One involves the import of packages from countries such as Moldova, which maintain a national operatic establishment prepared to tour outwith EU legislation and union restrictions, performing six times a week on fees viable only because of rates of exchange favourable to the British impresarios.
Opera Holland Park perform Verdi’s Luisa Miller, starring Anne Sophie Duprels (Photo: ALASTAIR MUIR)
Such companies have a real following and bring live large-scale opera at moderate prices to towns that are otherwise unprovided for. But they undercut home-grown musicians, their quality is not high and their repertory is very limited and traditional.
Country-house opera is altogether more artistically sophisticated, offering excellence and innovation in a bucolic environment. You can hear esoteric repertory here that the big London houses wouldn’t touch, and our younger singers are given valuable first chances to shine.
There are several caveats, however. Such organisations are dependent on summer weather as well as the “heritage” backdrop. They rely heavily on pro bono and goodwill, with front-of-house and ancillary functions filled by volunteers and the professionals agreeing to work for less than their standard fees. A successful catering operation is also vital to their solvency.
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Although these aren’t insuperable obstacles, the aura of poshness and priciness that underpins it all is: despite sincere efforts to provide a few cheap seats and special performances for the indigent or uninitiated, these places come with a luxury-goods price tag (and an “exclusive” ambience) that puts them out of the reach of most “ordinary” people, except as a very special treat.
A third route might be suggested by Opera Holland Park, which opens its 2015 season on 2 June. Although its circumstances are peculiar and its template couldn’t be translated elsewhere, it offers a fascinating case study that raises questions and offers answers.
Kitty Whately and George Von Bergen will star in OHP’s production of Flight. (Photo: Robert Workman)
Sheltered from the elements by a canopy, OHP plays some 40 performances through the early summer on an open stage set against the rear elevation of the Grade I listed Holland House. The comfortable stadium-style auditorium holds about 1000, and the foyers spread attractively over the park’s terraces and gardens.
The enterprise has until now been directly managed and paid for by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which owns the site. At the helm for some fifteen years have been two mavericks, James Clutton (Producer) and Michael Volpe (General Manager), neither from conventional backgrounds, who have dared to think outside the box and do things differently, with remarkable results.
Finances, described in ballpark figures, are as follows. On a turnover of about £3m, 65 per cent of income comes from the box office. RBKC acts as guarantor, generally chipping in about £500,000 to make up any deficit. Standard-price tickets cost between £75 and £17 – less than big West End musicals (top price £100) and ENO (top price £115). Performances seldom play to less than 90 per cent of capacity.
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At the head of its additional donors and supporters is the City firm Investec, which for the past five years has been a major sponsor (the sums involved are undisclosed, but the relationship appears very happy on both sides). No grant is received from Arts Council England. In sum, whereas ENO requires a Treasury subsidy of about £70 on every ticket sold, OHP requires only about £15 from Council Tax payers.
But Clutton and Volpe now want OHP to leave the feather-bed and go it alone. Documents will shortly be signed allowing OHP to break free of the Borough and become a charitable foundation. The deal is a very good one, which only a wealthy borough could afford. RBKC will donate ownership of the theatre’s fabric and plant and lease the site on a peppercorn rent, as well as providing office space pro tem. RBKC is also handing OHP a one-off golden handshake of £5m, which will be used over the next ten years to invest in the company’s future and develop its profitability (affording the auditorium better protection against the weather being a priority).
Whereas ENO requires a subsidy of about £70 on every ticket sold, OHP requires only about £15 from Council Tax payers. (Photo: Alastair Muir)
Although OHP is very popular in Kensington and Chelsea, with over a third of its audience coming from within the Borough, this generous gesture towards a leisure facility has inevitably caused some local controversy at a time when local government is cutting all its services stringently.
Clutton and Volpe insist, however, that all negotiations have been entirely amicable and they are leaving of their own free will. Disentangled from RBKC’s bureaucratic apron-strings, OHP will now be able to plan in advance without being at the mercy of the Borough’s timetables and rubber-stamps, and as an independent trust, it will now be far more attractive to corporate and individual donors than it was as a branch of local council services.
What about quality? In relation to costs and charges, OHP’s artistic results are impressive, and have shown a marked improvement over the last decade. Money is not lavished on star names, production budgets or ROH-style marketing, and further savings are being made by maintaining only a tiny year-round administrative establishment and hiring in chorus, crew and orchestra.
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Yes, the edges can be rough and the singing and playing aren’t in the same league as the big daddy of summer festivals, Glyndebourne. More pernickety connoisseurs won’t get much out of it. But everything OHP performs is marked by energy, enthusiasm and commitment, and if a show falls flat on its face, it tends to do so out of over-ambition rather than lacklustre incompetence.
Anne Sophie Duprels will play lead characters in both Suor Angelica and Il tabarro in OHP’s Il trittico, 2015 (Photo: Robert Workman)
Clutton’s casting of production teams and singers is generally very canny. Talented directors such as Annilese Miskimmon and conductors such as Stuart Stratford have been nurtured here, and the company also has an excellent record for supporting younger British singers as well as some more senior figures (such as Gweneth Ann Jeffers) who don’t find favour elsewhere in London.
Another of OHP’s virtues is a daring repertory which regularly explores beyond the mainstream La Bohème and Carmen territory: this year’s line-up is no exception, including as it does work by living British composers Will Todd and Jonathan Dove, as well as rarities such as Montemezzi’s L’Amore dei Tre Re and Delibes’ Lakmé. This is not playing safe, and the risks pay off.
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With its efficiently managed “visitor experience”, OHP has hit on a winning formula, striking a nice balance between being posh and being fun. There’s no black-tie dress code, and the champagne party atmosphere doesn’t seem restricted to Lord Snooty and his toffee-nosed pals. Opera Holland Park may not offer music drama at its exquisitely sublime best, but it’s home to one of the great evenings out that a London summer offers, as well as being a brilliantly resourceful light-footed organisation that has much to teach others in the field.
This year’s season at Opera Holland Park, W8 (0300 999 1000) opens on 2 June with Puccini’s Il Trittico