English National Opera reveals first Manchester plans after transfer row

English National Opera has announced its first productions and plans for Manchester after being forced to relocate out of London.

In 2022, the prestigious opera company was controversially asked to leave the capital or lose its £12m annual Arts Council England subsidy as part of an effort to “level up” arts funding.

ENO now says it will be “firmly established” in Greater Manchester by 2029.

But it will start operating in the city before then, with productions at the Lowry, Bridgewater Hall and Aviva Studios from 2025, and plans for a mass singing project with local grassroots football teams.

It has announced:

• A production of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera Einstein on the Beach, directed by Philip McDermott, for spring 2027.
• The UK premiere of Angel’s Bone, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Musicals, at Aviva Studios in May 2026
• Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring in Lullaby, October 2025.
• A staged concert of Mozart’s Cos fan tutte at Bridgewater Hall in February 2026.

ENO will also create a new Greater Manchester Youth Opera Company for people aged 13 to 16, and set up a scheme to develop “new voices and stories in opera”.

The football initiative, called Perfect Pitch, will “explore the impact collective singing has on team performance and the spectator experience”, the company said.

Annelies Miskimmon, ENO’s artistic director, said the move would usher in “a bold and confident future for opera in the UK”.

Chief executive Jenny Mollica said that Greater Manchester is “a region of limitless creative possibilities”, which will allow the company to “explore new visions for the future of opera”.

The productions staged in Manchester will range from “large-scale traditional operas to more experimental works to more intimate and chamber works”, he said, and will allow the company to reach “a wide range of audiences”.

The announcements come after two years of turmoil for the company following transfer demands.

The Arts Council originally said it would effectively halve ENO’s grants even if it agreed to relocate, and gave the company until 2026 to relocate. But the Arts Council has since provided additional funding and extended that deadline.

ENO’s initial reluctance to agree to the idea of ​​relocation led to Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, telling them: “If you can’t come willingly, don’t come at all.”

At a launch event on Thursday, he admitted that the relationship between the company and the city had been “awkward or even a little destructive on the first date”, but said that ENO had proven that they wanted to be there. Are.

“It was clear that there was a meeting of minds and a partnership that would work for both parties,” he told BBC News.

The turmoil caused ENO to cut its orchestra and chorus, which are based in London. Members had threatened to strike earlier this year over plans to make them all redundant and redeploy them for six months a year.

The company’s music director, Martin Brabbins, resigned in protest at the cuts.

The strike was eventually ended after the company agreed to a seven-month contract.

Despite relocating its headquarters, the company will continue to hold an annual season at its current home, the London Coliseum.

The chorus and orchestra will perform in both London and Manchester, and the company will work with organizations such as the Manchester-based Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, and local freelance musicians.

Naomi Pohl, Secretary General of the Musicians’ Union, said that “It is certainly positive to see the artistic vision in ENO’s announcement and we want to see them flourish and develop”.

She also welcomed the continued presence at the London Coliseum, and said she would “keep an eye on the impact of ENO’s work in Manchester on the companies that are already performing with musicians at that venue”.

Leeds-based Opera North currently tours venues including The Lowry.

“Music is a delicate and complex ecosystem,” Pohl said. “Opera and ballet are under particular pressure at the present time due to funding pressures and we are struggling to maintain and pay full-time jobs.”

Paul Fleming, general secretary of the arts union Equity, agreed that new opera productions and engagement programs were welcome in Manchester, but added that “it is less than a season for audiences”.

“While the innovative work proposed will reach people who have never engaged with opera before, it does not offer the scale of production or sustainability of engagement that can secure and create secure jobs for the opera workforce,” he said. .