More scalps ? John Berry leaves ENO

More scalps for the mob ? Once, opera was about art.  Now it seems that art is dictated by those who want to enforce their own fundamentalist agendas, not all of which necessarily artistic. So John Berry has left the ENO after eight years in which the company has had many great successes eg Mastersingers ,  Benevenuto Cellini,  Peter Grimes and much else. The ENO wins awards for artitic excellence but does that matter  WE hear over and over about the Arts Councilo England singling out the ENO for savage cuts and placing the house under "special measures" but precious little in terms of actual facts and figures.We also hear the same old story about the departure of Martyn Rose and Henrietta Gõtz who wasn't in the job long enough to make an impact.  That's because, instead of well informed investigation we're blessed with cut and paste journalism.

It's a sad day for art.  I've no idea who will replace John Berry but I hope it will be someone with artistic vision who can defend the ENO and preserve its status. Please read my other articles on the place of the ENO in British cultural life.

ENO annual financial review 2013/14

Save the ENO : British culture and phoney class war

Radical rethink  ENO heritage

Opera houses and houses for opera 

and perhaps most pointed of all
Wagner's prescient Warning : Mastersingers of Nuremberg, ENO vindicated

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