La Dogana Straniera
THERE is an opera waiting to be written, called The Quaint Old Spanish Custom. In Fleet Street as it was, the print unions used such irrational customs to rule and rob the roost, until Mr Murdoch moved to Wap- ping and outwitted them. As The House, Covent Garden's televised self-portrait, served to show, the lyric stage's practices make Spain look rational and Fleet Street look well-managed. Turned out of its house, Covent Garden still chose to hang on to most of its cost base, to its armourers and wigmakers and full supporting cast, and to its protected jobs and union rules and quaint old lyric customs. The show has been on tour, busking for everyone's living and (not surprisingly) losing more money. Sadler's Wells has no company to send on tour. Its place in the scheme of things is to be a receiving house and provide a stage and a staging post for other theatres' com- panies (coming shortly: the Frankfurt Bal- let). Its cost base is low and it can buy or hire services, and barter for Covent Gar- den's Bride, as and when it wants to. This is what management jargon calls outsourcing. It can do much for flexibility and more for costs and it is a proven cure for quaint old Spanish customs.
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