Broadcaster Melvyn, Lord Bragg

THE English National Opera confirmed this week it will move out of its central London base and relocate to Manchester, a switch triggered by funding cuts.

Arts Council England said future cash would be going to centres outside London in a controversial decision earlier this year.

In response the ENO – the country’s only full-time repertory opera company – began planning its move away from its traditional home behind the London Coliseum in St Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden, where it has been since 1968.

But while politicians in Manchester, including city mayor Andy Burnham, were celebrating the decision to relocate there, instead of a number of options including Bristol and Nottingham, critics remain unconvinced.

Stuart Murphy, the ENO’s chief executive until August, said forcing the company out of the capital was “absurd” and “insane”.

John Smith OBE, president of the International Federation of Musicians, said: “Spare a thought for the members of the orchestra and chorus – the heart of any opera company – who now have to decide whether to relocate on part-time contracts, or leave. Looks like the end of ENO as a national company.”

Broadcaster Melvyn, Lord Bragg was among the famous faces who had criticised the Arts Council’s demands on geography. He called it “cultural vandalism”.

The 200-mile move will be completed by 2029, as part of a current funding arrangement.

The ENO insisted it would still present a “substantial opera season” and talked up the opportunities the move would present.

Jenny Mollica, interim chief executive, said: “We look forward to embark­ing on new adventures with partners, artists and audiences across Greater Manchester as we create a range of operatic reper­toire at a local, national and international scale, in-spired by the extraordinary cultural vibrancy of Greater Manchester and its communities.”

They were celebrating at the Arts Council too.

Its chief executive, Darren Henley, said: “It means excellent opera performances for new audiences and new ways for young people here to experience and participate in opera. It will also bring new opportunities for creative and technical professionals in Greater Manchester to partner with a world-class organisation making innovative work.”

In October ENO’s music director Martyn Brabbins stepped down and said in a statement: “I cannot in all conscience continue to support the board and manage­ment’s strategy for the future of the company.”

He urged the Arts Council to reassess its demands, warning that there was a “plan of managed decline rather than an attempt to rebuild the company and maintain the world-class artistic output for which the ENO is rightly famed”.