Murphy's Law (aka A Night at the Opera): as the English National Opera announces a reduced 2021/22 season

As ENO Grand Fromage (and former senior TV executive) Stuart Murphy announces the operatic debut of gameshow host Les Dennis.

Below is an early 2020 piece unpublished leading classical music magazine Music Opinion (first published in 1877) due to the pandemic, which of course closed all performing venues.

This may appear in an updated version at some distant point, as Murphy's goofy antics (Tiger King 2: The TikTopera, Anyone Can Sing etc) continue.

To many in the arts world, 2018's appointment by the board of former TV channel controller Stuart Murphy as Chief Executive of the English National Opera (ENO) came as something of a surprise.

Whilst not to belittle his experience, teenage stints playing the clarinet in the Leeds Youth Orchestra/Leeds Youth Opera and commissioning Flashmob: The Opera whilst at BBC3 appear at first glance, to constitute a rather thin résumé for such a prestigious role.

Predictably, Murphy’s quest to bring opera to the masses has proved controversial.

Barely a week seems to go by without him appearing in the national press, usually due to a new Murphy initiative – and the consequent blowback from critics.

To some, Murphy is something of an 'opera buffo' character, also akin to Kenneth Grahame’s Mr Toad (or to unkinder souls, Anthony Fremont from the Twilight Zone episode It’s a Good Life), bursting with enthusiasm and bumptiousness, keen to involve friends and colleagues in his latest wheeze.

?His previous stated obsession with theme parks tends to support this comparison:

?"Rollercoasters. I don't really like big wheels. My dream job would be running Alton Towers, if I wasn't in TV. It's the stupid, oh-my-God thrill."??

In the guise of The English National Opera, it appears Stuart has achieved his ambition, and now has a theme park of his very own to play in.

And a possible stepping-stone to greater things, as Murphy may be strategizing a return to TV via a similar route to that taken by BBC Director General Tony Hall, who prior to his homecoming to the Corporation was CEO at the Royal Opera House.

?'Murph' hasn’t escaped censure from the arts community, again harking back to The Wind in the Willows and Ratty’s admonishment of Toad:

?"No, not one little song," replied the Rat firmly, though his heart bled as he noticed the trembling lip of the poor disappointed?Toad. "It's no good, Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise and - and - well, and gross exaggeration and - and - "

“Toad talked big about all he was going to do in the days to come”

Disney's version of Mr. Toad (full name J. Thaddeus Toad)

?Opera magazine and Private Eye have been particularly scathing.

?Opera’s May 2019 editorial singled out Murphy for this blistering critique of his style:

?‘an inveterate attention-seeker, constantly popping up in gullible newspapers with good-news stories … Most of his announcements have been couched in pure PR-speak, but even his sound bites cannot disguise the fact that this state-subsidized opera company is sub-letting to a commercial firm peddling bland musicals. And let’s not dwell on his attempts at courting so-called celebrities.’

Private Eye (#1505, Music & Musicians) was if anything, harsher still, describing ENO’s Chief Executive as

?‘Brash, self-serving and divisive, his ignorance of opera is profound. He is held in contempt by his staff, which is why so many have left in the past year, and he has presided over one artistic failure after another’

?'Say what you mean', as the phrase goes.

Whilst there have been some positive reviews of productions such as ENO’s revival of Porgy & Bess, and the idea of giving free tickets to under-18s was well received, generally Murphy’s tenure has seen a succession of ill-judged and sometimes just plain odd initiatives.

From encouraging booing, instating rigorous checks on unsealed water bottles to crack down on illicit opera alcohol-imbibing, calling for English to be the chief language for ENO operas, proposing the altering of the Coliseum’s ‘excluding’ Grade I listed doors (surely their function?), adverts on the safety curtain, daytime coffee stalls in the foyer and the casting of Kelsey ‘Frasier’ Grammar and Nicholas ‘Rodders’ Lyndhurst in the revived Man of La Mancha, Murphy has managed to throw a lot of chum out there for critics.

The red-carpeted VIP entrance, exclusive members’ room/loo and a fine dining experience championed by Murphy echo Basil Fawlty’s notorious ‘Gourmet Night’, although the Torquay hotelier’s ‘no riff-raff’ policy may not hold true in the case of ENO.

From the frenetic activity on Murphy’s twitter feed it does appear that he can’t resist the urge to micro-manage, another likely irritant for ENO’s long-time staff.

?As a former TV channel controller myself, I recognise some of the promotional techniques Stuart is attempting, but at least to my mind, you can’t shoehorn what only occasionally works in TV into a completely different artform.

To observers, Murphy’s pronouncements on the similarity of opera to ITV2’s Love Island came across as patronising, a form of ‘Dad-Dancing’ at its worst.

?And in his own stamping ground of TV, he perhaps committed one of the cardinal sins –?that of appearing dated, his efforts at ENO throwback to the mid-2000s, if not earlier.

Amongst all these perceived faux pas, perhaps the most irritating has been his declared scheme to weaponize his many celebrity contacts to encourage opera going.

I can understand the logic, but to me it does again smack of Murphy talking down to the people he wants to attract to ENO. Plying wealthy TV personalities with (I assume) free tickets, booze and canapes to promote ENO could be seen as a tad elitist in itself.

?At least incoming Artistic Director Annilise Miskimmon (she joins in Sep 2020 after a relatively short stint at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet) has yet to champion the likes of Love Island as an influence.

The hope is that she can achieve more than her predecessor Daniel Kramer, whose parting shot of Harrison Birtwistle’s Mask of Orpheus was widely slated, the Guardian complaining:

?"musical excellence seems to be a low priority for the current ENO regime. Half the press release for the first night was devoted to the company that supplied the glass crystals adorning many of the costumes, and which apparently “star” in the production, while two models paraded through the foyer before the performance."

Miskimmon has stated that she won't do 'trendiness for trendiness sake'; this might not play well with the boss...

Logically, Murphy could take ENO one step further into the bizarre and venture on stage himself.

And what better role than for him than 'Professor' Harold Hill, the genial musical mountebank from The Music Man (1957):

EXTRAS: 3 FREE MOVIES - AND MORE!

The Pirates Of Penzance (1983)?

Don Giovanni (1979)

Yes, Giorgio (1982)