Former ENO Artistic Director, John Berry, Launches New Opera Company, OPERA VENTURES

Former English National Opera Artistic Director John Berry has launched a new, not-for-profit company called Opera Ventures. It will produce opera and mixed media performances, workshops, classes and training.

Opera Ventures' executive team includes chief executive Michelle Wright, executive producor, Loretta Tomasi, and Sally Groves as chair.

Opera Ventures will work in the UK and internationally.

Berry said: "It's been a dream to create this charity for many years and I've been wanting to find a way to put something back into the UK opera business for some time now. I've been working on this charity for 18 months and I am thrilled the first project is about to happen, with more productions in development." He also added, "Putting philanthropy directly on to the stage rather than into an institution, while keeping fixed costs at a minimum, is central to our vision. Now that we are established, the real fundraising starts."

In 1995, Berry joined English National Opera (ENO) as Casting Director, and served in the post from 1995 to 2003. He instigated the first 'Jerwood Young Artists Programme', which later developed into 'The ENO Harewood Artists'. He became Director of Opera Programming in 2003, and subsequently was name ENO's artistic director in November 2005. The last appointment was controversial, as it occurred without either due process or interview. As ENO's artistic director, he brought in artists from outside the opera world into ENO productions, including film directors (Anthony Minghella, Terry Gilliam, Penny Woolcock, Mike Leigh), theatre directors (Rupert Goold, Simon McBurney, Fiona Shaw and Improbable Theatre), visual artists (Matthew Barney, Anish Kapoor) and choreographers (Mark Morris, Michael Keegan Dolan). His co-producing policy extended ENO's reach to more than 40 opera houses around the world, the most prominent being the relationship with the Metropolitan Opera House, New York.

Berry expressed skepticism about cinema relays of operas in May 2012. In December 2013, in a reversal of those earlier statements, ENO announced a reversal of course and a new relationship with Altive Media to take ENO's productions into cinemas. Other developments at the company included, in 2014, a new relationship with restaurateur Ben Warner and Benugo for the redevelopment of the Coliseum foyer spaces, and a new commercial relationship with Lord Grade and Michael Linnit (the GradeLinnit Company) to produce semi-staged musicals. The last actions were in response to the 29% reduction in Arts Council England (ACE) funding.

Awards won during Berry's tenure include:

• Double Olivier Award winner in 2015.
• Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) for ENO"s Consistently Outstanding Work' 2015 in the Opera and Music Theatre Category
• 8 Olivier Awards
• 4 South Bank Show Awards
• 5 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards
• Winner of 2014 The Hospital Club 100 in Theatre for the "most innovative and inspirational people working across the creative industries"
• Evening Standard (2013 / 2014 / 2015) Top 1000 most influential people in London

In February 2015, ACE placed ENO under special measures. This had followed public revelations of disputes between the outgoing chief executive of ENO, Martyn Rose, and Berry, with uncorroborated accusations by Rose that Berry had mismanaged finances and lost £10M, and the departure of Henriette Götz as executive director in January 2015. ENO countered Rose's accusation by stating that during Berry's tenure, ENO "turned over an unrestricted surplus of £2.4M. In July 2015, Berry stood down as ENO artistic director, with immediate effect.

Berry is married to the mezzo-soprano Pippa Dames-Longworth. He was made a CBE in the Queens Birthday Honours in 2014, for Services to Music.

To post a comment, you must register and login.