Rodney MiMes writes:
1. Phoenix might have taken more notice of the March 1974 warning if it had been couched in terms other than routine, and if it had been signed by the Finance Director rather than pp'd for him by someone else (his secretary?). Despite madly encouraging discussions with various panels and sub-committees, Phoenix certainly took the autumn letter seriously, though four months is hardly generous warning for a company that has to plan a good year or more ahead. The fact remains that from official notification of withdrawal of subsidy to the end of the financial year was less than one month's notice.
2. As for Lord Gibson's letters, since the Opera Sub-Committee had recommended an administrative grant, and since Phoenix knew this even if Lord Gibson didn't, it seems as reasonable for the company to inquire whether or not the Council was going to follow its committee's recommendation as it would have been for Lord Gibson to have clarified the position in his first letter.
3. It is interesting to hear that the English Opera Group will receive a reduced grant, particularly in view of autumn touring figures only half as good as Phoenix's! Why not chop the EOG?!
4. To harp on one bad week in Nottingham, while ignoring Phoenix's well-supported work in opera-starved Yorkshire and Teesside, and to call Kent Opera's week in Bath an expansion outside the South-East, is both to avoid the issue and to split hairs.
5. No one will be more surprised to hear that there is no such thing as a new Cohn Graham Opera Company than Mr Graham himself. Obviously the Arts Council's ways of launching companies are as mysterious as those of closing them down.
6. I regret that Mr Stirling had no space to discuss the general questions of discourtesy in the matter of unanswered letters or of the absurdly short notice given to Phoenix management to attend or to brief meetings at 105 Piccadilly.
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