The Telegraph | Opera boss Michael Volpe
Our Executive Director, Michael Volpe OBE, has given a wide-ranging interview to The Daily Telegraph (published 20th May 2024) about his new book ‘Do I Bark Like A Dog?’ and discusses, at length, the current situation in the opera world.
Addressing the current difficulties in opera, Michael remains an optimist “but insists that opera “needs to reform”. The most pressing issues facing British opera in the current climate, by his telling, are a combination of conservatism and profligacy at the big houses, as well as a paucity of medium-sized companies that can “give tonnes of singers work.”’
“I do think we have quite a lot of entitlement in opera. And it is an expensive art form,” he says. “But there’s expensive and there’s expensive. Pro rata when you’ve got a chorus and an orchestra, it’s going to be more expensive. But do you have to spend £500,000 on a set? What we should be doing is spending more of our money on giving people regular work.”
He addresses how the opera ecology needs to be grown across the country, with small to medium sized companies receiving moderate funding to support them.
‘We could do worse than learn from the Germans, according to Volpe. “If we’re going to get everybody trying it out, in Bristol or some small Midlands town, we need to have companies of a decent size, a bit like Germany,” he says. “And they all run on the repertory ensemble system.” Volpe has set up a new company, If Opera, on those lines to shake things up — and he does not get any Arts Council cash.
The article also addresses the critical issue of arts education in schools.
‘Which brings us on to opera’s other big problem. Volpe reckons there are not enough children getting interested in music, especially at state schools, and we have an “obsession” with kids learning to play instruments. Instead, Volpe says the key is to try and turn children into future audiences by exposing them to the art form in their formative years.’
“We should approach it that way: an hour or two every week, where a classroom of eight-year-olds sit and the teacher says, ‘Right, today, we’re going to listen to a symphony, then we’re going to talk about it and you’re going to write how you feel, what you thought.’”
‘While many of his fellow opera bosses are despairing at their current predicament, Volpe says the chance to change the form for the better must not be missed. “The mood around opera and all classical music is very, very grim. We are under fire and because opera gets all the money, we are an easy target” he says. “But I think there’s a fantastic opportunity.”’