Coronavirus has pushed live classical
music to the edge of the abyss. But Prince Charles’s fears for the Royal Opera is the only thing making the headlines. Why aren’t the big names kicking up a fuss?
From top to bottom, from big to small, from freelancer to staffer, from humble hall to grand auditorium, the world of classical music is facing its biggest crisis in living memory. Most musicians in the
UK work freelance, even members of many big-name orchestras, so for them no gigs means no earnings. Some qualify for help for the self-employed, but many don’t. Conservatoires – employers of musicians, producers of future talent – are facing a financial crisis as overseas students stay away. All the backroom people who usually keep the show on the road, from agents to publishers, are haemorrhaging money. Concert halls and opera houses cannot earn.
In
London, the Royal Albert Hall and the South Bank have warned of imminent catastrophe. The Royal Opera House can keep going “for a few months”, says its chief executive, Alex Beard. But when your art form is “a hundred people on stage, a hundred in the pit and 2,700 in the audience”, when your financial model means you break even when you sell 95% of your tickets, when public subsidy accounts for only 20% of your income, rather than 80% as it would in
Germany, it is obvious that you are going to hit the buffers. “In many ways all this is a purification, a chance to start again,” says John Gilhooly, director of London’s Wigmore Hall. “But there is huge anxiety and hardship. Orchestras could be going to the wall in the next 12 weeks.”