Last October a very positive management announced not only that the restoration works on the Coliseum were right on schedule, but that ENO had secured a 1 million pound a year sponsorship deal with Sky Artsworld for the next three seasons. The troubles seemed to be over for the company who for the past few years have been the target of merciless criticism because of its artistic and financial endeavours.
New house, new year, new management, new life, gleamed the newly appointed artistic director Sean Doran, outlining a 2004 season which hailed eight new productions.
Well, in truth, five of these new productions – Wagner’s Ring and Berlioz’s The Trojans - already had outings in concert performances, with mixed receptions. Two new productions are educational projects: The Early Earth Operas, a trilogy of operas for children commissioned by the ENO Baylis Programme, and For the Public Good, a choral project by composer Orlando Gough who is creating a site-specific choral piece for the new auditorium in which the audience is going to be involved.
So, all that was left was a new production of The Pirates of Penzance by Elijah Moshinsky, not enough to excite the operatic audiences, and a choice that arose some suspicion in relation to the forthcoming opening of Raymond Gubbay’s new company at the Savoy.
For the most part, it was the usual ENO we have learned to tolerate in recent years: the timely revival of some of their most successful productions (Nicholas Hytner’s The Magic Flute, Robert Carsen’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Jonathan Miller’s Mikado), a few all-time favourites (Carmen, Falstaff and Tosca), the token Handel (this year being Semele), and the plain ludicrous (Ashman’s Ernani and Bieito’s Don Giovanni). One of the main problems, of course, appeared not to be addressed, and that was and is the issue of the casting, which has been afflicting the company for the past few years.
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Paul Daniel was stressing how ENO was and remains first and foremost a company, and how this is at the same time a limitation and a strength: he obviously now sees it more as a limitation, as he is leaving in 2005. Surely the problem must lie in the discrepancy between the management’s vision and the economic reality of the company. The programming does not really seem to be consistent with the requirements of a company-based season, not without asking your singers to tackle roles they should not even think about.
But the singers at present are probably the last of ENO’s concerns: only four months after that positive forecast, the new house is not completed in time, and the grand re-opening had to be postponed. Half of the performances of John Adam’s Nixon in China have been cancelled, leaving only four shows of what was probably the most interesting item on the programme, and certainly the kind of repertoire which an English speaking home-talent based company should focus upon.
Meanwhile, considerable sponsorship for the Wagner’s Ring production which is due to open on February 23rd from The Rhinegold is apparently not enough, and more money will have to be found to support the management’s visions of grandeur. The Jerwood sponsorship for the Young Singers Programme has been terminated, Hackney is re-possessing The Works, (home of the ENO Studio and of Baylis related educational programmes, for which apparently there is no money left anyway), the company needs a new musical director, and Raymond Gubbay is about to open a rival opera house down the road: the future does not look so bright after all!
Sean Doran keeps a positive outlook nonetheless, but in the many interviews appearing everywhere these days one crucial thing seems to be missing: a sure identity. ENO’s mission statement is vague, repetitive, undefined. The old image has gone and with the new house ENO needs to find a new identity, real coherence, and the focus it has been lacking in the past few years if it is to survive.
Petra Torre
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