CityLife

Royal Opera House big bang music to our ears

REVAMP?: Palace Theatre

MANCHESTER’S theatrical and orchestral organisations have urged the government to make the city’s new Royal Opera House a reality – whatever it costs.

The ambitious project has been left up in the air after an Arts Council report predicted annual subsidies for the project would need to be £12m-£15m, plus an extra £5m a year to help other arts organisations in the region.

That is more than double the figure forecast by the Royal Opera House and Manchester city council. But the report’s author, consultant Graham Marchant, believes Manchester should be going for something ‘even more ambitious’ than the existing plan for a £100m conversion of the Palace Theatre to set up a branch of Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House.

He points out that Manchester would not get London shows simply transplanted from Covent Garden. Not only orchestras but choruses would need to be found locally. He wants the managers of the new opera house to work with existing providers of opera and ballet in the region, and not confine its scope to the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and Manchester International Festival.

And there is great excitement among the region’s arts community about the cultural ‘big bang’ that could be just around the corner.
orchestras are making plans for when the new Manchester Royal Opera House becomes a reality.

They intend to be ready if the £100m project to convert the Palace Theatre and set up a branch of Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House there gets the go-ahead – despite the fact that a report by Arts Council consultant Graham Marchant has left the ambitious project up in the air.

Marchant believes that Manchester should be going for something ‘even more ambitious’ than the existing plan, adding that it could be ‘the most significant arts development in this country for a generation’ – but it will cost.

Instead of the £7m-£8m annual subsidy forecast by the Royal Opera House and Manchester city council, he suggests they think of £12m-£15m, plus an extra £5m a year on top to help other arts organisations in the region. His argument is that the Manchester Royal Opera House could hurt them commercially while also spurring them to raise their game artistically – and they will need extra cash on both counts.

He points out that Manchester would not get London shows simply transplanted from Covent Garden. Not only orchestras but choruses would need to be found locally. He wants the managers of the new opera house to work with existing providers of opera and ballet in the region, and not confine its scope to the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet and Manchester International Festival productions.

The city council says it is ‘delighted’ with his conclusions. The Hallé is ‘very supportive’ and would be prepared to provide its orchestra for productions for between four and eight weeks a year.

“If this is going to happen, there’s no point in turning our backs on it,” says chief executive John Summers. “We could do a month in the summer, and I expect the BBC Philharmonic and Camerata could do a similar thing.”

The Lowry – the Salford Quays arts centre which was built with Lottery cash to be the major ‘receiving house’ for touring arts productions coming to the north west – says it believes the plan ‘could bring extraordinary benefits’. Chief executive Julia Fawcett says: “We do absolutely share the view that it’s an excellent project.”

Richard Mantle, general director of Opera North – which brings more operatic productions to Manchester than any other organisation – says: “Those of us involved in lyric provision (ie opera and ballet) must welcome the opportunity that in Manchester it could take a turn for the better.”

Qualifications

But then the qualifications begin to emerge. Summers points out that the report ‘makes it very obvious what hurdles need to be overcome’ – and that the reaction of Andy Burnham, Culture Secretary and Leigh MP, is going to be ‘absolutely key’. “It’s a big ask, but a very exciting one,” he says.

Fawcett is aware of the ifs and buts embedded in the report. She says: “In our view, he sets a number of tests to be met.

“First are the costs – although he says the capital cost could be easier to raise than the annual running cost.

“Second is the need to understand the impact on other organisations and develop a strategy to deal with it.

“Third is the need for partnership and working together in future. Our question is: Are there degrees of ‘presence’ that could bring the benefits, without collateral ill-effects?”

She also questions the report’s comment that ‘the scale of ambition required to make a Royal Opera House that is genuinely for Manchester and the region and really belongs to it goes well beyond what can be achieved at The Lowry’. It’s based on the idea that all The Lowry could do would be to host touring productions from London, she says.

“His conclusion is that the Lowry is only a presenting theatre and therefore it couldn’t happen here,” she says. “I don’t go along with that.”

Fran Toms, who has masterminded much of the project for the city of Manchester, is unabashed by any of this, or indeed Marchant’s criticisms – and there are some.

“Graham has recognised what’s different about this proposal,” she says, referring to the employment opportunities it is hoped the training side of the project would bring.

“We think there’s quite an innovative model here, so that production, in the widest sense of the word, is enjoyed by a lot of people in Manchester who haven’t actually got a place where you can make new lyric products.”

She concedes that ‘there’s a whole lot more work to be done’ in the education aspect of it, but says: “The potential links with further and higher education here are of a different order from the educational links within a typical arts organisationAnd the possible links with MediaCity in Salford are also incredibly strong.”

The market research into potential has now been done, she says, and ‘we’re confident that the demand will be there’.

And the running costs?

“We thought it could be up to £10m, really,” she says. “If broadened in the way he describes, it would, naturally, cost more. And the council will be ready to contribute. The key point is that we’ve never said this could be funded from existing resources. There has got to be major government funding.”

Over to you, Andy Burnham.