A petition has been launched calling on the government to overturn the decision by the Arts Council to remove annual funding from English National Opera. The Arts Council's decision - which ENO Chairman Harry Brunjes said yesterday in an article for the Daily Telegraph left the organisation 'stunned, shocked and dismayed' - was the highest profile cut in the Arts Council's announcement last week of how its £446m annual funds are to be allocated over the next three years. In an interview with the BBC, CEO Stuart Murphy described the decision as 'an absolute travesty - we're complete bemused and of baffled'.

Instead of its £12.6m annual grant, ENO is now to receive £17m over three years as part of a plan to move its location, with Manchester cited as a possible new home. Both Brunjes and Murphy said that the idea of Manchester was one raised by the Arts Council and questioned the research that had gone into the idea. The classical music community - artists and audiences alike - has reacted with condemnation of the decision, pointing to ENO's world-class artistic standards, its efforts to reach audiences both new and young, and the vital role it has played in the careers of so many of today's leading singers.

The petition, started by Sir Bryn Terfel, reads: 'We call on the Government to radically rethink removing the English National Opera as an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation. The careers of singers, musicians, technical staff, creatives and other skilled workers both permanent and freelance will be at risk. Hundreds of thousands of audiences in London and nationwide, on broadcast and digital will be without opera. Fund the ENO to continue their vital contribution to London’s global cultural status as well as supporting their levelling up agenda nationwide and their groundbreaking ENO Breathe NHS programme for long covid sufferers. ENO is Opera for Everyone!'

In a passionate plea for support, ENO has pointed to audience attendance figures that demonstrate its success in expanding audiences for its work: '1 in 7 attendees to ENO are under 35. 50% of our audience are opera first timers. Tickets are totally free to under 21s.'

The petition can be accessed via ENO's website here: 

Other opera organisations were heavily hit by the Arts Council announcement too, with the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera (which receives funding for its touring work in England), and Glyndebourne (which receives money for its touring work) also receiving substantial cuts. There has also been similar shock about the total withdrawal of annual funding from the Cambridge-based Britten Sinfonia.

The decisions are part of an increased redistribution of government money away from London and towards other parts of the country. Overall, the Arts Council said there was a 95 per cent increase in money going to the 78 towns and cities designated Levelling Up for Culture Places.