[vertigo1]

Please please please help us
As you know ive posted on here about the plans to turn the highly succesful Manchester Palace Theatre in to a home for the Royal Opera. Well now it looks set to happen with a new proposal expected to be passed by Manchester Council.

The issue is not about having an Opera venue in the UK, its about closing one of the biggest and best touring venues which still does huge business to bring this venture in which will see the theatre close its doors to musicals/comedy/plays/concerts etc forever.

This theatre has served Manchester for well over 100 years, the people of Manchester have not asked for this Opera House but don't seem to be getting a say in the matter.

Whilst it looks great the Palace will get a face lift and its facade changed (thank god) to many people are sighting that as a reason for this to go ahead. My question is why cant money be spent on the venue whilst its operating as a Theatre?

Also whilst it tells us of the jobs it will create, it fails to mention the 100s of jobs that will be lost when the theatre closes for refurb (which could take 2 years), a staff who are so devoted (Example, the FOH dept are always named the best FOH dept in the country) that the loss of the jobs will be heartbreaking

Also, past operas in Manchester have not done well, most recently Primadonna with a huge ad campaign, a well known writer etc failed to set the box office on fire.
If something as commercial and well publicised as that can fail then what chance does an all year round Opera venue have.

If they want an opera venue, use the 110 million they are wanting to invest to bild one.

Save this great theatre
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveman...rpalacetheatre/

[beartrande]

Why are we losing theatres all over the country? I have been to the Manchester Palace Theatre and its a good venue, perfect for musicals.

Why is an opera venue then not suited to musicals and other forms of entertainment? From a financial point of view this does seem like it could come back to bite the Council if Opera doesn't take off as year-round entertainment, unless the Council would subsidise them too?

[arty_84]

Surely, if opera doesn't take off at the Palace all the facilites will still be there to return it to being a receiving house for plays and musicals. Apart from a refurb and name change they can't be doing that much too it. Opera is a fairly similar medium that requires pretty the same technical stuff as musicals.

Also, this isn't just for Manchester - this is for the whole north of the country. Once Manchester is established as a home for opera I'm sure it will do very good business.

However, it is a shame to loose a theatre dedicated to good touring productions. Conversely, you're very lucky that Manchester will be left with as many high quality producing/receiving theatres as it will be. At least you're not loosing the Palace to bingo!

[Laughingmonsta]

Its not going to stop the palace from receiving big shows that would be silly and financially stupid.

Its just going to become the Northern Home of the Royal Opera, in the same way that The Birmingham Hippodrome is also home the The Royal Birmingham Ballet, The Millennium Stadium being home to the WNO

[sahunt]

I admit that i can't imagine them completely showing OPera all year round, it is more likely that the money will be spent on adding specialist facilities to house opera there.
I guarantee that there will still be musicals/ variety etc.

[vertigo1]

The theatre will no longer recieve touring shows (trust me i know)
it will stage its new Operas for around 16 -24weeks of the year and use the rest of the time to create and develop as well as using it as a training accademy.

Even if the Opera fails and it returns to a theatre it still means that a lot ofd people in the mean time will be out of work and Manchester will lose out on any major shows hitting the road in the next 5 years.

Yes we have houses here to recieve shows (The Opera House and The Lowry) but neither can (opera house) or will (the lowry) be able to stage the big musicals.

Even with a split where the opera came in for just 16- 24 weeks and the rest of the time was a commercial house it would still lose money. Take the Millenium Center. Even though some big musicals are heading in there and enjoying good runs, many are been turned away even when the Opera has nothing on because the WNO are using the place more and more to develop so the time for musicals etc is getting shorter. On top of that quite a few of the new works there have not done well financially.

The simple fact is that this is not about not bringing Opera to Manchester, this is about taking a theatre which is one of the most succesful in the UK and changing it. This is not a failing theatre, a venue that was left to crumble etc which is normally the kind of venues that are taken over, this is a fully working main stage theatre. One of only 4 or 5 in the UK which can handle shows like the original Saigon and Les Mis tour. 110 million is a lot of money to put in this proposed Opera House, why not take the 110 million and build a new one (something which was originally proposed)

As for the venue getting a refurb, thats great....to a point, but if what ive heard is true this is more than a face lift, this is changing the audotrium, something that is so beautiful and historic. And if the council suddenly have money to free up for this then why have they not given any to the Palace before? like to change the facede of the Palace back to what it originally was.

[curzon]

Even with a split where the opera came in for just 16- 24 weeks and the rest of the time was a commercial house it would still lose money. Take the Millenium Center. Even though some big musicals are heading in there and enjoying good runs, many are been turned away even when the Opera has nothing on because the WNO are using the place more and more to develop so the time for musicals etc is getting shorter. On top of that quite a few of the new works there have not done well financially.

Your comment about the WMC is clearly not true. Just about every big tour has gone to the WMC or the New. Also I would like to point out that it is not (shock horror) the sole function of large venues to stage musicals! The WMC was conceived with one of its most important fucntions being to provide staging and rehearsal facilities for WNO. This it has achieved with unparalelled success. If that sucess means that a very few musicals don't make it to Cardiff then IMHO that is a price worth paying.

Seb

[curzon]

Its not going to stop the palace from receiving big shows that would be silly and financially stupid.

Its just going to become the Northern Home of the Royal Opera, in the same way that The Birmingham Hippodrome is also home the The Royal Birmingham Ballet, The Millennium Stadium being home to the WNO

It's the WMC (much as I would love WNO to perform at the stadium!!)

Seb

[sahunt]

if what we read is true the Live Nation is being bought out by seemingly ambassador theatre group, the articles say all live Nation Venues, including.... Manchester Palace. So don't worry