Opera Often Gets an Undeserved Kicking Says Glyndebourne Boss

“Opera often gets this kicking which it doesn’t deserve in my view,”  says Richard Davidson-Houston, the boss of Glyndebourne Opera.

In an article in The Times, Davidson-Houston said that opera is seen as expensive and elitist, saying there is a “miscomprehension about who it is for and how it is priced”.  

“It would be great to see more public figures enjoying opera. Compare it with Angela Merkel and Germany, where she is cheered for attending. It is a shame they get gip for coming to what is the ultimate in creativity.” He recalled the negative comments that Angela Rayner, Labour's deputy Leader, received after being pictured at a performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at Glyndebourne.

Davidson-Houston said the reduction in Glyndebourne’s annual grant to £800,000 made it impossible to continue touring and he criticised the “suddenness” of the cash withdrawal. “In ­opera, we are doing three to four years’ planning in ­advance and so to announce a thing in November that comes in in April cost us real money,” he said. “It either betrays a misunderstanding or a callousness. I’m not sure which. Presumably misunderstanding.”

Despite the cuts and some negative publicity, Davidson-Houston said the Glyndebourne festival had had one of its most successful years this year. About 113,000 people had attended productions at its base, the highest number of paid ­attendees for more than a decade. He said this was “somewhat surprising when one looks at the opera narrative, which is generally pretty negative”.

Arts Council England announced its latest spending round in November last year, with cuts to Welsh National Opera and English National ­Opera as well as Glyndebourne. ACE ­reduced its annual £1.6 million grant for the East Sussex-based opera company by 50 per cent.

Davidson-Houston said that before the funding cut, Glyndebourne had been looking at “beefing” up the tour — which visited Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Norwich and Canterbury every year — with extra work in schools and communities. “The tour had always fulfilled ­important strategic aims, a significant one being the platforming of emerging talent and giving them the chance to perform at that standard of opera and that number of performances,” he said. “It made ­careers viable.”

Photo Credit: Richard Hubert Smith, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites 2023