IT SEEMS TO ME that people who carry democratic principles
into the arts do neither democracy nor the arts any great service. The latest example was the attack by the organist and choirmaster of Derby Cathedral on the Arts Council, for its share-out of the £800,000 granted by the State. He pointed out that of this total £370,000 went to opera and ballet given by only seven different bodies, and that, of this, £240,000 went to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. This is undeniably a large proportion, but if this country is to have an opera that can stand comparison with others in Europe, then it is inevit- able that the subsidy should be a very heavy one. I can under- stand Mr. Heath-Grade's annoyance at the lack of money for, for example, choral and orchestral societies and music clubs; but when he talks of opera as a 'luxury,' and of the subsidy for Covent Garden as `undemocratic,' and when he describes opera not only as the most expensive but as the `least productive form of music,' then he is talking fairly solemn nonsense. If I have any complaint it is simply that the State does not provide enough in the way of subsidies for the arts, certainly not that the Royal Opera House is receiving too large a share of what is available. Compared with other national, or state, operas (that of Hamburg, for example), Covent Garden is run on a miserably meagre shoestring.
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