Thread by @AliceCoote

The ROH (& ballet) is a flagship company bringing mostly international artists in most disciplines of the art form. It is not our NATIONAL opera company. Not in terms of ambitions of education, price entry level, outreach, audience demographic, innovation,artists or identity.

ENO is/has always been these things. That is why it created English National Opera North which tours the smaller cities / venues in midlands & up to Newcastle. Why axe the National company in our capital where larger audiences for every production will only be sustainable there

due to population/travel accessibility/ being the cultural hub? Every large European city sustains its international house & home house for its own creatives & tours from there.
You can't find a year round audience in any region outside the capital for rep theatre/ musical so

why expect it of opera . Musicals/ panto/rock etc tours. If arts/ theatre organisations have no base, no place to create & no permanently supported community of creatives they can't make good work. Why are we so ashamed of being based in London ? People regularly travel from all

parts UK to London sport, theatre, musicals , galleries etc & they watch increasingly online which means that location matters less. No shame.
Allowing international visitors to watch & see our capital as a cultural hub is not a negative in any sense. WNO tours to Southampton

& why curtail Glyndebourne tour if you actually want to reach everyone/nurture young artists? Isn't Rupert Christiansen's @TheSpectator piece crazily irresponsible to suggest our National company be "killed off" knowing that relocation & finding a new large enough regional

audience after all funding that would make that realistically possible is removed & disbanding all the employees to alternative jobs. How is that a plan for anyone who cares about the creatives & enablers & audience in an art form that involves theatre music visual words

simultaneously & thus why it is for humanity so crucial as an endeavour. Opera is the collaborative best of humanity when it is succeeding OR when it is failing : It's creative collaborative will to express our humanity is priceless .It will most certainly fail permanently if you

treat it this way. Remove the current senseless shame of our parent National company being based in our capital, and reinstate it's funding with a positive & possible plan for it's future, for audiences, for all our artists, for all our children's sakes, and for our nation.

@ace_national @E_N_O @WNOtweet @Opera_North @GOVUK #EnglishNationalOpera #artscouncil #opera #arts #theatre #education #fundingcuts