104-702: The Cockpit Theatre is a fringe theatre in Marylebone , London. Designed by Edward Mendelsohn and built in 1969–70 by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) as a community theatre, it is London's first purpose-built Theatre in the round since the Great Fire of London . When ILEA was disbanded in 1990, ownership of the Cockpit was transferred to the London Borough of Westminster , who made it part of
208-426: A "chair store" and was to be used as the storage area for seats removed when reconfiguring the space. There are 2 lighting gantries surrounding the space with the control box on the lower gantry, above the downstage centre seating bank. The lower gantry is 3.5m from the stage, the upper is 6.21m from the stage and each gantry has two scaffold bars for the rigging of lanterns or scenery. The upper gantry also includes
312-400: A central T-shaped walkway, with the top edge of the T on the upstage side of the auditorium. The T, and both gantries have 15A power outlets for plugging stage lighting into. These sockets are connected to three Strand STM dimmers , providing 60 ways of dimming. This equipment was installed when the Cockpit first opened and remains operational, as are many of the lanterns. The design of
416-553: A complete cycle. During the 2000s the company repeated the experiment, previously tried in 1932, of staging oratorios and other choral works as operatic performances. Bach 's St. John Passion was given in 2000, followed by Verdi's Requiem (2000), Tippett 's A Child of Our Time (2005) and Handel's Jephtha (2005) and Messiah (2009). ENO responded to the increased interest in Handel's operas, staging Alcina (2002), Agrippina (2006) and Partenope (2008). In 2003
520-692: A difference, but that Sadler's Wells needed "a big heave to get out of mediocrity". In the same year, The Times Literary Supplement asked whether the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells companies would stick to their old bases, "or shall they boldly embrace the ideal of a National Theatre and a National Opera in English?" Carey left in 1947, replaced in January 1948 by a triumvirate of James Robertson as musical director, Michael Mudie as his assistant conductor and Norman Tucker in charge of administration. From October 1948, Tucker
624-590: A director and a stage manager and mostly presented TIE productions at the theatre, and sometimes in secondary schools. An Opera in Education company also ran from the Cockpit Theatre presenting workshops linked to English National Opera productions which students later attended free of charge. Both companies closed when the Greater London Council was abolished in 1986. From the time of its handover from
728-427: A few were. But because, like Elder, he enabled so many other talents to thrive. Productions during the 1980s included the company's first presentations of Pelléas and Mélisande (1981), Parsifal (1986) and Billy Budd (1988). 1980s productions that remained in the repertory for many years included Xerxes directed by Hytner, and Rigoletto and The Mikado directed by Jonathan Miller . In 1984 ENO toured
832-469: A financial crisis, exacerbated by backstage industrial relations problems. After 1983, the company ceased touring to other British venues. Assessing the achievements of the 'Powerhouse' years, Tom Sutcliffe wrote in The Musical Times : ENO is not second best to Covent Garden. It is different, more theatrical, less vocal. ... The ENO now follows a policy like Covent Garden's in the early years after
936-680: A fringe theatre show permit audiences to attend multiple shows in a single evening. Performers sometimes billet in the homes of local residents, further reducing their costs. English National Opera English National Opera ( ENO ) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane . It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera . ENO's productions are sung in English. The company's origins were in
1040-468: A heart attack. Her three companies continued under the direction of her appointed successors: Tyrone Guthrie at the Old Vic, in overall charge of both theatres, with de Valois running the ballet, and Carey and two colleagues running the opera. In the Second World War, the government requisitioned Sadler's Wells as a refuge for those made homeless by air-raids. Guthrie decided to keep the opera going as
1144-438: A joint enterprise with Covent Garden, where he was in command. At first, the apparent financial security of the offer appeared attractive, but friends and advisers such as Edward J. Dent and Clive Carey convinced Bayliss that it was not in the interests of her regular audience. This view received strong support from the press; The Times wrote: The Old Vic began by offering opera of some sort to people who hardly knew what
SECTION 10
#17330851500081248-474: A month it runs an award-winning scratch nights called Theatre In The Pound. The theatre regularly hosts events for Revolution Pro Wrestling . Fringe Theatre Fringe theatre is theatre that is produced outside of the main theatre institutions, and that is often small-scale and non-traditional in style or subject matter. The term comes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe . In London ,
1352-451: A program including all performers). Each production pays a set fee to this group, which usually includes their stage time as well as the organizational elements. The organising group and/or the venues often rely on a large pool of volunteers. Ticket pricing varies between festivals. At UK fringe festivals, groups can decide their own ticket prices, and some sell tickets at fixed rates in one or two tiers, or in groups of 5 or 10. Although it
1456-512: A second company was established. It was based at Leeds in northern England, and was known as ENO North. Under Harewood's guidance, it flourished, and in 1981 it became an independent company, Opera North . In 1982, at Elder's instigation, Harewood appointed David Pountney director of productions. In 1985 Harewood retired, becoming chairman of ENO's board the following year. Peter Jonas succeeded Harewood as managing director. The 1980s leadership team of Elder, Pountney and Jonas became known as
1560-416: A simpler name would be more appropriate. The name 'Cockpit' derived from the 17th century Cockpit Theatre and Cockpit-in-Court , both venues used as theatre and cockfighting rings which nicely echoed the theatre's in-the-round design. Fortuitously, the original design of the foyer floor incorporated a roundel motif which linked nicely to the idea of a plane's cockpit . The name "Cockpit Arts Workshop"
1664-413: A small touring ensemble of 20 performers. Between 1942 and the war's end in 1945, the company toured continuously, visiting 87 venues. Joan Cross led and managed the company, and also sang leading soprano roles in its productions when needed. The size of the company was increased to 50, and then to 80. By 1945, its members included singers from a new generation such as Peter Pears and Owen Brannigan , and
1768-415: A year-round, permanent ensemble, singing in English, instead of the shorter international seasons of pre-war years. This was a potential path to merge the two companies, as the modus operandi of the new Covent Garden company was now similar to that of Sadler's Wells. However, David Webster , who was appointed to run Covent Garden, though keen to secure de Valois' ballet company for Covent Garden, did not want
1872-448: Is Annilese Miskimmon. In addition to the core operatic repertoire, the company has presented a wide range of works, from early operas by Monteverdi to new commissions, operetta and Broadway shows. In 1889, Emma Cons , a Victorian philanthropist who ran the Old Vic theatre in a working-class area of London, began presenting regular fortnightly performances of opera excerpts. Although
1976-428: Is no longer used for day-to-day teaching or academic office space and operates as a full-time theatre and training venue. The auditorium is 8.5m high and 11m with a retractable seating bank on all four sides. Each bank seats 60 people and the seat cushions and backrests can be removed to create alternative playing areas. With the upstage, left and right banks retracted, the downstage centre bank can be pulled out from
2080-521: Is popular with drama schools and youth groups. It also hosts the National Youth Jazz Orchestra 's weekend rehearsals every Saturday and DreamArts every term-time Sunday. Between April 1971 and November 1972, London Weekend Television recorded "Music In The Round" at the Cockpit. Presented by Humphrey Burton , the show included performances and interviews with leading musicians across a broad range of genres. Amongst talent showcased in
2184-437: Is unusual for the organising group to choose any winners of the festival, other organisations often make their own judgements of festival entries . Productions can be reviewed by newspapers or publications specific to the festival, and awards may be given by certain organisations. Awards or favourable reviews can increase the tickets sales of productions or lead to extra dates being added . The limitations and opportunities that
SECTION 20
#17330851500082288-463: The 1973–74 stock market crash , many fringe companies were forced to close. New playwrights were established at the Bush Theatre and King's Head Theatre , both of whom survived the crash. 7:84 and Red Ladder Theatre Company were some of the surviving touring fringe groups. Fringe theatres were attractive to people in the 1960s due to their adventurousness but became less wild in the 1970s while
2392-483: The BBC , and the new music director was Sian Edwards . Pountney's post of director of productions was not filled. Marks, inheriting a large financial deficit from his predecessors, worked to restore the company's finances, concentrating on restoring ticket sales to sustainable levels. A new production by Miller of Der Rosenkavalier was a critical and financial success, as was a staging of Massenet's Don Quixote , described by
2496-565: The Barbican ) and Philip Glass's The Perfect American . In January 2014, the ENO announced Gardner's departure as music director at the end of the 2014–15 season, to be succeeded by Mark Wigglesworth . At the time, the ENO had accumulated an £800,000 deficit, exacerbated by reductions in public subsidy; The Times commented that the incoming music director had a reputation for "steely, even abrasive determination" and that he would need it. From late 2014
2600-474: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe , Edmonton Fringe Festival , Adelaide Fringe , and Fringe World ) permit artists to perform a wide variety of works. In 1947, eight theatre companies showed up at the Edinburgh International Festival , hoping to gain recognition from the mass gathering at the festival. In 1948, Robert Kemp , a Scottish journalist and playwright, described the situation, "Round
2704-559: The English Opera Group . The departure of the ballet company to Covent Garden two months later deprived Sadler's Wells of an important source of income, as the ballet had been profitable and had since its inception subsidised the opera company. Clive Carey, who had been in Australia during the war, was brought back to replace Joan Cross and rebuild the company. The critic Philip Hope-Wallace wrote in 1946 that Carey had begun to make
2808-492: The Greater London Council to the City of Westminster College until 2011 it was used as a training venue for the City of Westminster College's performing arts, theatre lighting, sound engineering and media students, along with regularly visiting students from Ball State University and young people from The Prince's Trust . The Cockpit hosts regular training opportunities in technical theatre skills such as rigging and pyrotechnics, and
2912-640: The May 1968 events in France , wrote agitprop plays, including David Hare , Howard Brenton , David Edgar . Meanwhile, in the United States, experimental theatre was growing due to the political protest of the Vietnam War . The Living Theatre , founded by Julian Beck , is considered the leader of the " flower power " and "hippie" movement. By the early 1970s, many fringe theatres began to receive small subsidies. After
3016-462: The Sadler's Wells theatre in north London, a larger house, better suited to opera than the Old Vic. The opera company grew there into a permanent ensemble in the 1930s. During the Second World War, the theatre was closed and the company toured British towns and cities. After the war, the company returned to its home, but it continued to expand and improve. By the 1960s, a larger theatre was needed. In 1968,
3120-412: The freehold of Sadler's Wells. Work started on the site in 1926. By Christmas 1930, a completely new 1,640-seat theatre was ready for occupation. The first production there, a fortnight's run from 6 January 1931, was Shakespeare's Twelfth Night . The first opera, given on 20 January, was Carmen . Eighteen operas were staged during the first season. The new theatre was more expensive to run than
3224-472: The "Powerhouse", initiated a new era of "director's opera". The three of them favoured productions described, contrastingly, by Elder as "groundbreaking, risky, probing and theatrically effective", and by the director Nicholas Hytner as "Euro-bollocks that never has to be comprehensible to anybody but the people sitting out there conceiving." Directors who did not, in Harewood's phrase, "want to splash paint in
Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone - Misplaced Pages Continue
3328-545: The 1920s, Baylis concluded that the Old Vic no longer sufficed to house both her theatre and her opera companies. She noticed the empty and derelict Sadler's Wells theatre in Rosebery Avenue, Islington , on the other side of London from the Old Vic. She sought to run it in tandem with her existing theatre. Baylis made a public appeal for funds in 1925. With the help of the Carnegie Trust and many others, she acquired
3432-529: The 1950s. New repertoire was explored, such as the first British staging of Janáček 's Káťa Kabanová , at Mackerras's urging. Standards and company morale were improving. The Manchester Guardian summed up the 1950–51 London opera season as "Excitement at Sadler's Wells: Lack of Distinction at Covent Garden" and judged Sadler's Wells to have moved "into the front rank of opera houses". The company continued to leave Rosebery Avenue for summer tours to British cities and towns. The Arts Council (successor to CEMA)
3536-564: The 2,351-seat London Coliseum for a summer season. Ten years later, the lease of the Coliseum became available. Stephen Arlen, who had succeeded Tucker as managing director, was the primary advocate for moving the company. After intense negotiations and fund-raising, a ten-year lease was signed in 1968. One of the company's last productions at the Islington theatre was Wagner's The Mastersingers , conducted by Goodall in 1968, which 40 years later
3640-472: The 21st century were considered to have poorer diction than earlier singers such as Masterson and Derek Hammond-Stroud . Harewood and Pountney had been immovably opposed to surtitles, as both believed that opera in English was pointless if it could not be understood. Harewood thought, moreover, that surtitles could undermine the case for a publicly funded opera-in-English company. The editor of Opera magazine, Rodney Milnes , campaigned against surtitles on
3744-490: The 22 episodes were the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (having already made the Cockpit their home), who were featured on 7 May 1972 and Marc Bolan on 23 April 1972. 'Jazz In The Round' is a new monthly barrier-busting jazz/contemporary music binge at The Cockpit every last Monday of the month starting on 30 January 2012. With a mixture of well known names and unknown artists it aims to bring together bands and artists from different scenes, genres, cultures and generations. Once
3848-469: The Carmelites (1999). Co-productions, enabling opera houses to share the costs of joint enterprises, became important in this decade. In 1993 ENO and Welsh National Opera collaborated on productions of Don Pasquale , Ariodante and The Two Widows . The aim must be to create a new audience that does not see opera as a middle class trophy art form: an audience that Payne was beginning to attract to
3952-479: The Coliseum. Operagoers want to hear great singing and orchestral playing presented in the context of a work's ethos rather than in some form only comprehended by the director. Martin Smith, a millionaire with a finance background, was appointed chairman of the ENO board in 2001. He proved to be an expert fund-raiser, and personally donated £1M to the cost of refurbishing the Coliseum. He and Payne came into conflict over
4056-427: The ENO. Shortly into his tenure, he expressed his disapproval of proposals by the ENO management for economising measures such as a reduction in the contract of the ENO chorus. On 27 February 2016 the ENO chorus had voted to take industrial action in protest at newly proposed contract reductions, but industrial action was averted on 18 March 2016 after a newly negotiated proposal, at a different level of reduced salary,
4160-482: The London opera scene, Tucker, his deputy Stephen Arlen , and his musical director Alexander Gibson resigned. The proposals were modified, and the three withdrew their resignations. In 1960, the Carl Rosa Company was dissolved. Sadler's Wells took over some of its members and many of its touring dates, setting up "two interchangeable companies of equal standing", one of which played at Sadler's Wells theatre while
4264-584: The Old Vic, as a larger orchestra and more singers were needed, and box office receipts were at first inadequate. In 1932, the Birmingham Post commented that the Vic-Wells opera performances did not reach the standards of the Vic-Wells Shakespeare productions. Baylis strove to improve operatic standards, while at the same time fending off attempts by Sir Thomas Beecham to absorb the opera company into
Cockpit Theatre, Marylebone - Misplaced Pages Continue
4368-671: The Sadler's Wells opera company. He considered Sadler's Wells to be a worthy organisation, but also "dowdy" and "stodgy". Even with a policy of singing in English, he believed that he could assemble a better company. The management of Sadler's Wells was unwilling to lose its company's name and tradition. It was agreed that the two companies should remain separate. Divisions within the company threatened its continued existence. Cross announced her intention to re-open Sadler's Wells theatre with Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten , with herself and Pears in
4472-621: The South Bank of the Thames near the Royal Festival Hall , which fell through because the government was unwilling to fund the building. Once again, there was serious talk of merging Covent Garden and Sadler's Wells. The Sadler's Wells board countered by proposing a closer working arrangement with Carl Rosa. When it became clear that this would require the Sadler's Wells company to tour for 30 weeks every year, effectively removing its presence on
4576-458: The United States is Orlando , FL, founded in 1992. There are more fringe festivals in North America than any other continent. One distinction between fringe festivals and conventional arts festivals is the method used to choose participants. Typically, conventional festivals use a jury selection process, whereas many fringe festivals do not use a jury process in their selection criteria, hence
4680-563: The United States; the travelling company, led by Elder, consisted of 360 people; they performed Gloriana , War and Peace , The Turn of the Screw , Rigoletto and Patience . This was the first British company to be invited to appear at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where Patience received a standing ovation and Miller's production of Rigoletto , depicting the characters as mafiosi ,
4784-471: The appointment of Edward Gardner as music director from 2007 received considerable praise. The Observer commented that Gardner was "widely credited with breathing fresh life into English National Opera". Attendance figures recovered, with younger audiences attracted by ENO's marketing schemes. The company's finances improved, with £5M in reserve funds in April 2009. Productions in the 2011 season continued
4888-499: The appointment of Martyn Brabbins as its next music director, with immediate effect, with an initial contract through October 2020. In September 2017, the ENO announced that Pollock is to stand down as its chief executive in June 2018. In March 2018, ENO announced the appointment of Stuart Murphy as its next chief executive, effective 3 April 2018. In April 2019, ENO announced the resignation of Kramer as its artistic director, effective at
4992-533: The arts pages of The Financial Times , Martin Hoyle wrote of Payne's "exquisite tunnel vision" and expressed "the concern of those of us who value the true people's opera". Payne remained adamant that opera lovers who came to the ENO for a "nice, pleasant evening ... had come to the wrong place." The differences between Smith and Payne became irreconcilable, and Payne was forced to resign in July 2002. The successor to Payne
5096-458: The campaign against yet another proposal to merge Covent Garden and ENO, which was rapidly abandoned. In 1998 Nicholas Payne, director of opera at Covent Garden, was appointed as ENO's general director. Productions in the 1990s included the company's first stagings of Beatrice and Benedict (1990), Wozzeck (1990), Jenůfa (1994), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1995), Die Soldaten (1996), Doctor Ox's Experiment (1998) and Dialogues of
5200-597: The company moved to the London Coliseum and adopted its present name in 1974. Among the conductors associated with the company have been Colin Davis , Reginald Goodall , Charles Mackerras , Mark Elder and Edward Gardner . The current music director of the ENO is Martyn Brabbins . Noted directors who have staged productions at the ENO have included David Pountney , Jonathan Miller , Nicholas Hytner , Phyllida Lloyd and Calixto Bieito . The ENO's current artistic director
5304-474: The company staged its first production of Berlioz 's massive opera The Trojans , with Sarah Connolly as "a supremely eloquent, genuinely tragic Dido". In 2005, after an internal debate that had been going on since 1991, the ENO announced that surtitles would be introduced at the Coliseum. Surveys had shown that only a quarter of audience members could hear the words clearly. With a few exceptions, including Lesley Garrett and Andrew Shore , ENO singers of
SECTION 50
#17330851500085408-556: The company was "capable of extraordinary artistic work", but "we have serious concerns about their governance and business model and we expect them to improve or they could face removal of funding." In March 2015 Cressida Pollock, a management consultant, was named the interim CEO of ENO. In July 2015, Berry resigned as artistic director of ENO. Critical and box-office successes in the company's 2014–2015 season included The Mastersingers , which won an Olivier Award for best new opera production, and Sweeney Todd , with Bryn Terfel in
5512-681: The company went through a further organisational crisis. The chairman, Martyn Rose, resigned after two years in the post, following irreconcilable differences with Berry. Henriette Götz, the company's executive director, who had a series of public disagreements with Berry, resigned soon after. In February 2015, the Arts Council of England announced the unprecedented step of removing ENO from the national portfolio of 670 arts organisations that receive regular funding, and instead offered "special funding arrangements" because of continuing concerns over ENO's business plan and management. The council recognised that
5616-716: The company's traditions of engaging directors with no operatic experience (a well-reviewed The Damnation of Faust staged by Terry Gilliam and set in Nazi Germany) and of drastic reinterpretations (a version of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream presented by Christopher Alden as a paedophile parable set in a 1950s boys' school, which divided critical opinion). In the 2012–13 season ENO introduced "Opera Undressed" evenings, aimed at attracting new audiences who had thought opera "Too pricey, too pompous, too posh". Operas advertised under this banner were Don Giovanni , La traviata , Michel van der Aa 's Sunken Garden (performed at
5720-639: The conductor Reginald Goodall . Both Sadler's Wells and the Royal Opera House had presented no opera or ballet since 1939. The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts ( CEMA ), the official government body charged with dispensing the modest public subsidy recently introduced, considered its options on the future of opera in Britain. CEMA concluded that a new Covent Garden company should be established, as
5824-428: The critic Hugh Canning as "the kind of old-fashioned theatre magic which the hair-shirted Powerhouse regime despised". Marks was obliged to spend much time and effort in securing the funding for an essential restoration of the Coliseum, a condition on which the ENO had acquired the freehold of the theatre in 1992. At the same time the Arts Council was contemplating a cut in the number of opera performances in London, at
5928-460: The cycle were criticised as poorly sung and conducted, but by the time Twilight of the Gods was staged in 2005, matters were thought to have improved: "Paul Daniel's command of the score is more authoritative than could have been predicted from his uneven accounts of the previous operas." The production attracted generally bad notices. The four operas were given individual runs, but were never played as
6032-481: The descriptor unjuried or open-access. There are exceptions to this; some fringe festivals (e.g., New York International Fringe Festival ) do employ a jury-based selection process. All performers are welcome to apply, regardless of their professional or amateur status. No restrictions are made as to the nature, style or theme of the performance, though some festivals have children's areas with appropriate content limitations. Festivals may have too many applicants for
6136-470: The early years of the 20th century, the Old Vic was able to present semi-staged versions of Wagner operas. Emma Cons died in 1912, leaving her estate, including the Old Vic, to Baylis, who dreamed of transforming the theatre into a "people's opera house". In the same year, Baylis obtained a licence to allow the Old Vic to stage full performances of operas. In the 1914–1915 season, Baylis staged 16 operas and 16 plays (13 of which were by Shakespeare ). In
6240-456: The effect on revenue of the "director's opera" productions that Payne insisted on commissioning. The most extreme case was a production of Don Giovanni directed by Calixto Bieito in 2001, despised by critics and public alike; Michael Kennedy described it as "a new nadir in vulgar abuse of a masterpiece," and other reviewers agreed with him. Payne insisted, "I think it's one of the best things we've done. ... It's exceeded my expectations." In
6344-449: The end of his contract in 2005. Oleg Caetani was announced as the next music director, from January 2006. In 2004, ENO embarked on its second production of Wagner's Ring . After concert performances over the previous three seasons, the four operas of the cycle were staged at the Coliseum in 2004 and 2005 in productions by Phyllida Lloyd , with designs by Richard Hudson , in a new translation by Jeremy Sams . The first instalments of
SECTION 60
#17330851500086448-435: The expense of ENO, rather than Covent Garden. By increasing ticket sales in successive years, Marks demonstrated that the Arts Council's proposition was unrealistic. After what The Independent described as "a sustained period of criticism and sniping at the ENO by music critics", Edwards resigned as music director at the end of 1995. Paul Daniel became ENO's next music director. In 1997, Marks resigned. No official reason
6552-470: The face of the public" were sidelined. A 1980s audience survey showed that the two things that ENO audiences most disliked were poor diction and the extremes of "director's opera". In the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Barry Millington has described the 'Powerhouse' style as "arresting images of dislocated reality, an inexhaustible repertory of stage contrivances, a determination to explore
6656-480: The fringe are small-scale theatres, many of them located above pubs, and the equivalent to New York's Off-Off-Broadway theatres and Europe's "free theatre" groups. In unjuried theatre festivals, also known as fringe festivals or open-access festivals , all submissions are accepted, and sometimes the participating acts may be chosen by lottery, in contrast to juried festivals in which acts are selected based on their artistic qualities. Unjuried festivals (such as
6760-529: The fringe festival format presents lead to some common features. Shows are not judged or juried. Depending on the popularity, some fringe festivals may use a lottery system to determine which shows are selected. Shows are typically technically sparse. They are commonly presented in shared venues, often with shared technicians and limited technical time, so sets and other technical theatre elements are kept simple. Venues may be adapted from other uses. Casts tend to be smaller than mainstream theatre; since many of
6864-448: The fringe of official Festival drama, there seems to be more private enterprise than before ... I am afraid some of us are not going to be at home during the evenings!". Edinburgh Festival Fringe was founded under the name "Festival Adjuncts", in 1947 . The fringe movement in Britain has been said to start in the 1960s, similar to the United States' Off-Off-Broadway theatres and Europe's "free theatre" groups. The term came into use in
6968-408: The gantries allows for access to all lighting positions without the inherent dangers of a fly system or working up a ladder and the cable trunking surrounding the gantries also act as safety barriers to prevent accidental falls. The theatre has previously had a few other names. Initially named the "Gateforth Street Youth Arts Centre" (and referred to by variations thereof) it was soon decided that
7072-403: The grounds that "singers would give up trying to articulate clearly and audiences would cease focusing on the stage". Despite these objections, surtitles were introduced from October 2005. On 29 November 2005, Doran resigned as artistic director. To replace him, Smith divided the duties between Loretta Tomasi as chief executive and John Berry as artistic director. These elevations from within
7176-577: The high cost of opera productions, enabling a further increase in the size of the orchestra, to 48 players. Among the singers in the opera company were Joan Cross and Edith Coates . In the 1930s, the company presented standard repertoire operas by Mozart , Verdi , Wagner and Puccini , lighter works by Balfe , Donizetti , Offenbach and Johann Strauss , some novelties, among which were operas by Holst , Ethel Smyth and Charles Villiers Stanford , and an unusual attempt at staging an oratorio, Mendelssohn 's Elijah . In November 1937, Baylis died of
7280-786: The highlights of the first ten years at the Coliseum were the Ring , Prokofiev 's War and Peace , and Richard Strauss 's Salome and Der Rosenkavalier . The company's musical director from 1970 to 1977 was Charles Mackerras. Harewood praised his exceptional versatility, with a range "from The House of the Dead to Patience ." Among the operas he conducted for the company were Handel's Julius Caesar starring Janet Baker and Valerie Masterson ; five Janáček operas; The Marriage of Figaro with pioneering use of 18th century performing style; Massenet 's Werther ; Donizetti's Mary Stuart with Baker; and Sullivan's Patience . The company took
7384-927: The late 1950s, and the show Beyond the Fringe premiered in Edinburgh in 1960, before transferring to Broadway and is the West End . One of the early innovators in fringe theatre was an American bookseller, James Haynes , who in 1963 created the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. Also noted in this period is the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club , Jerzy Grotowski 's Theatre of 13 Rows, and Józef Szajna 's Studio Theatre in Warsaw. The Adelaide Fringe in Adelaide , South Australia, now second-largest annual arts festival in
7488-496: The late 19th century, when the philanthropist Emma Cons , later assisted by her niece Lilian Baylis , presented theatrical and operatic performances at the Old Vic , for the benefit of local people. Baylis subsequently built up both the opera and the theatre companies, and later added a ballet company; these evolved into the ENO, the Royal National Theatre and The Royal Ballet , respectively. Baylis acquired and rebuilt
7592-523: The leading roles. Many complaints resulted about supposed favouritism and the "cacophony" of Britten's score. Peter Grimes opened in June 1945, to both public and critical acclaim; its box-office takings matched or exceeded those for La bohème and Madame Butterfly , which the company was concurrently staging. However, the rift within the company was irreparable. Cross, Britten and Pears severed their ties with Sadler's Wells in December 1945 and founded
7696-561: The newly renamed City of Westminster College . It remains one of a handful of purpose-built theatre training venues in the capital. Between 1993 and 1995 the Soho Theatre Company took up residence and relaunched itself after a period of homelessness. During this period they premiered the works of over 35 new writers. In January 2011, owners City of Westminster College moved into their new main building at Paddington Green which included another theatre. This change meant The Cockpit
7800-461: The number of available spaces; in this case, applicants are chosen based on an unrelated criterion, such as order of application or a random draw. The number of performances varies among different fringe festivals. Larger festivals may have thousands of performances (e.g., Edinburgh's 2013 festival had 45,464 performances). Fringe festivals typically have a common organising group that handles ticketing, scheduling, and some overall promotion (such as
7904-412: The organisation were controversial, because they were neither advertised nor cleared at the top level of the Arts Council. Smith received severe press criticism for his action, and in December 2005 he announced his resignation. In the same week, Caetani's appointment as the next ENO music director was cancelled. Berry was at first criticised in the press for his choice of singers for ENO productions, but
8008-435: The other was on the road. By the late 1950s, Covent Garden was gradually abandoning its policy of productions in the vernacular; such singers as Maria Callas would not relearn their roles in English. This made it easier for Tucker to point up the difference between the two London opera companies. While Covent Garden engaged international stars, Sadler's Wells focused on young British and Commonwealth performers. Colin Davis
8112-646: The performing groups are traveling, and venues (and thus potential income) tend to be fairly small, expenses must usually be kept to a minimum. One-person shows are therefore quite common at fringe festivals. Fringe festival productions often showcase new scripts, especially ones on more obscure, edgy, or unusual material. The lack of artistic vetting combined with relatively easy entry make risk-taking more feasible. While most mainstream theatre shows are two or three acts long, taking two to three hours with intermissions, fringe shows tend to be closer to one-hour, single-act productions. The typically lowered ticket prices of
8216-470: The production of the last to the Vienna Festival in 1975, along with Britten's Gloriana . Sir Charles Groves succeeded Mackerras as musical director from 1978 to 1979, but Groves was unwell and unhappy during his brief tenure. Starting in 1979, Mark Elder succeeded Groves in the post, and described Groves "immensely encouraging and supportive". A long-standing concern of Arlen and then Harewood
8320-405: The same time she appointed Charles Corri as the Old Vic's musical director. Baylis and Corri, despite many disagreements, shared a passionate belief in popularising opera, hitherto generally the preserve of the rich and fashionable. They worked on a tiny budget, with an amateur chorus and a professional orchestra of only 18 players, for whom Corri rescored the instrumental parts of the operas. By
8424-622: The social and psychological issues latent in the works, and above all an abundant sense of theatricality." As examples, Millington mentioned Rusalka (1983), with its Edwardian nursery setting and Freudian undertones, and Hansel and Gretel (1987), its dream pantomime peopled by fantasy figures from the children's imagination ... Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1987) and Wozzeck (1990) exemplified an approach to production in which grotesque caricature jostles with forceful emotional engagement. Poor average box-office sales led to
8528-427: The spoken drama, while Sadler's Wells housed both the opera and a ballet company, the latter co-founded by Baylis and Ninette de Valois in 1930. Lawrance Collingwood joined the company as resident conductor alongside Corri. With the increased number of productions, guest conductors were recruited, including Geoffrey Toye and Anthony Collins . The increasing success of the new ballet company helped to subsidise
8632-486: The standard four rows to 10 rows, creating an end-on configuration. The stage measures 6.6m x 8.6m in thrust setting and 6.6m x 5.9m in-the-round . Upstage, a series of trapdoors span the width of the stage with a series of movable and replaceable panels covering them. Under the stage is a large manually winched lift (out of service) which can roll along the span of the traps. Although these could be used for stage effects, original plans show this sub-stage area marked as
8736-591: The standards of production rose. In 1982, the first fringe festival in North America was started in Edmonton , Alberta. It was then a theatre component of the larger Summerfest but evolved to become a stand-alone event, the Edmonton International Fringe Festival , one of the largest annual arts events in Canada and still the largest fringe in North America by attendance. The oldest fringe festival in
8840-623: The suggestion that the Sadler's Wells company should be called "The British National Opera" or "The National Opera", although neither Scottish Opera nor the Welsh National Opera opposed such a change. Eventually the British government decided the matter, and the title "English National Opera" was approved. The company's board adopted the new name in November 1974. In 1977, in response to demand for more opera productions in English provincial cities,
8944-408: The theatre licensing laws of the day prevented full costumed performances, Cons presented condensed versions of well-known operas, always sung in English. Among the performers were noted singers such as Charles Santley . These operatic evenings quickly became more popular than the dramas that Cons had been staging separately. In 1898, she recruited her niece Lilian Baylis to help run the theatre. At
9048-405: The title role. New productions announced for 2015–2016 were Tristan and Isolde , with sets by Anish Kapoor ; the company's first staging of Norma ; and the first London performance for 30 years of Akhnaten . In September 2015, Pollock was elevated to formal full-time status as CEO for an additional three years, along with the formalised full appointment of Harry Brünjes as chairman of
9152-452: The war, when Peter Brook was scandalising the bourgeoisie with his opera stagings. The last two seasons at the ENO have been difficult, or at any rate sentiment has turned against the outgoing regime over the last nine months. Audience figures are well down. ... The presiding genius of the Elder years has, of course, been David Pountney. Not because his productions were all marvellous. Perhaps only
9256-403: The word meant ... under a wise, fostering guidance it has gradually worked upwards ...Any kind of amalgamation which made it the poor relation of the 'Grand' season would be disastrous. At first, Baylis presented both drama and opera at each of her theatres. The companies were known as the "Vic-Wells". However, for both aesthetic and financial reasons, by 1934, the Old Vic had become the home of
9360-738: The world (after Edinburgh Fringe), started in 1960 as an adjunct to the main Adelaide Festival of Arts . Haynes, while at the helm of the Traverse, was receiving state support and even got a new theatre in 1969. In 1969, Haynes created the Arts Lab in London , but it only lasted for two years. Peter Brook along with another American Charles Marowitz opened the Open Space Theatre on Tottenham Court Road in London in 1968. Young British writers, after
9464-508: The years after the First World War, Baylis's Shakespeare productions, which featured some of the leading actors from London's West End , attracted national attention, as her shoe-string opera productions did not. The opera, however, remained her first priority. The actor-manager Robert Atkins , who worked closely with Baylis on her Shakespearean productions, recalled, "Opera, on Thursday and Saturday nights, played to bulging houses." By
9568-492: Was Séan Doran , whose appointment was controversial because he had no experience of running an opera company. He attracted newspaper headlines with unusual operatic events, described by admirers as "unexpected coups" and by detractors as "stunts"; a performance of the third act of The Valkyrie played to 20,000 rock music fans at the Glastonbury Festival . In December 2003, Daniel announced his departure from ENO at
9672-528: Was adopted and eventually became the "Cockpit Theatre" or simply the "Cockpit". Since its inception, as the Cockpit Arts Workshop, the Cockpit has been used as a venue for working with young people. The Cockpit Theatre Theatre in Education (TIE) company, started as a pilot project in March 1971 and was the first TIE company to exist within a Local Education Authority. By 1976 it employed six actor-teachers,
9776-427: Was announced, but one report stated that he and the ENO board had disagreed about his plans to move the company from the Coliseum to a purpose-built new home. Daniel took over the management of the company until a new general director was appointed. Daniel inherited from Marks a company thriving artistically and financially. The 1997–1998 season played to 75 per cent capacity and made a surplus of £150,000. Daniel led
9880-486: Was appointed musical director in succession to Gibson in 1961. The repertoire continued to mix familiar and unfamiliar operas. Novelties in Davis's time included Pizzetti 's Murder in the Cathedral , Stravinsky 's Oedipus rex , Richard Rodney Bennett 's The Mines of Sulphur and more Janáček. Sadler's Wells's traditional policy of giving all operas in English continued, with only two exceptions: Oedipus rex , which
9984-464: Was described by Gramophone magazine as "legendary". The company left Sadler's Wells with a revival of the work with which it had re-opened the theatre in 1945, Peter Grimes . Its last performance at the Rosebery Avenue theatre was on 15 June 1968. The company, retaining the title "Sadler's Wells Opera", opened at the Coliseum on 21 August 1968, with a new production of Mozart's Don Giovanni , directed by Sir John Gielgud . Though this production
10088-536: Was followed by a production of The Mikado in May of the same year. The Islington theatre was by now clearly too small to allow the company to achieve any further growth. A study conducted for the Arts Council reported that in the late 1960s the two Sadler's Wells companies comprised 278 salaried performers and 62 guest singers. The company had experience of playing in a large West End theatre, such as its 1958 sell-out production of The Merry Widow that had transferred to
10192-548: Was given sole control. Mudie became ill, and the young Charles Mackerras was appointed to deputise for him. By 1950 Sadler's Wells was receiving a public subsidy of £40,000 a year, whilst Covent Garden received £145,000. Tucker had to give up the option of staging the premiere of Britten's Billy Budd , for lack of resources. Keen to improve the dramatic aspects of opera production, Tucker engaged eminent theatrical directors including Michel Saint-Denis , George Devine and Glen Byam Shaw worked on Sadler's Wells productions in
10296-553: Was greeted with a mixture of enthusiasm and booing. In 1990 ENO was the first major foreign opera company to tour the Soviet Union , performing the Miller production of The Turn of the Screw , Pountney's production of Macbeth , and Hytner's much-revived Xerxes . The 'Powerhouse' era ended in 1992, when all three of the triumvirate left at the same time. The new general director was Dennis Marks , formerly head of music programmes at
10400-515: Was not well received, the company rapidly established itself with a succession of highly praised productions of other works. Arlen died in January 1972, and was succeeded as managing director by Lord Harewood . The success of the 1968 Mastersingers was followed in the 1970s by the company's first Ring cycle, conducted by Goodall, with a new translation by Andrew Porter and designs by Ralph Koltai. The cast included Norman Bailey , Rita Hunter and Alberto Remedios . In Harewood's view, among
10504-412: Was reached. In general protest at his view of the situation at ENO, Wigglesworth announced his resignation on 22 March 2016 from the ENO music directorship, effective at the end of the 2015–2016 season. On 29 April 2016, the ENO appointed Daniel Kramer as its new artistic director, effective 1 August 2016, Kramer's first appointment as director of an opera company. On 21 October 2016, the ENO announced
10608-471: Was sensitive to the charge that since 1945, far fewer opera performances had been given in the provinces. The small Carl Rosa Opera Company toured constantly, but the Covent Garden company visited only those few cities with theatres big enough to accommodate it. In the mid-1950s, renewed calls appeared for a reorganisation of Britain's opera companies. There were proposals for a new home for Sadler's Wells on
10712-574: Was sung in Latin, and Monteverdi 's L'Orfeo , sung in Italian, for reasons not clear to the press. In January 1962, the company gave its first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, Iolanthe , with Margaret Gale in the title role, on the day on which the Savoy operas came out of copyright and the D'Oyly Carte monopoly ended. The production was well received (it was successfully revived for many seasons until 1978) and
10816-490: Was the need to change the company's name to reflect the fact that it was no longer based at Sadler's Wells theatre. Byam Shaw commented "The one major setback the Sadler's Wells Opera Company suffered from its transplant was that unheeding taxi drivers kept on taking their patrons up to Rosebery Avenue". Harewood considered it an elementary rule that "you must not carry the name of one theatre if you are playing in another one." Covent Garden, protective of its status, objected to
#7992