ENO’s music director resigns over proposed cuts to music staff

Martyn Brabbins has announced his resignation as music director of English National Opera. His decision follows the announcement on 13 October of a proposal to axe 19 orchestral positions and employ its remaining musicians on part-time contracts.

“I cannot in all conscience continue to support the board and management’s strategy for the future of the company,” he said in a statement released on Sunday by his management.

“While my feelings on this have been developing for some time, it reached its nadir this week, with the internal announcement of severe cuts to its orchestra and chorus from 2024-25 season.

“Although making cuts has been necessitated by Arts Council England’s interference in the company’s future, the proposed changes would drive a coach and horses through the artistic integrity of the whole of ENO as a performing company, while also singularly failing to protect our musicians’ livelihoods.

“This is a plan of managed decline, rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output for which ENO is rightly famed.

“I urge ACE to reassess this situation and recognise the devastating implications their funding decisions will have on the lives of individual musicians, as well as the reputation of the UK on the international stage.”

The 64-year-old Brabbins has been ENO’s music director since October 2016. He is the company’s second successive music director to resign over proposed cuts and job losses: in March 2016 Mark Wigglesworth, after less than a year in post, tendered his resignation in protest at swingeing cuts deemed necessary after a loss of 29% (or £5m) of the company’s Arts Council funding.

In November 2022, the troubled company was back in ACE’s crosshairs when it found itself removed from the National Portfolio and was told that its funding was to go completely unless it moved out of London.

A huge public outcry, petitions and questions in parliament followed, and in July it was announced that extra money and more time had been found for the transition to a new home, and that a new business model would allow the company to deliver a substantial opera season every year in London.

The company has enjoyed strong reviews for its autumn season – revivals of an acclaimed staging of Britten’s Peter Grimes conducted by Brabbins, and Cal McCrystal’s “joyous” production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe.

Seven further productions, ranging from Mozart and Verdi to Paul Ruders and Marina Abramović’s’ “opera project” the 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, are to follow before June 2024.

ENO expressed its surprise and disappointment over the sudden departure of its music director.

“Martyn Brabbins has been party to all key discussions at all stages and the extremely difficult decisions that have to be made by the Board and Management in constrained financial circumstances,” it said in a statement.

“After nine months of negotiation with Arts Council England, the ENO has reached a position where we are confident we can maintain a substantial level of operatic work – as opposed to the original reality of total redundancy across the entire company.

“We are disappointed that Martyn has chosen to resign rather than support the company by engaging with the process of creating a sustainable future for the ENO.”