Taking up the fight for regional opera

At Norwich Theatre, our year began with the disappointing yet unsurprising news that Glyndebourne’s triumphant touring week in November 2022 would be its last, after more than 50 years of coming to Norwich. Such longevity and presence in a venue and city like ours made the opera company a highly prized jewel in the carefully balanced multi-art form crown of the region’s only large-scale theatre. 
 
Since I took over leading Norwich Theatre seven years ago, tasked with redefining its creative vision and ambition, I have never lost sight of our ecological responsibility in shaping all that we do. To be frank, it would have been a very much easier path to make programming decisions based solely on commercial drivers and measure our programming success by the number of people through the doors and pounds in the bank. 
 
If we had taken this path, such a basic ‘low-risk-high-return’ strategy would have immediately eroded 90% of our drama programme. It would have seen stasis at best in dance and opera, but certainly not the growth and diversification we see in our theatre today. As for introducing large-scale contemporary circus and physical theatre for the first time, not a chance. 

In all, the East of England would have been served – by us – a diet of predominantly musicals, comedy and drama (as long as plays featured someone off the telly) and a panto at Christmas. And we almost certainly would have outsourced the panto to a commercial producer, rather than keeping it in house and maintaining its status as the only multi-week, large-scale, original production made in the East of England each year.

Glyndbourne was a vital cog in the business model

The decision we made to NOT adopt a low-risk strategy has made life more difficult, but we keep the faith, supporting the whole ecology and seeing the bigger picture. Because that is ultimately the key. The Arts Council had to make some difficult decisions too and then the companies impacted, such as Glyndebourne, similarly had to enforce difficult changes. This handing down landed here with us in Norwich and the whole ecological bigger picture view has been lost.

World-class opera at an affordable price within a manageable distance is the highlight for many at Norwich Theatre Royal, shown by packed houses each November. Glyndebourne was a vital cog in the carefully engineered and hard-working machine of a completely unsubsidised business model. Without the benefit of public subsidy, we generate every penny of our income through tickets sales, fundraising and ancillary commercial sales.

Following Glyndebourne’s announcement, it is no exaggeration to say I was inundated with emails, calls and letters from a large number of audience members who are very loyal to our venues, not just in terms of touring opera, but across our whole programme. Our audiences are our main stakeholder. People look to their venue first. They trust us; many thought we were involved in the decision or at the very least okay with it. 

Opera Voices

In response, I invited those who got in touch, and anyone else concerned about opera provision in Norwich, to a listening and discussion session in February. Around 120 people attended and some important points were made. At the conclusion of the event, I publicly committed to representing our audiences’ views to Arts Council England and DCMS and working to ensure audiences do not lose out on the range of production scale, diversity of creative vision and breadth of repertoire they value, just because opera is their preferred art form.

Over the summer we conducted a survey – Opera Voices – of our audiences to gather their views and tangible insights into their motivations which we published last week. It showed audiences crave opera and they want to see it nearby. 

It also highlighted the risk of defunding an art form which, according to the study, 39% felt wasn’t for them. The reasons cited, however, were of perception and affluence rather than truths about the art form. In restricting access to opera and challenging those perceptions, it risks becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in which only the affluent will attend. 

Reimagining the future of opera

Opera thrives here, it is valued here and I am adamant that we do not let audiences and communities lose out. We must rebrand the art form as an inclusive space fit-for-purpose for all audiences. We are calling on Arts Council England to recognise the impact cuts to organisations like Glyndebourne have on access in the regions and work with venues to chart an action-focussed way forward. 

Many will think I’m being critical; I’m not. I am trying to move the narrative forward to what is truly important. Which is not to unpick the decision making, it is to imagine what a new future looks like. 

I hope we can work together in a three way alliance – the Arts Council, the opera touring companies, and the venues who are closest to their audiences – to look at how we work through this and find new ways focused on those audiences who have lost out.

Stephen Crocker is Chief Executive and Creative Director of Norwich Theatre.
norwichtheatre.org/
@NorwichTheatre | @stephen_crocker