ENO to reduce performances and cut 70 jobs

Leaked 'rescue package' for ailing company reveals depth of crisis, as deficit spirals out of control

English National Opera is planning to make at least 70 redundancies – far more than previously feared – and cut the number of performances it stages by up to a fifth, a confidential leaked document has revealed.

Directors of the ailing ENO have asked the Arts Council for permission to scale back its activities at its London home, the Coliseum, and take it out on the road to make way for "light opera" and dance companies.

The radical proposals form part of a drastic master-plan designed to stem the ENO's growing deficit, which the company says has brought it close to insolvency. They are contained in a strategy document, seen by The Independent on Sunday, presented to the Arts Council by ENO bosses in an effort to persuade it to provide a rescue package worth up to £12m.

The document also confirms the company's intention to make 20 chorus members redundant as part of wider staff cuts that will see the loss of more than 70 jobs.

Last week, the ENO's chorus protested by refusing to perform The Trojans at the Coliseum and instead staging a free Verdi concert at St Paul's church in Covent Garden. More such strikes are planned.

News of the proposed reduction in the ENO's output was condemned last night by the performers' union, Equity, as proof of their worst fears – that today's cuts disguise a long-term aim to turn it into a part-time company.

The latest row has been inflamed by accusations that the ENO is to "waste" at least £500,000 by paying its own orchestra over and above their salaries to perform away from the Coliseum during the venue's refurbishment.

The Musicians' Union has confirmed it will be holding the ENO to a clause in the orchestra's contract stating it is obliged to perform for the company only at its official home. Union officials say they are digging in their heels after the recent scrapping of a new wage agreement by Caroline Felton, the controversial acting managing director. Ms Felton replaced the ENO's respected director Nicholas Payne, who was ousted last summer.

The strategy document, presented to the Arts Council's stabilisation panel, ahead of a meeting of the full council later this month, outlines a series of changes that it claims will help ENO "secure a more stable and flexible future". Among its main recommendations is that the ENO should form "partnerships" to enable its work to be seen beyond London. But this will come at a price: from 2004, the number of annual performances at the Coliseum will be around 150, at least 30 fewer than in a typical year.

The document reads: "The new model reduces the size of the permanent company by at least 70; it reduces slightly both the number of performances by the ENO each year in the Coliseum and the number and balance of new productions and revivals." It goes on to add: "From 2004 we plan to give approximately 150 performances each year, made up of six new productions and nine revivals."

The ENO also wants to introduce big screens to broadcast concerts elsewhere in London, and to market its "own label" ENO CDs. And insiders say the company has even asked the Arts Council for £2m to fund "surtitles" – a move some fear could herald the company's eventual abandonment of its long-standing English-language performances.

Last night, an Equity spokesman told the IoS: "The strategy document confirms our worst fears that the company's directors are planning a major scaling-down of ENO activities."

Describing surtitles as "a sort of Trojan horse", David Pountney, a former ENO programme director, called the company's decision to spend millions of pounds on them at a time when it was planning so many job cuts "outrageous".

"It's beyond the point of being ridiculous, and I suspect that surtitles will ultimately lead to the demise of the company," he said.

"Once you break the English-language tradition, it puts you in exactly the same position potentially as everyone else. I know there are people giving money to the Coliseum or on the board who don't believe in this tradition of performing in English."

A spokeswoman for the ENO said the company had to address its financial deficit, which had stunted its growth. She described the ENO as "overstretched", and said proposals to cut back on performances to preserve the quality of its work had been under discussion for several years.

The introduction of surtitles was part of the ENO's commitment to "enhance the experience of enjoying opera", the spokeswoman said.