Tonight, I’m going to hear Joyce DiDonato, one of the greatest living sopranos, sing Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise. On Saturday afternoon, I’ll be at a masterclass given by Gautier Capuçon, a glorious cellist. And on Sunday night, I’m seeing him play all five of Beethoven’s cello sonatas. I tell you this not (just) to make you jealous, but because all three concerts will be at London’s Wigmore Hall, which this week told Arts Council England (ACE) where it could put its annual grant of £350,000.
ACE really does suggest that the problem with opera is that it is a form of classical music
The Arts Council was the successor to the wartime Committee for Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), set up to organise artistic and cultural activities for the general population. As CEMA’s chair, John Maynard Keynes, put it, its task was: ‘Not to teach or to censor, but to give courage, confidence and opportunity…(and to provide) a universal opportunity for contact with traditional and contemporary arts in their noblest forms…Your enjoyment will be our first aim.’
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