Arts Council England won itself many new enemies when, in 2022, it announced that, for English National Opera to keep its £12million grant, it would have to move to Manchester – as as if to say, “We’ve got a spare opera company; why don’t you have it?”. All in the name of “levelling up”.
After much wrangling, including interventions both pro and con from Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, a compromise has emerged: while moving its base to Salford, ENO will maintain a slimmed-down programme at its London home, the Coliseum. Some productions will be shared between Salford and London; the first of these opened last night with Antony McDonald’s semi-staging of Benjamin’s Britten third opera, Albert Herring, premiered in 1947.
