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‘REACHING OUT’ OR INSTITUTIONAL VIRTUE-SIGNALLING? THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY OPERA PROJECTS IN UK OPERA HOUSES TODAY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 April 2023
Abstract
The education and outreach departments that coordinate community and participation projects have become a ubiquitous component of opera houses in the UK over the last 40 years yet rarely do their productions appear on the main stage. This article considers recent projects run by Opera North, English National Opera, Opera Holland Park and Glyndebourne and asks whether opera houses are genuinely committed to connecting communities with opera or treat outreach as no more than a means of obtaining funding. The article explores the history of the development of outreach departments and the potential that community involvement offers as a revitalising force for the operatic artform. A series of interviews with opera professionals brings the debate up to date.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
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5 For example, the following statement: ‘From grand theatres to shopping centres; from community venues to city squares; from the local pub to the global digital arena, Opera North is reaching ever more diverse audiences, with more than 100,000 attendances at our performances over the course of the year’. Opera North Review 2018, p. 8.
6 Julia Winterson, ‘The Community Education Work of Orchestras and Opera Companies: Principles, Practice and Problems’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of York, 1998), p. 58.
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13 Ibid.; Winterson, ‘Community Education Work’, appendix, p. 20.
14 Wishart, Sounds Fun, p. 3.
15 John Paynter and Peter Ashton's book Sound and Silence was widely read and introduced these ideas into the music education system in the UK and eventually into the national curriculum. John Paynter and Peter Aston, Sound and Silence: Classroom Projects in Creative Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970).
16 Matarasso, A Restless Art, pp. 45–59.
17 Trevor Wishart, Encounters in the Republic of Heaven (Durham: University of Durham, 2010), p. 3.
18 Oliver Rudland, ‘How a Community Told Its Story through Opera – Exploring the Techniques and Methods in a Co-Created Production’, Sounding Board: The Journal of Community Music, 1 (2021), pp. 7–10.
19 John Barber, ‘Finding a Place in Society; Finding a Voice’, in Beyond Britten: The Composer and the Community, eds Peter Wiegold and Ghislaine Kenyon (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2015), pp. 109–30; Jonathan Dove, ‘Who Needs Community Opera?’, 2020, www.traction-project.eu/who-needs-community-opera-part-one-lets-take-over-a-whole-town/ (accessed 23 July 2022); Omar Shahryar, ‘The Composition of Opera for Young People’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of York, 2019).
20 Winterson, ‘Community Education Work’, p. 58.
21 Jane Davidson, interview with the author, 18 June 2020.
22 Davidson also gives the example of RESEO (European Network for Opera, Music and Dance Education), which she argues was founded to obtain funding from the European Union. She also observes that Scottish Opera, unlike other UK opera houses, receives funding directly from the government and not through ACE, which may explain why Scottish Opera was the first UK opera house to establish an outreach department.
23 Payne, ‘The Business of Opera’, p. 53.
24 Ibid., p. 62.
25 www.glyndebourne.com/about-us/who-we-are/biographies/stephen-langridge/ (accessed 23 July 2022).
26 Jonathan Dove, ‘From the Weaving-Shed to the Airport: Experiences of Writing Opera for Glyndebourne and the Community’, Glyndebourne Season Programme (1999), pp. 121–25.
27 Julia Winterson, ‘So What's New? A Survey of the Educational Policies of Orchestras and Opera Companies’, International Journal of Community Music, 3, no. 3 (2010), p. 357.
28 Katie Tearle, ‘Community Opera’, Opera & Music Theatre Forum (London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1997), p. 9.
29 Higgins, Community Music, p. 48.
30 Matthew Brace, ‘Opera by the People, for the People’, Independent, 25 July 1994, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/opera-by-the-people-for-the-people-the-floodgates-an-everyday-opera-of-west-country-folk-is-homespun-1416305.html (accessed 23 July 2022).
31 Will Todd, interview with the author, 7 May 2020.
32 The phrase ‘virtue-signalling’ was coined by James Bartholomew and denotes the practice of publicly expressing opinions intended to demonstrate one's good character or the moral correctness of one's position on a particular issue while, crucially, not being the one to pay the cost of correcting the issue in hand. It has become especially pronounced with the development of social media. See Charles Moore, ‘The Spectator Notes’, The Spectator, 25 April 2020, p. 11.
33 Winterson, ‘So What's New?’, p. 361.
34 The production was Flying High with music by Graham Preskett, a libretto by John Kane and directed by Philip Coleman. Information stored at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Central Library.
35 The following information was provided by the Glyndebourne Education Department Team.
36 Richard Taruskin, ‘The Death of Opera’, in The Oxford History of Western Music: Vol. 4, Music in the Early Twentieth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 547–49.
37 Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, A History of Opera: The Last Four Hundred Years (London: Penguin Books, 2012), pp. 425–55.
38 This point need not contradict the previous argument that opera houses should be obliged to dedicate their full resources to the production of community operas on their main stage. The point here is the directionality of these resources: either to enhance the status of rich patrons or, as it is argued here, to tell a story of deep relevance to the whole community.
39 Dove, ‘Who Needs Community Opera?’.
40 Oliver Rudland and Rajan Lal (eds), New Music and Society Conference Report (Cambridge University: The Phoenix Music Society, 2022), pp. 4–5.
41 ‘The Monster in the Maze: Production History’, www.jonathandove.com/the-monster-in-the-maze.html (accessed 23 July 2022).
42 Jasper Rees, ‘Opera's Future Is Bleak. Our Audiences Are Dying’, Telegraph, 9 June 2022, www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/joseph-calleja-interview-yo-yo-weight-binge-performances/ (accessed 23 July 2022).
43 English National Opera, ‘A Celebration of Culture, Community and Creativity at the London Coliseum, as Part of Refugee Week 2022’, www.eno.org/discover-opera/eno-engage/open-opera/ (accessed 23 July 2022). Originally advertised as the Healing project, its title was subsequently changed on ENO's website.
44 Winterson has raised similar issues about outreach projects that are ‘no more than an exercise in synchronized rolling about on the floor for the children; all good fun but educationally barren’. Winterson, ‘So What's New?’, p. 361.
45 Indeed, as this article went to press ACE announced that ENO would receive reduced funding through the National Portfolio scheme.