ENO funding

[zxDaveM]

18 hours ago, Sim said:

Can someone please tell me what is so wrong with fossil fuel providers?  Genuine question.  Since we aren't allowed to have fracking, or nuclear energy, or coal, what else are we supposed to do?  Rely on wind and solar panels for everything?  I am not sure what the problem is with fossil fuels?  Without them, how would we generate energy?  There would be no heat, no electricity, no transport of any kind.   No schools, no hospitals, no office buildings, no shops.  What am I not understanding about this?  Thanks for any clarification anyone can give me.

 

Fossil fuels have, and continue to, cause global warming which has led to the climate crisis. The oil companies have known about the damage their products would do to the environment since the 60s/70s. Had we spent as much investment in clean energy R&D as was spent on tax breaks for the large oil/gas companies, we probably wouldn't have had the current whopping energy bill increases we are all suffering, as the prices wouldn't be tagged to the price of gas (whose huge rises can be blamed on that cretin putin). The cost of wind generated kW/hrs is now much less than that for gas. As more vehicles become electric, the rail network completes electrification, etc, we can phase out fossil fuel burning, as electricity generated from green sources (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hydro), and perhaps smaller scale, local, cheaper (Rolls Royce developed) micro nuclear plants can be used instead. Improved technology for generation, storage, transmission, as well as efficiencies at home/work (insulation, better designed heating/cooling devices etc) will get us there eventually. Whether its in time for the next generation, or their children, depends on how quickly it can be implemented

Food for thought - a huge solar farm (about the size of Wales) based in the Sahara, could generate enough power for the whole of Europe. I read somewhere that we are already laying power cables from Morrocco to feed into the National Grid (coming ashore in Cornwall) for solar farms being built there. Mind you, we could end up giving up dependency on despots' oil, for despots' solar power! Final thought - even now, before all the 'farms' in place, and the grid's technology upgraded, there are still windy days when 80-110% of our energy needs are generated by green energy sources

[zxDaveM]

3 hours ago, Pas de Quatre said:

There is little doubt that there is climate change, but how much is due to human activity is debatable.

 

there is no debate, the science is all but irrefutable

[zxDaveM]

2 hours ago, DD Driver said:

An industrialised society can only exist through cheap energy.

It would be a shame for British people to go cold & hungry chasing Net Zero when it can make no significant difference to the world. 

Great speech here by Konstantin Kisin at the Oxford Union debate

 

 

it's called leadership. We cannot tell people that they need to 'go green' if we don't ourselves. As a rich country, we should be helping poorer countries to develop non damaging energy sources, rather than burning the world.

And I totally disagree that it was a 'great speech'.

[Sim]

Going back to the funding issue…I wonder whether anyone will step in to plug the funding hole created by the jettison of the fuel companies?  If not, will that mean ticket price hikes, or job losses, or cutting back on some of the outreach or other programmes?  

[zxDaveM]

12 minutes ago, Sim said:

Going back to the funding issue…I wonder whether anyone will step in to plug the funding hole created by the jettison of the fuel companies?  If not, will that mean ticket price hikes, or job losses, or cutting back on some of the outreach or other programmes?  

 

perhaps they can go cap in hand to the green energy companies - whose product's prices were boosted as they were pegged to the gas price (for electricity generation), giving their profits a huge boost at no cost to them!

[Fonty]

7 hours ago, zxDaveM said:

The oil companies have known about the damage their products would do to the environment since the 60s/70s. Had we spent as much investment in clean energy R&D as was spent on tax breaks for the large oil/gas companies, we probably wouldn't have had the current whopping energy bill increases we are all suffering, as the prices wouldn't be tagged to the price of gas (whose huge rises can be blamed on that cretin putin). The cost of wind generated kW/hrs is now much less than that for gas. As more vehicles become electric, the rail network completes electrification, etc, we can phase out fossil fuel burning, as electricity generated from green sources (wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hydro), and perhaps smaller scale, local, cheaper (Rolls Royce developed) micro nuclear plants can be used instead. Improved technology for generation, storage, transmission, as well as efficiencies at home/work (insulation, better designed heating/cooling devices etc) will get us there eventually. Whether its in time for the next generation, or their children, depends on how quickly it can be implemented

 

 

I know very little about this, but my nephew works in the wind energy industry.  According to him we are nowhere near getting enough energy from green sources, nor are we ever likely to be in the near future, especially if there is a huge change to electric cars.  In his opinion there are 3 things we need to do now:

1.   Cut down on individual car usage by investing much more in public transport, especially in rural areas.  In certain areas fully electric vehicles might not be practical or possible, but they could certainly be dual fuel. Not sure what percentage of London buses are, but I know there are many on the roads.  

2.  Prevent domestic homes and businesses from turning the thermostat higher than 20 degrees by making it impossible to go any higher.  
3.  Wear clothing appropriate for the season.  

 

With regard to point 3, maybe we should all take up knitting?  And there are some very fetching thermals around at the moment.  Currently, I am wearing a matching set consisting of long sleeved top and leggings under my outer garments in a lovely shade of midnight blue.   My thermostat has not been above 15 or 16 degrees even during the very cold weather we had in London.  

 

Edited to add I realise my choice of under garments has very little to do with ENO funding, but I do wonder about the ROH turning down help from BP.  Will the norm become potential sponsors being asked to fill in a questionnaire as to where their money comes from?  Can these organisations afford to be so picky?  

 

 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Fonty

[alison]

6 hours ago, Sim said:

Going back to the funding issue…I wonder whether anyone will step in to plug the funding hole created by the jettison of the fuel companies?  If not, will that mean ticket price hikes, or job losses, or cutting back on some of the outreach or other programmes?  

 

As I said, I thought BP were only sponsoring the big-screen broadcasts, which no longer seem to exist any longer?  I have a feeling they used to sponsor schools' matinees or something similar, but could be wrong about that.

[Jan McNulty]

15 minutes ago, alison said:

 

As I said, I thought BP were only sponsoring the big-screen broadcasts, which no longer seem to exist any longer?  I have a feeling they used to sponsor schools' matinees or something similar, but could be wrong about that.

But they were sponsors for 33 years…

[alison]

True, but I was considering what effect their loss might bring, as Sim asked, and whether it would in fact create a funding hole?

[Sebastian]

On 27/01/2023 at 08:20, DD Driver said:

Great speech here by Konstantin Kisin at the Oxford Union debate

 

Having worked in this area (at a high international level, not as a research scientist) I should point out that the speaker makes one claim which is likely to lead his audience astray. It is true that the UK's contribution to CO2 emissions is comparatively small, but the implication he would seem to want people to draw from this (that we in the UK are wasting our time) is wrong and not for sentimental reasons.

 

Not wanting to divert this ENO thread into a climate change debate, if anyone wants to discuss, just send me a DM with their email address. 

[Sebastian]

An update on ticket sales at the Coliseum. Here is a (broadly) positive review of the current run of Die Tote Stadt / The Dead City:

 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-operas-a-masterpiece-but-the-production-doesnt-quite-come-off-enos-the-dead-city-reviewed/

 

Sales in the Balcony have been so poor the ENO have been closing it. Seems the campaign to save the company is not being matched by much public enthusiasm for this show. 

[Lizbie1]

1 hour ago, Sebastian said:

Sales in the Balcony have been so poor the ENO have been closing it. Seems the campaign to save the company is not being matched by much public enthusiasm for this show.

 

Akhnaten and (I think) Rhinegold sold very well but my problem with these campaigns is that if half the people signing petitions bought tickets regularly ENO would not be in its current position.

 

Someone once told me about an old Facebook meme with a starving child surrounded by thumbs-ups, with the caption "your likes aren't helping him". That's kind of how I feel about a lot of the noise around ENO. I'd like to see them continue in something like their current form but people have to put their money where their mouth is.

[Scheherezade]

3 hours ago, Sebastian said:

 

Sales in the Balcony have been so poor the ENO have been closing it. Seems the campaign to save the company is not being matched by much public enthusiasm for this show. 

A shame, since the sound is best in the balcony. 
I think that people tend to book for what they know and Korngold is so rarely performed that it just isn’t going to tick that box. 
Akhnaten was, I think, totally sold out, which again, I think, is usually the case for Philip Glass at the ENO.

What happened, by the way, to ENO’s formerly unchallenged position as the baroque house of choice? Surely another missed opportunity. 

[Sim]

Some friends of mine went to see the Korngold and said it was so difficult and bad that they left at the interval!  I think I will stick to his film music....

[Geoff]

Saw a rather surprising giant poster driving out of London today. It was advertising a show at the Coliseum (which of course is owned and managed by the ENO) playing this coming autumn and I thought I’d post the link here, in case this is news to anyone here:

 

https://londoncoliseum.org/whats-on/the-mongol-khan/

[Lizbie1]

How intriguing!

[alison]

There's a press release about it in the News section, isn't there?

[Jan McNulty]

8 hours ago, alison said:

There's a press release about it in the News section, isn't there?

 

It's here:

 

 

[Guest oncnp]

ENO given more money and time to relocate

 

ENO to receive extra £24m to allow more time to leave London, says Arts Council | English National Opera (ENO) | The Guardian

 

English National Opera to stay in London for three more years (thetimes.co.uk)

[Scheherezade]

What I’d like to see is the removal of the need to relocate. 

[Geoff]

2 hours ago, Scheherezade said:

What I’d like to see is the removal of the need to relocate. 

Yesterday’s press release (which is broadly as reported by the papers above) specifically includes the line:

 

>>In February 2022, the UK Government instructed the Arts Council to redistribute some of its funding from London to other parts of the country. 

[Guest oncnp]

English National Opera has chosen Greater Manchester as its future home, a year after funders said it must move its base out of London.

 

English National Opera announces Greater Manchester will be its new home | English National Opera (ENO) | The Guardian

[Ondine]

I think this is a very sad day for many reasons and I'm in The North.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Emeralds]

I'll be curious to see exactly how the city council of Manchester is going to fill seats for ENO in Manchester when they even struggle to fill when the highly acclaimed Opera North visits them. And ENO's style of opera is more similar to ON than the opulence of RO, Garsington and Glyndebourne. I have good friends in Manchester and it's one of the smallest cities I've ever seen in the world (my friends also describe it thus). Even Copenhagen, which is fairly compact to get around, can get more people in from the surrounding towns and villages (fewer cars so easier to travel in). 

 

Also fairly bizarre that an area with a relatively modest population will now have two world class opera companies (Opera North and ENO- and Opera North is actually a "child" of ENO, created by the ENO leadership and talents!) fighting for the same small audience. 

 

Maybe they hope that ENO will become like what Mariinsky Ballet was like in the 90s and 00's- "we make more money and get bigger audiences performing in any other cities that are not actually our home" (of course in the Mariinsky's case we're taking about foreign cities). I assume they think ENO will make money to balance the books by performing a lot of shows in London and other venues, and just doing a tiny number of shows in Manchester. Bizarre and illogical  but "bizarre and illogical" is becoming the new normal in 2020s Britain. Of course,  ROH are very happy - the competition is leaving. 

[Ondine]

9 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

ROH are very happy - the competition is leaving.

 Yes. 

 

I love Manchester, it's a really interesting city, but not huge.

 

[Ondine]

One view.  I'm wondering what all those people employed in London think.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/05/manchester-may-yet-suit-english-national-opera-eno

 

‘This could be really interesting’: Manchester and English National Opera may yet suit each other

Charlotte Higgins chief culture writer

 

 

 

 

 

[Emeralds]

18 hours ago, Ondine said:

One view.  I'm wondering what all those people employed in London think.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/05/manchester-may-yet-suit-english-national-opera-eno

 

‘This could be really interesting’: Manchester and English National Opera may yet suit each other

Charlotte Higgins chief culture writer

 

 

 

 

 

As usual, management's way of treating the actual artists who perform the shows is that the artists should take care of all the astronomical costs of accommodation, travel and transport of equipment themselves, even if what they pay barely covers the cost of travel, let alone trying to work out of two very far away cities. In orher words, with callous disregard, or mindblowing ignorance.

 

Companies like  English Touring Opera and Welsh National Opera of course do travel around the country  but their productions and cast sizes are nothing like that of ENO- we're comparing a three course hot dinner to picnic lunches, both types of great quality, but completely different in terms of size, complexity and resources. 

 

The headline and conclusion of Charlotte Higgins' article strikes me as being like Peter Mandelson's attitude to the Millennium Dome: "This could be really interesting..."! It's what people say when they see a trainwreck (ie huge financial losses) coming...... 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Emeralds

[alison]

Yes. I wonder how its employees are going to manage paying two lots of rent/mortgages in two different cities.

[Jan McNulty]

English National Opera musicians and singers to go on strike:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68006230

[Emeralds]

Very sad that it will come to that but there were signs that a strike was inevitable. Poor ENO, ENO Orchestra and Coliseum....so much drama and upheaval despite the excellent performances being produced. ENO Orchestra is also due to play for Georgian State Ballet when they bring their Swan Lake on tour (and the musicians have been superb when they play for ballet).  ENO's former music director Martyn Brabbins has declared his support for the musicians planning to strike. Hope this can be worked out constructively and fairly for the musicians.

Edited January 20 by Emeralds

[Jan McNulty]

Why English National Opera relocating to Manchester will be more complicated than it looks:

 

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/english-national-opera-move-manchester-eno-explained/

 

 

[Sim]

I came across this near the Coliseum last night. Yellow seems to be the colour of striking musicians around the country. 🙂

[alison]

I thought they said on the radio the other night that the strike had been called off.  Or perhaps that was just for the first night of The Handmaid's Tale?