THERE was an inevitability to the recent announcement that Glyndebourne would not undertake its usual tour this autumn. The East Sussex-based opera company, which has expanded its work in recent decades to include community projects and annual visits to locations such as Liverpool and Cambridge, was among the list of performing arts organisations that have fallen victim to unexpected funding cuts. The changes are part of the biggest shake-up of Arts Council England (ACE) support since austerity measures were introduced after the 2008 financial crash, affecting a range of disciplines —particularly opera.
‘The maths was, sadly, quite simple,’ says Stephen Langridge, artistic director of Glyndebourne. ‘Our funding has been halved [from £1.6 million to £800,000] and we can no longer afford to go out on the road.’ The summer opera season, which is independently financed, has a long history of touring, bringing internationally acclaimed productions to towns and cities that may not have a local opera company.
English National Opera was hit by the largest Arts Council England cuts, despite the company’s sterling efforts in sharing its work with myriad disparate communities
From 1968, ACE supported an official programme that has historically involved schools performances, workshops in care homes and mentoring work. ‘It has gone on to become a really important part of the opera ecology in the UK,’ adds Mr Langridge. ‘Many artists cut their teeth on the Glyndebourne autumn tour.’
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
