Sky's £3m sponsorship deal eases crisis at ENO
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Your support makes all the difference.A financial crisis at English National Opera is likely to recede after it secured the biggest corporate sponsorship deal in British opera history.
The company, which made 70 people redundant and was bailed out by the Arts Council when it neared insolvency earlier this year, will receive £3m from the satellite broadcaster Sky over three years. It is also being helped by the furniture chain MFI, which is giving £300,000 to the first production in English in 30 years of Wagner's Ring cycle - the biggest support the company has received for a production. Total corporate sponsorship was £30,000 last year and £90,000 the year before. The company was on the point of insolvency in January with a projected deficit of £4m from its £28m budget.
Sean Doran, the artistic director, said the ENO was being well managed and welcomed the sponsorship deals as a "great vote of confidence in the values we stand for: quality, accessibility and innovation". He said the £41m restoration of the Coliseum was within budget and on time for reopening on 7 February with a revival of Nixon in China. Box office receipts at the company's temporary home at the Barbican have exceeded estimates with nearly 80 per cent of seats sold. The 2004 season includes six new productions and nine revivals, including Calixto Bieito's Don Giovanni, which divided critics in 2001.
The price of the most expensive tickets has risen by about 15 per cent to £70 on Saturday nights and £65 on weekdays but 500 seats will cost less than £10 on weekdays.
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