Changing places
Why did the general director of English National Opera resign? Rupert Christiansen reports 1 111 through the spring and summer, as the Royal Opera House wilted under the heaviest fire it has yet faced, the troops at English National Opera were quietly regrouping themselves for an autumn offensive. Things had been artistically flat at the London Coliseum for several years, but, with the arrival of Paul Daniel as its music director in September and the prospect of a strong season ahead, a cer- tain optimism was filtering in. Someone had grabbed at the Blairite rhetoric and appropriated the catchphrase the 'People's Opera'; with Daniel at the helm and a reduction in certain seat prices, ENO was preparing to recapture some of the territo- ry it had lost since its glory days in the 1980s, when it was known as the 'Power House' and identified as the last word in radical opera chic.
Then on 19 September, only days after a new production of The Flying Dutchman had opened to an enthusiastic ovation and generally favourable reviews, it was announced that Dennis Marks, ENO's gen- eral director since 1993, had resigned. No reasons were given, but it wasn't difficult to work out the sticking-points. The Arts Council was offering ENO a sizeable one- off 'stabilisation grant', on the condition it fulfilled certain draconian economies. Faced with a deficit of over £4 million, the board was in no mood to fuss.
Yet Marks felt that ENO's artistic repu- tation was plummeting and argued that, unless certain high-profile productions were kept in the schedule, acceptance of `Would you describe yourself as driven?' the grant would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face. In addition, the board was split over Marks's plan to move the company out of the Coliseum into a new opera house which could centralise all the expensive and inefficient outhouses used for storage and rehearsal. Opponents argued that the value of such a prime West End site was incalculable and that the bet- ter option would be to stay put with a pro- gramme of renovation — quite aside from the fact that they were unlikely to secure the necessary kick-start financing from the Lottery. Marks had already offered his res- ignation over these issues in March. On that occasion the board had refused it by a narrow majority; second time round, it was accepted.
So was Dennis Marks bravely fighting the cause of art against a lot of penny- pinching men in suits? Or was he simply the wrong man for the job? He had never been popular internally — a tough manag- er with Birtian ideas of restructuring and rationalising, someone whose knowledge and experience of opera was clearly limited (he had previously been head of music at BBC Television). He forced through a lot of overdue reforms which his predecessor, Peter Jonas, had swept under the carpet, but at a price. 'Dennis keeps instituting all sorts of consultative committees, but you don't feel anyone ever really listens to you,' one drone told me.
Had the basic product been stronger, perhaps the management-speak would have been accepted more willingly, but Marks didn't radiate any clear sense of what he wanted to see on stage. His first music director, the overparted Sian Edwards, left after a miserable time being frozen out of decisions. There was a dis- tinct absence of flair in the choice of direc- tors — at one point, it looked as though Jonathan Miller was in charge of every- thing; then some unknown Continental whizzkid would fly in and dump a heap of garbage.
Of all the risks taken, only Francesca Zambello's staging of Mussorgsky's Kho- vanschina hit the spot. Others — La Belle Vivette, an adaptation of La Belle Helene, and the first British production of Zimmer- mann's Die Soldaten — missed by half a mile. Revivals were often meticulously rehearsed, and some young singers on con- tract were developing nicely, but a night at the Coliseum invariably lacked the pizzazz that it had had five or ten years ago. Yet there were signs that things were coming right, and had Marks stuck it out for anoth- er six months, I think his achievement might look more impressive.
Bound by its legal duty to stop the organ- isation from bankrupting itself, the board will now be looking for someone more focused on slimming the deficit than mounting a new Ring. One prays that this doesn't herald the arrival of Attila the Accountant. My own tip is Brian McMas- ter. A former general director of Welsh National Opera, he has had a tremendously successful stretch at the Edinburgh Festival and may be in the mood to move south. He has the taste, he has the track record, he has the useful combination of diplomatic guile and a furious temper. Give him the job — if he's mad enough to want it.
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