The art of risk-taking

Despite the economic gloom, ENO’s John Berry is optimistic about the future of opera

Opera director David Alden said in a recent interview, ‘Opera is alive, popular — and hot.’ I agree. Opera is very much in the public eye and thriving in UK opera houses, cinemas and performing arts centres.

However, as we wait to see the outcome of the coalition’s spending review, the arts community has been vocal about its concerns and fears. London is not Munich or Vienna where public subsidy for the arts is a way of life and debated on the same level of necessity as health and education. Yet Britain is revered worldwide for the energy and quality of its performing arts institutions. They make an incalculable contribution to the nation’s spiritual and emotional life — as well as to the economy — and their investment in people and talent is often hugely underestimated.

America is often held up to UK arts organisations as the shining example of the success of private giving with no burden on the taxpayer. But I find this shortsighted. Opera and theatre in the United States are far more conservative because they rely on patronage, whereas with the right balance of private/public money we can take risks (essential if creativity is to flourish). We can experiment and give the public an opportunity to see work they would otherwise not experience. We are in the entertainment business certainly, but the work we do should challenge what opera means today, not only with new commissions but also by continuing to reinterpret and illuminate the thoroughly modern worlds of Shakespeare, Monteverdi and Mozart, for example.

Opening up opera to a new public is important and I feel we have a responsibility to reassess and inject new life into it.