Redevelopment Of The Royal Opera House
Essay Preview: Redevelopment Of The Royal Opera House
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Question A — Then and Now
The Redevelopment project of the Royal was regarded as a mixture of success and failure. Seven years after the completion of the project, the operation of the ROH appears to be very successful. Assess what has changed between 1999 and 2007, and how the earlier problems have been resolved. Consider critically whether all is now well.
Introduction
The problems and issues surrounding the Royal Opera House are complex in nature. This report aims to put some sense into this complexity and critically evaluate to what extent the redevelopment in the late 1990’s was a success or failure. We will first systematically look at the recent history of the ROH and its problems, then we will look at how these problems were viewed and solved by major stakeholders, finally we will assess critically how successful the changes have been.
Reavill’s work will be used where a total of 4 reports that were published during and after development work at the ROH. Of significant interest are the following papers:
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�The Problems of the Lyric theatres in London — A Stakeholder view’
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�The Management problems of London’s Royal Opera House- The Final Act’
The 1st was published just before the opening while the 2nd only two seasons after.
Along with His work general information regarding the ROH available publicly on the Internet or in Journals will be used extensively.
This report is not an avenue to merely provide facts and information, rather is will analyse and evaluate ROH’s problems and whether they were ultimately solved or not albeit within a limited framework.
Difficulty or Mess?
Were the Problems associated with the ROH and in particular it’s construction difficulties or was it a mess. The difference between difficulties and messes are outlined below and as they are different in nature, they require different approaches and will provide different results.
Difficulty
Bounded
Unbounded
Limited Timescale
Long, uncertain timescale
Priorities Clear
Priorities called in question
Limited Applications
Uncertain but greater implications
Can be treated as separate entity
Can’t be disentangled from it’s context
Limited number of people involved
More people involved
Know what needs to be known
Don’t know what needs to be known
Know what the problem is
Not sure what problem is
Know what would be a solution
No solutions
Difficulties are generally solvable to a certain degree. Messes cannot be unless they are first bounded into solvable problems.
There are 3 types of categories of potential problems at the ROH; these are interlinked and also susceptible to external forces.
Artistic
Financial
Administrative
Artistically the ROH has performed well and has been able to attract the top performers from around the world. It is part of the elite club of opera houses around the world that includes the Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Kirov and New York City Ballet. Although successful the ROH needs to continually provide performers with the best facilities and recognition. When the terms offered to Artists were unfair 5 resigned from the Royal Ballet, subsequently they were replaced and the situation resolved. For this report we will only look at the Financial and Administrative �Problems’ and how far they have been rectified.
The benchmarks against which the problems will be measured are the �Aims and Aspirations’ defined in their literature of 1996:
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To present high-quality opera and ballet to the highest possible standard
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To offer a wide range of repertory
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To encourage and promote creativity in composition, production, choreography and design
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To provide the widest possible access to opera and ballet
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To secure financial viability and to eliminate expenditure deficits.
These objectives are quite clear and we will be concentrating on the last 2. On the face of it they are conflicting objectives. Providing the widest possible access means keeping ticket prices low so that those on lower incomes as well as higher can attend. However to ensure financial viability there has to a major source of income and this ultimately has to come from ticket prices or public subsidies. This is the main dilemma that the ROH faced and still faces. It is both a difficulty and a mess. It is unbounded and bounded. Below I aim to explain how.
There is a limited timescale involved, we are just looking at 1999 to 2007 and the problems associated within it. However there is a longer uncertain timescale involved that built up to the mess and continues to have implications on it. The Opera House didn’t just crumbling overnight.
Priorities are clear, we need to provide financial viably and the widest possible reach. On second thought though, it turns out that these priorities seem to conflict with each other.
The ROH is a private, independent and separate entity. It is however tied closely to external stakeholders such as sponsors and the government on whom they rely immensely.
The ROH employs a limited number of people and has a certain amount of customers, that should be it however it is not as there are more people involved directly and indirectly.
It should be quite straight forward, If people are coming to see Opera and if a profit is being made then it should be a success. But is that all we need to know. There are many other soft factors involved.