chorus's campaign and not to accept compulsory redundancies or "WNO management's desire to have the flexibility of a full-time contract with all the precarity of an unsustainable cut to their basic earnings."
WNO has warned it is facing financial difficulties after Arts Council England (ACE) cut its core funding from £6.24m to £4m a year for the 2023-26 period, a 35% reduction. It also receives £4.1m a year from Arts Council Wales.
Last June, an open letter from former opera members warned that a strategic review would reduce the number of full-time orchestra and chorus members to meet funding conditions imposed by ACE.
Young people are more open to attending opera performances than their older peers, a research project has found.
A poll conducted by Public First for the Laidlaw Opera Trust found that 61% of 18- to 34-year-olds say they would consider going to an opera performance in the future.
Meanwhile, 54% of 18- to 34-year-olds who have never been to the opera say they would like to go at least once in their lives, compared with 37% of those over 55.
The survey also revealed a gender divide. Given a choice as to what they would prefer a free ticket for, women are more likely to prefer the opera than a football match.
The survey also found that opera "struggles to cut" through, but the public is open to engaging with it - with 42% saying they have never met an opera fan and only around a third saying they have attended a performance.
But even those who have never met an opera fan are open to engaging with the art form, with 41% of this group saying they would like to go to the opera at least once in their life.
Opera's perceived expense is the biggest barrier to attendance, with 50% of people saying that opera being expensive makes them feel more negative about it, which was the most important factor in driving negative perceptions.
Lord Laidlaw, Chair of Laidlaw Opera Trust, said: “We commissioned this research because we believe that opera, as a uniquely thrilling art form, should reach a much wider audience.
"It is an important starting point, therefore, to understand where the real barriers to that ambition currently lie.”
Performers' union Equirty has voiced its opposition to Welsh National Opera's (WNO) plans to cut the salary of its chorus members and threaten compulsory redundancy.
WNO, which has warned of financial difficulties after having its core funding cut, plans to reduce the full-time contracts of its chorus members to 45 weeks with a salary cut of at least 15% a year.
Equity says that recent “opaque proposals” for changes to its members' terms and conditions have been tabled, which would “fundamentally undermine the job security of this highly skilled professional ensemble.”
The changes mirror those put forward for the orchestra at WNO and follow contract renegotiations for the chorus and orchestra at English National Opera earlier this year.
The union said it has “always been open to the [negotiation] process” and “believed that despite the challenging financial situation the company faced, [WNO] would protect the chorus.”
“[We] will not accept compulsory redundancies or the desire of WNO management to make contracts ‘flexible’ solely to their own advantage while adding the precarity of an unsustainable cut to chorus members’ basic earnings,” said the union.
“ Equity’s resistance to the current proposals cannot, and will not, be contingent on the decisions of funders.”
WNO receives National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding from both Arts Council England (ACE) and Arts Council Wales (ACW), but its ACE funding was reduced from £6.24m to £4m a year for the 2023-26 period, a 35% reduction, while it receives £4.1m a year from ACW.
Last June, an open letter from former members of the opera warned that a strategic review would reduce the number of full-time orchestra and chorus members to meet funding conditions imposed by ACE.
Change of name to the Royal Ballet and Opera forms part of a series of measures designed to increase income for the organisation in the face of a decline in public subsidy levels.
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Company says it has taken the 'difficult decision' to withdraw two weeks from its previously announced 2024/2025 season in the face of challenging economic times.
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Funding cuts are destroying Britain’s “top-notch” classical music organisations, according to the new chief conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Antonio Pappano.
Speaking at the launch of LSO’s new season, Pappano said: “Do you want to see them die little by little? Look at the struggles, look at the ENO, the WNO. These places are in trouble, and it is not acceptable.”
He said that concerns around whether classical music was “specialist, elitist”, distracted organisations “when they should be concentrating on making good work and quality performances”.
Pappano also criticised Arts Council England, saying the funding body “did not seem to be supporting" classical music organisations and only held “discussions focused on community, diversity, and all those social aspects."
“It is not the LSO or Royal Philharmonic or London Philharmonic’s responsibility to educate children. It is the government’s job to start educating children and creating not only talent for the future but also audiences," said Pappano.
“The amount of responsibility given to organisations to correct something that should be done by the government is unfair, frankly.”
LSO, an ACE National Portfolio Organisation, has seen its annual investment from the funding body drop from £2,246,641 to £1,977,044. Pappano joins the orchestra from the Royal Opera House, which has seen its own annual investment from ACE - the largest grant awarded to any single organisation - fall from £25,211,186 to £22,268,584.
Proposed cuts would see performers paid less as a result of reduced working hours, with Musicians’ Union saying the situation is a 'direct result of underfunding and defunding of opera'.
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Several arts leaders representing Arts Council England (ACE) National Portfolio Organisations have faced criticism after The Guardian revealed they hold membership to the exclusive, all-male Garrick Club.
Alex Beard, the Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, which receives ACE’s largest individual investment of over £22m per year, has been named a member, as has the Chair at English National Opera, Harry Brünjes, the Artistic Director of the Wigmore Hall, John Gilhooly, and the Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano.
A spokesperson for Her Ensemble, an organisation that campaigns for equality in classical music, said the presence of many leading figures on the membership list “ultimately undermines a lot of the progress that the industry is making and encourages inequality.”
In a statement to The Guardian, ACE said, “Personal memberships of this kind are a matter for the individuals concerned”.
ACE added that as a distributor of public money, “we make clear that we expect our investment to support cultural experiences and job opportunities to be available for everyone in England, irrespective of where they live, their background or how much money they have in their pocket”.
Jude Kelly, former Artistic Director of Southbank Centre and founder of the Women of the World Foundation, said senior figures in the arts should resign their membership.
“It behoves people who are leaders in the arts to not frequent it any longer. I don’t understand why anybody would think that it’s still OK to join a men-only members’ club,” she said.
The club, founded in 1831 as a meeting place for actors, previously held a formal vote on admitting women in 2015, with 50.5% supporting a rule change, failing to meet the required two-thirds majority.
Garrick club members, including leading lawyers, the head of the civil service and King Charles, are expected to vote on the matter again in June.
A report into the opera sector commissioned by Arts Council England has warned that the rising costs of staging productions are outstripping income.
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Open letter from the company's Music Director says cuts have left it with a budget that is "not even sufficient for a small regional theatre".
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The orchestra at English National Opera has agreed in principle to a deal including seven months' guaranteed work and a minimum redundancy payment.
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Backstage workers at English National Opera receive revised redundancy offer, which trade union Bectu is encouraging them to accept.
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Strike action by staff at English National Opera had been due to begin later this week on the opening night of The Handmaid’s Tale.
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English National Opera plans to axe 19 posts in its orchestra, and make the chorus, orchestra and music staff part-time as part of efforts to adapt to lower levels of income.
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