REVIEW OF THE ARTS
Rodney Milnes on operatic options and questions
When production standards at London's opera houses are criticised managements can reply that until they are subsidised on the same scale as their European counterparts we shall have to put up with less than the best. While no amount of pleaded poverty could excuse some of the horrors on show last week (vide infra), there is a point here; but while fighting off reasonable demands for more money the Arts Council has to counter powerful voices who claim that opera gets far too much money already. There are no easy answers here, but doubts must be expressed about the way the Council uses those resources at its disposal.
We have two companies in London, both giving the largescale repertoire in theatres of equal size, and two regional (oh, all right, national) companies developing nicely in Glasgow and Cardiff. What with many exchanges of conductors and artists, the distinction between the two London houses grows blurred, and the question as to whether we need them both inevitably arises. The Royal Opera has always made much of its plans for a second, smaller auditorium where it can give small-scale opera and perhaps experiment, while Sadler's Wells, or rather the EnglishNational Opera Company (hereinafter to be termed Enoch) has made no secret of the fact that if it were offered a second smaller auditorium in
which to ditto ditto it would be into it like a rat up a drainpipe.
One of the worst kept secrets of the past months has been the well-advanced plan for a new small opera company to be run by Colin Graham and based in perhaps Manchester or Birmingham — a gesture towards regionalisation, that great white sacred cow-elephant ripe for sacrifice. One hopes for their sake that it will be Birmingham, as any touring company will confirm that Manchester is death on wheels at the box office. Whether this company will be the English Opera Group or perhaps Phoenix Opera (with both of which Mr Graham has close connections) under another name remains to be seen. The company would, of course, also perform in London.
Few would disagree that a stepping stone is needed between opera schools and the big London houses, or that much of the repertoire in both of them would be seen. to better advantage in smaller theatres. Yet while everyone rushes to put on small opera, Sadler's Wells Theatre, a practical if less than ideal house, sits ready and waiting, and dammit it now, in a reasonable and persuasive report to the governors of the Wells Foundation, administrator Douglas Craig doesn't propose to establish a small new opera company there by the end of next year.
Much else in Mr Craig's report makes disturbing reading. The Wells currently functions as a touring date for foreign and national companies. Its counterpart in Paris receives a subsidy of nearly £500,000; the Wells receives none. This means not only that there are no facilities for regular visits by the Welsh and Scots operas, but that we are given groups of such dubious cultural value as the North Korean ballet, while companies like the Royal Swedish, Slovak National, Frankfurt and Bulgarian Operas and, in the future, the Netherlands Dance Theatre have to be turned away simply because the Wells cannot give them a cash guarantee. As Mr Craig notes, "it is simplicity itself to get guarantees from, say, Belfast, Sunderland, Southend and Cardiff." That the capital of these islands should be deprived in this way in favour of the regions is frankly a lunatic situation, and in retaliation I can only suggest that Enoch ceases to visit those centres whose local authorities offer such derisory sums as 050 for the privilege of seeing opera in their theatres. If the regions are going to get it, they must pay for it.
How long does the Arts Council sit and watch while these plans for operatic proliferation seeth feverishly before coming to decisions about financial favours to be bestowed? A useful indication may lie in the strange story of the New Opera Comoany. A year ago the NOC gave a lavish press conference, presumably with the knowledge of the Arts Council, to announce renewed links with Enoch and an ambitious (and artistically rewarding) three year plan. Already that plan has come to naught; instead of the twoopera, two-week season this spring, there will be one of each. Someone, somewhere, inside or outside the Arts Council, has kicked the NOC smartly in the teeth. To be sure, with three brand new operas to be premiered in March by Enoch, the Welsh and the Scots, you could say that the NOC in its present form has lost
its raison d'être, but someone, somewhere, knew that a year ago. One must therefore hope that the rationalisation sorely needed in
the face of a) the Wells' reason able demand to be allowed to function properly as a national and international touring theatre, b) the Wells as a base for a new opera company, c) the smaller auditorium for the Garden, d) the smaller auditorium for Enoch, and e) the possibility, or indeed desirability, of the Cohn Graham Opera Company, will be carried out before rather than after plans have been laid, not to mention time, money and effort on the part of busy people have been spent and wasted.
While recognising the careful line the Council must tread between proper supervision of the recipients of its largesse, and the danger of being accused of state interference in the arts, if I were
chairman and had attended the revial of Aida at Covent Garden
last week, my typewriter would have been red hot the next morning. Item: make-up. The four
STpehcetator January 19, 1974 principals might as well have been taking part in different operas. Placido Domingo, who sang the best Radames I have heard, sported lashings of sky-blue eye shadow and blobs of rouge below the cheekbones. It is as well for Ethiopian father and daughter to be roughly the same colour: they were not. Teresa Kubiak, who sings prettily but whose acting is definitely appliqué, looked fresh from the South of France, while John Shaw favoured the dark grey charcoal shade traditional in this production. Elizabeth Bainbridge, who stepped in at short notice with a powerfully sung Anmeris. was apparently wearing her street make-up. Item: production. This has always been one of the safest revivals, because the original producer was usually in charge. This time, Mr Ande Anderson had a go, and all the needless changes were for the worse. Is there no one at the Garden to oversee such basic, simple theatrical matters, t° ensure that a musically rewarding performance should not sink int° a morass of thoughtless, corporate incompetence?
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