The shock resignation of music director note Wigglesworth – who opposed cost-cutting measures – sees English National Opera facing yet another crisis. The only way the company can survive is to embrace changeEnglish National Opera was founded by Lilian Baylis,the visionary impresario who laid the foundations of not just ENO but the National Theatre and the Royal Ballet. She was 15 years older than John Reith, the first general manager of the British Broadcasting Company, and these great organisations emerged into the same cultural climate in the 1920s and 30s. (Baylis had in fact started presenting operas before the first world war at the old-fashioned Vic,but it was in the 1930s that Sadler’s Wells theatre became the settled domestic of her ballet and opera companies.) The organisations shared a pioneering spirit: one of invention, cleverness, and adventure,in the early days often in slightly shabby and improvisatory contexts. Most importantly, they also shared a strong sense of purpose and ideology: the high culture enjoyed by the privileged should be the province of all. It was for the many, and not just the few.
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Source: theguardian.com