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pretending that this will somehow stimulate trendy new work and bring in new young audiences

is utter claptrap, as is the notion (disseminated by ACE) that opera would be better served if

dinosaur newspaper critics such as me stopped writing about it from a “classical music

perspective”

There is no halfway house on this. If we want real opera, toured across the country, we have to

fund it realistically. And if our arts funding bodies are being run by people who, for class
warfare reasons, won’t do this, well, see below …

The elitist myth

The problem

When I see my musician friends busting their guts trying to make their art form as accessible as

possible — psychologically, geographically and financially — I do get a little cross with people

who perpetuate the myth that classical music is full of supercilious elitists. I get very cross
indeed when it transpires that those people work for ACE. Yet the whole thrust of Let’s Create,

the policy document that dictates every word, deed and thought emanating from ACE, is to use

that myth as an excuse for transferring funding from top-quality professional ensembles to

community outfits.

I am a big supporter of amateur music-making — I devote a large part of my spare time and

spare cash to it — but I don’t expect public subsidy for my hobby. To divert so much public
funding to sometimes rather flaky community organisations, while jeopardising the future of

such internationally acclaimed orchestras as Britten Sinfonia or London Sinfonietta, is ideology

gone mad.

The solution

Four years ago I asked Darren Henley, ACE’s chief executive, to justify this startling switch in
funding priorities away from major orchestras and opera companies. He replied: “None of us has

a divine right to public funding, including the Arts Council itself.” Well, it’s time chickens came

home to roost. Both main political parties have announced their intention to subject ACE to a

rigorous inquiry. That should involve a radical shake-up of its top echelon who have been in

unelected, dictatorial and seemingly untouchable power for too many years already.