Thread by @NoisyMV

🧵 on all this opera stuff..
I've read a lot of excellent pieces and letters and tweets about the defunding of ENO and the argument has come around again to 'elitism', this catch-all word that appears to mean quite a few different things to people interested in the debate /2

2. These articles (and over the years I must have written scores of similar ones) are not saying anything new. How long have we been making - and proving unequivocally - that opera is not an 'elitist' interest? That it appeals to every kind of person?

3. How many years have opera companies been banging this drum, giving away tickets, doing education work, making films, producing participatory projects? How much money have we spent on it? How much money has been made conditional on it?

4. And what was the argument put forward by ACE's head of music? That there hadn't been a growth in audience for the kind of work put on by ENO. I can only assume they were actually referring to ENO's specific attendance figures when they used that argument to remove their ££

5. It is my experience that a lot of people within ACE agree that opera is elitist (it really is a word with no bloody meaning isn't it?) but the problem is that we kind of got drawn into refuting two things; that opera is expensive to attend and that it is elitist.

6 Neapolitans have a saying: 'Cui sputa 'n celu, 'n faccia cci torna.' If you spit in the sky it will return and hit you in the face. I think that is what we have been doing for years now. And I think we should stop couching our narrative according to the ignorance of others

7 The horse may have bolted on public funding and who knows, perhaps a growth in money to smaller companies not considered elite will help - but I suspect that the same people who attend the big houses will be the ones who continue to support the smaller companies.

8 And that isn't about the art form satisfying some imaginary desire to be seen as an 'elite' - it will just be that they love opera. And here is of course the crux - the reason people like opera in the first place. It is usually because they got exposed to it when very young.

9 The truth is that opera is incredible accessible and available and I continue to believe that there is quite a large natural capacity for it among the general population. The problem is that millions simply do not go to theatres. For decades we have eschewed the arts

10 I can't pinpoint one particular moment when the UK decided it would be a cultural wasteland for the majority of the population. And it is generational so lots in the media grew up in this situation with this binary view.

11. Whilst he framed it within the argument of elitism, @mrjamesob 's LBC rant about the benefits of the arts and opera in particular was probably the first time in years I have heard such a monologue on a media outlet listened to by people who think the arts are worthless

12 Will that begin to happen more often? I dunno, but I am not confident it will. Some of us will always take the chance to do so if it comes along, but we have to face the awful fact that the vast majority of children in this country will grow up without cultural exposure

13 It is not about learning music either (which is important). It is about their experiences of just being audiences and enjoying music of all kinds. We all know how easy it is to change a culture if it begins at an early age.

14 Those of us with children who have been exposed to it early on know how wide and varied their tastes become, how normal they feel it to be to attend a show etc. It isn't even arguable. So I think that is where we should focus attention.

15 We should dismiss the elitist arguments and start to address the cross-discipline crisis of a disinterested population. Let the idiots blether on about elitism. If they raise it, scoff at them and move the discussion on.

16 One of the problems with having a central distribution body for arts funding is that they can dictate narratives and, when it comes down to getting money, few will resist falling into line. Education projects are a big part of the criteria for getting money.

17 Such projects are not bad, obviously, but collectively (and I am aware that solidarity in the arts when money is at stake is a rare thing) we need to gather around the principle of arts education, not as a frippery or an add on but as a core compulsory topic that is extensive

18 We can all change the way we work, even spend a bit less money which is a bee in my particular bonnet, but until we address the issue of our nation's cultural antipathy, we are, I am sorry to say, fekked.

19 A p.s
An old friend of mine who I grew up with came to the opera years ago. He then started (secretly, cos his mates down the pub would take the piss) started going to the theatre to see plays. He went to see 'Jerusalem'. And what he said to me still resonates...

20 'Mike, I have got to fifty years old and I had NO idea what went on inside a theatre. I knew they existed. But I never had any idea of WHAT really happened there, that I could sit and watch, from a few yards, what someone like Rylance can do. And that really pisses me off.'