Antonio Pappano and so many of our leading principal singers are right to be ringing warning bells about the irreparable damage that could be done to opera in this country if English National Opera is forced to cut production (Opera stars warn that cuts ‘threaten to destroy’ the English National Opera, theguardian.com 9 December). Equity has long maintained that London – a world-class cultural capital with its resident population of 8.6 million people and with 17.4 million visitors recorded in 2014 – should, as a minimum requirement, be able to support two opera houses. The Royal Opera House is an international opera house singing opera in the language it was written and engaging many international opera singers. London deserves such an opera house. The ENO, however, produces operas in English, engages our own homegrown and home-trained principal singers and is easily accessible to Londoners and visitors alike. It is an opera house of which London can be proud.
Hilary Hadley
Head of live performance department, Equity
• Recent reports in the press suggest that the board of English National Opera has agreed to present only eight operas next season and to cut the contracts of its chorus. Such changes threaten its very existence and we wish to express our opposition to anything that threatens the company of great musicians and singers who are currently giving world class performances under their music director Mark Wigglesworth. Without them there is no ENO. We call on the board to engage in a public consultation process to find ways of preserving and enhancing the work of this beloved company that plays such a crucial role in the country’s creative life.
David Alden
Marin Alsop
Richard Armstrong
Susan Bullock
Sarah Connolly
John Eliot Gardiner
Gwynne Howell
Richard Jones
James MacMillan
Felicity Palmer
Stuart Skelton
Keith Warner
Willard White
John Wilson
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
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