A whip-round produces a basket overflowing with banknotes towards the close of English National Opera’s new production of It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s just one of the many ironies about the timing of this piece, staged as the company faces the devastating loss of its £12.8m Arts Council funding. “No matter how your story ends, no one is a failure who has friends,” sing the chorus at the curtain, and, goodness knows, ENO needs friends right now, because life is very far from wonderful.
Whatever your feelings about this sugary confection, based entirely on Frank Capra’s 1946 film, no one could describe ENO’s production (first seen in Houston in 2016) as a failure. Is it an opera? Is it a musical? Does that really matter when it is sung with such verve and staged with such panache? Probably not, and if it brings in a new audience that’s surely a good thing.
