Abridge the classics, consult the local mayor and eight other ways to fix opera

As the new season launches, here’s a manifesto for how the sector can repair the damage of recent years

It is no surprise that the new Government has cancelled the promised review of Arts Council England, which had begun, under Baroness Archer, before the election. There is a new Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, in post, and a far more root-and-branch inquiry is now needed into what has gone badly wrong with our arts funding system. It needs to encompass Arts Council England’s crass funding decisions around opera and touring, but also the severe damage done to local authority financing of culture. Taken together, they have threatened to undermine the delicate ecology of the arts in this country.
Given the outstanding talent base that manages to somehow exist in the UK on ever-diminishing resources, and a thirst for innovation, there is still cause for optimism. But the situation must be addressed now. Here, based on soundings around the sector, is a manifesto for urgently driving a renaissance in opera as a new season begins.
Arts Council England (ACE) has failed in its central mission to nurture the arts. It has spread its resources far too thinly and without relevant art-form knowledge. It needs to escape from the empty platitudes of its strategy documents and focus again on quality and excellence, led by knowledge and experience of the art forms it supports. A strengthened ACE needs to resist any attempt by the Government to directly interfere but equally needs to be sure its own decisions are well-informed. 
The devolution of cultural decision-making to local mayors representing their communities must be explored.
But this needs to be achieved alongside a new nationwide picture of touring and regional centres of excellence where the most economical ways to tour opera and music theatre can be explored. This will require open-minded, undefensive collaboration between companies large and small.
Opera companies can do far more to innovate, especially with small-scale touring models of less-than-full-scale opera. This doesn’t mean turning their back on what ACE likes to patronisingly call “proscenium opera”: rather, it should mean a less purist approach to the art form. 
In the past, operas were flexible, adaptable forms that changed for new singers, with revisions replacing old versions. Why not explore new formats: reduced orchestrations are already accepted, so why not shorten long operas? Even The Magic Flute, as in Julie Taymor’s version at the Met, or La Bohème, can be slimmed down; it will draw audiences towards full-scale work.
New opera is headlining the seasons of the Met Opera in New York, so why not here? Tried and tested revivals of classic works in the hands of a few reliable directors are not enough. This week’s launch of the Royal Opera’s season with an old Figaro, and ENO’s this month with an ancient Bohème, is not encouraging; we need bold statements. 
If we are going to present opera from the past, we must grasp its view of societies, from Monteverdi in the 17th century to Ades and Turnage in the 21st, whether based on ancient myth, Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes or today’s news. We need to understand those societies, not vilify them with trigger warnings. Some operas will fail to speak to us today – ignore them, there are so many that still speak across the centuries. 
Immersive performance practice, digital production skills and radical audience experiences have been pioneered in the theatre by companies such as Punchdrunk, but so far only fitfully in opera. Now is the moment to explore the impact of Extended Reality, AI generation and technology skills with a new generation of open-minded performers, for whom training will be vital. Investment is being unlocked though UK Research and Innovation and our conservatories, just one area where the sources of funding into the arts can be diversified.
Everyone knows that in the present economic circumstances there is not going to be a sudden massive injection of new funds from the centre to the arts. It will require an approach of ingenuity and partnership. One excellent model that released new funding was George Osborne’s Theatre Tax Relief, which has underwritten the cost of many new productions since the pandemic and will now be maintained. 
Could VAT on tickets be removed or are the financial consequences just too great? Capital funding for future-proofing arts buildings is a clear priority, and might come from infrastructure investment rather than the arts.
Routes to success and employment for our talent are ever more restricted, and European touring especially is horrendously complex. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) must now lead government negotiations to ensure that our talent is fully represented outside the UK. 
Given likely limits on state funding, active support for philanthropy in the arts needs to move into a new gear, and this week’s launch of the new funding collaboration Figurative points towards a shared vision of growth and development.
This is the one area where the new Government has firmly stated its commitment. It can join up the dots (so often talked about but so rarely achieved) between the DCMS and the Department for Education.
It can ensure the involvement of arts bodies in the design of cultural activity for schools and colleges from the earliest years, working with specialists in education who have been nurtured by arts organisations, to inspire a new generation.
Just do it!