Just as hospitals will always struggle to do their job without doctors, so opera companies are unlikely to do theirs without singers. Infinitely more people are of course affected by the latest junior doctors’ strike due on Wednesday than by the prospect of a strike by the chorus at the English National Opera. Yet the issue in both disputes is similar. In the doctors’ case, ministers want to introduce a new contract involving more work by doctors for less pay, while at the ENO, management wants the singers to sing the same performances for a 25% pay cut. In hospitals, as in opera houses, there are normally few people more ready to roll up their sleeves for the cause and the calling than doctors when people need care or singers when people want music. Yet, in both the NHS and the ENO, those in charge are making the same mistake. The goodwill of those who make the NHS and the ENO the institutions they are is being put at risk by picking on the people who provide the service. To restore harmony we need a chorus of disapproval against such mismanagement.
