*Eyre Report on ROH Calls for More Money
Date: 2 July 1998
The long-awaited report from Sir Richard Eyre on the future of the Royal Opera House, published this week, contains a few major surprises. The Government had hoped that Eyre would come up with practical solutions to reducing expenditure on the ROH or perhaps removing it from public hands altogether. Instead, Eyre states that, by international standards, the subsidy is a 'comparatively small amount for quality work' and that it will need to rise in the future.
Eyre also ruled out Culture Secretary Chris Smith s earlier proposals that the Royal Opera, Royal Ballet and English National Opera be shoehorned into one building or that the ROH be privatised.
In words reminiscent of last year's report from a Parliamentary Select Committee, Eyre did however condemn the ROH for its 'arrogance and presumption', criticise the Arts Council for its monitoring of the house, and call for, yet another, major management review.
Eyre told the ROH and ENO to make more efforts to open up to broader audiences, via big-screen public showings and televised broadcasts. He also advised them to contract out key services, including, possibly, their orchestras, and proposed the establishment of a new umbrella body to co-ordinate the work of the two houses and to market recording, broadcast and performance rights.
Smith, who commissioned the Eyre report last November, has written to both the ROH and ENO, giving them one month to respond. Privately, Smith is sure to be embarrassed by Eyre's call for money. The ROH already receives £15m in subsidy each year and was awarded a £78m lottery grant towards the £214m the renovation of its Covent Garden home, due to re-open sometime next year.
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