The Chief Executive of the English National Opera (ENO) has said that the decision to move his institution to Manchester was made by Arts Council England (ACE) executives only when the matter was first discussed with him in November.
Stuart Murphy has revealed in a frank interview with the German national daily Southgerman newspaper (SZ) that, when he was told the ENO would lose all its 12.3 million pounds in public funding and would have to move out of London within the next three years, he inquired where the ACE wanted them to move. “They looked at one another and said: Manchester?” Murphy recalled. Asked whether he had had the impression that ACE chair Nick Serota, Deputy Chief Executive Simon Mellor and Director of Music Claire Mera-Nelson, had come up with that suggestion on the spot, he said: “One hundred per cent, I swear on my alive.”
The announcement by ACE to take the ENO out of its funding portfolio and asking it to leave London as part of the British government’s “Levelling Up” strategy has led to a public backlash, with a petition to re-install funding reaching 70,000 signatures this week and ACE Chief Executive Darren Henley being called in by the House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee to defend the decision. In an open letter to TheTimes the directors of some of the world’s leading opera houses said the decision “sends out a strong message that ACE no longer thinks an established, world-class opera house is worthy of investment”.
Stuart Murphy said in his interview with the SZ that he had pointed out to the ACE that their decision made “no logical sense”. Not only had they guaranteed half a year ago that the ENO would not have to move, they had also confirmed in their end-of-term report card that the opera met or exceeded all funding criteria: Inclusivity, Relevance, Artistic Quality and Reduction of Environmental Impact. “When we said: You have given funding to other organizations that don’t meet those criteria, they replied: That’s irrelevant.”
According to the ENO Chief Executive, the current situation has “embarrassed the arts community in Britain internationally” He suggested that the opera may take legal action if the ACE don’t look at their decision again, but voiced his hope that “the Arts Council want to see sense”.