Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

Manchester City Council Report for Resolution

Report To: Executive – 17 December 2008

Subject: Update on the Royal Opera House Manchester proposal.

Report of: Chief Executive

Summary

This report updates members on the progress of the proposal to establish a base in Manchester for the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, including seeking approval to feasibility funding for the development of the project.

If successful, the project would deliver an expanded and significantly developed performance base venue at the Palace Theatre. In addition to making a major contribution to the cultural provision in the north of England, ROHM will also deliver a word class centre for education and skills, along with a significant economic impact to the sub regional economy.

Recommendations

o To note the progress of discussions with the Royal Opera House since the previous verbal update at the March Executive Committee Meeting.

o To note that feasibility funding of up to £100k will be required over financial years 2008/09 and 2009/10, to develop the project to the next stage subject to government approval.

o To request that a further report be brought to the Executive in March 2009.

Wards Affected:

All Wards

Community Strategy Spine Summary of the contribution to the strategy

Performance of the economy The ROHM project would be a significant generator of of the region and sub region increased expenditure in the City Centre and is anticipated to be able to deliver an additional 500 fte jobs. Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

Reaching full potential in One of the key drivers to this project is to develop a education and employment production centre that places learning and skills at the heart of the operation. It will create a large proportion of full and part time jobs at NVQ levels 1 & 2.

Individual and collective self This would be a significant new cultural facility in the esteem – mutual respect city centre, offering opportunities for all Manchester residents to engage via employment and training and skills whilst increasing well-being and individual aspirations.

Neighbourhoods of Choice The proposed refurbishment of the Palace Theatre will play a key part in the regeneration strategy of City South and the surrounding areas.

Full details are in the body of the report, along with any implications for:

• Equal Opportunities Policy • Risk Management • Legal Considerations

Financial Consequences – Revenue

It is proposed that a feasibility fund is established from within existing resources to progress the work further. It is anticipated that a sum of approximately £100k will be required over financial years 2008/09 and 2009/10.

Financial Consequences – Capital

None at this stage.

Contact Officers: Name: Sir Howard Bernstein Name: Fran Toms Position: Chief Executive Position: Head of Strategic Cultural Projects Telephone: 0161 234 3006 Telephone: 0161 234 4256 E-mail:[email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

Background documents (available for public inspection):

The following documents disclose important facts on which the report is based and have been relied upon in preparing the report. Copies of the background documents are available up to 4 years after the date of the meeting. If you would like a copy please contact one of the contact officers above. • ROH Manchester – Summary of ROH/MCC proposal • Royal Opera House Manchester: Evaluative Study (Consultant Brief November 2008) Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

Introduction

1. This report is to inform Members of the status of discussions between Manchester City Council (MCC) and the Royal Opera House (ROH). As reported at the March Executive Committee meeting, MCC was approached in Spring this year by the Chief Executive of the ROH, with an exciting and significant development proposal to relocate part of the Covent Garden operation to Manchester. The Royal Opera and Ballet companies would form the core programme for an innovative new centre for opera and ballet incorporating training and skills for creative and media at its heart. It was recognised that this bold project would have great synergy with Manchester’s cultural ambitions and could be a key driver to regeneration in the city, specifically for the city’s worklessness agenda, by the creation of significant jobs in the creative and tourism sector.

• The Royal Opera House has two stated objectives on which the proposal is based:

• For ROH to become a ‘resource for the nation’ and, thereby, extend its reach;

• To place Learning and Skills at the heart of the proposal, alongside high quality performances.

2. The ROH, having recognised the transforming effect of opera and ballet and the associated investment in skills, wished to extend the innovative work they had started, for example its Big Screens, and take ballet and opera to a wider audience. This is an opportunity to consolidate the relationship, which has already begun between ROH and Manchester International Festival (MIF) through collaborations such as the ‘Monkey Journey to the West’, the highly successful musical production created for the Festival 2007.

3. Following initial discussions, it became clear that this was a project that timed perfectly with Manchester’s aspirations and track record of using culture to regenerate the city, whilst at the same time offering a model that could develop real opportunities for Manchester residents to raise their aspirations and educational achievement. An international centre of excellence led by the Royal Opera brand where learning was central to the organisational culture and access to a range of basic and more advanced skills was clearly attractive to Manchester. For the ROH the opportunity to explore innovative ways of creating opera and ballet working with a city with a traditional strong infrastructure for music, both in its orchestras, concert hall and educational centres of excellence, meant that early tentative conversations very quickly developed into positive discussions about how it could be made to work.

4. Manchester also has a track record of growing audiences when a new quality product is introduced. The extensive catchment area and excellent transport infrastructure means that city centre venues regularly attract audiences from as far as 2 hours drive away. The refurbishment of the Palace Theatre in the early 1980’s led to a new audience for a wide range of ballet and opera Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

companies on regular visits. In 1984 the Opera House was re-opened making Manchester the only city to sustain two 2000-seat theatres. The opening of the Lowry further consolidated Manchester’s reputation for growing new audiences and more recently this has again been proven with the hugely successful International Festival in 2007, attracting 200,000 people for its original three-week festival. These successes give officers confidence that there is a significant audience for an extended opera and ballet offer.

5. Initial work scoped the opportunities afforded by building a new Opera House in the city centre, but it quickly became clear that this would be a huge challenge in terms of needing significant capital and revenue funding and would not produce the best complementary offer in terms of value for money. Discussions had begun early with both Live Nation as owners of the Palace Theatre and the Opera House, and with the Lowry as the premiere lyric touring theatre in the region. It became clear that by concentrating in investing in the Palace Theatre, a better balance could be achieved with the existing providers in the city region.

6. The Palace Theatre is an established and well-loved theatre venue, ideally located to add value to the substantial regeneration potential of the City South area. Early work has demonstrated that the site is large enough to accommodate a major extension and refurbishment to bring the theatre up to 21 st century standards, both back and front of house. The Grade II listed status of the theatre would be fully respected and the significant ambiance of the auditorium would be retained with the potential to improve the seating, the bars and the foyer spaces. An in principal agreement has been reached with the current owners, Live Nation, with a view to making the theatre available.

The Proposition

7. Royal Opera House Manchester would be a new national producing theatre managed by an independent charitable Trust led by the partners, ROH and MCC. It would create innovative opera, ballet and music theatre productions that will have the potential to tour nationally and internationally, whilst offering integrated real-time training and workshop opportunities across the performing arts. Royal Opera House Manchester (ROHM) would produce and present work that cannot at present be seen in the North West – or indeed anywhere outside London. Skills Development is a key driver for the initiative; consequently, the partners are committed to ensuring that training and education activity is run in parallel with all rehearsals, performances and community engagement programmes.

8. The performance core would consist of work generated by the ROH companies - sometimes in partnership with others - and this would be complemented by a range of high quality professional and community activity, centred on opera and ballet, and reflecting a wide variety of forms of music- theatre. This would include developing the major productions of the MIF.

The Core Proposition proposes:

• A unique model for a production and learning centre for lyric theatre; Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

• A global standard for learning, artistic creation and world class production – all intrinsically linked; • A unique artistic programme of opera and ballet that will enrich the North West cultural offer with innovative in-house productions, new commissions in partnership with MIF, other creative partnerships leading to new artistic forms and classic repertory from The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet; • An international beacon for innovation and development, enabling young writers, composers, directors and visual artists to observe and experience the complex creative process of developing the multi-art forms of opera and ballet, working with world-class artists and leading academics from Manchester’s universities; • A national centre for skills embracing training, apprenticeships, mentoring, and professional development for back-stage and off-stage employment in every aspect of the performing arts; • A unique partnership between the Manchester College and the city’s music training centres of excellence to deliver real time training experiences; • Investment in an historically important listed theatre, The Palace Theatre, to offer expansion and high quality refurbishment, establishing it as a centre of excellence and ensuring its future sustainability; • Complementary and enhanced value to the existing music, opera and ballet provision in Manchester and the North West, in particular the Lowry, the existing Opera House, the and the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).

9. At this stage the programme is purely provisional and will be developed in close consultation with the other venues and producing companies in Manchester and the North West. In particular we would seek to develop a complementary programme with the Lowry in Salford, to ensure that the opportunity to attract significant investment in culture in Manchester is optimised by the whole city region.

Skills and Training

10. The programming would be further enhanced by two significant innovations, which would set ROHM apart from any other lyric house in the UK and add value to the product. Firstly, it is intended that all shows created at ROHM would have access to substantial rehearsal, technical and production refinement time on stage, prior to opening, this is extremely rare in the UK. Secondly, the process, and the theatre itself, would be as open and transparent as possible, with young artistic directors, writers, composers and other artists invited to share aspects of the process and associated learning experiences structured into it. This might include validated elements from the Universities, Manchester College, RNCM and Chetham’s School of Music, as well as University apprenticeships and mentoring programmes. Throughout the year, ROHM technical staff would be running professional shows, shadowed by young people as a live work experience.

Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

11. Manchester has a rich infrastructure of training facilities for musicians, as well as its own three critically acclaimed orchestras in the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic and Manchester Camerata. Its renowned pathway for music education from the Music Service to Chetham’s School and the internationally renowned conservatoire at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) makes it ideally placed to optimise the opportunities this new facility will offer.

12. One of the key drivers to this project is to develop a production centre that places learning and skills at every level at the heart of the operation, alongside high quality performances. It is intended that there will be a series of service level agreements with FE and HE institutions and Manchester College. The college is well placed to both address the learning and skills agenda and provide an effective link into local communities to ensure that ROHM can make a positive contribution to persistent levels of worklessness and skills gaps in Manchester residents.

Employment and Economic Benefits

13. Manchester has a strong track record of assisting local people to secure employment from new investment. The aggregate economic benefits generated by ROHM in terms of employment and additional expenditure in the local economy are anticipated to be:-

• Over 700 full and part-time jobs • Over 500 FTE jobs • Over 400 local residents’ jobs • Over £20m increased expenditure in the local economy 14. Employees will work in a range of occupational areas, including wig making, costume design, scenery construction, technical and production, house management, facilities and catering and press, publication and marketing. The majority of employment will be at the lower end of the qualifications scale, i.e. NVQ Level 1 and 2. ROHM will also initiate both a recruitment and skills development training programme to access the employment opportunities. It is envisaged that his will be directed by the City Council, working with stakeholders such as the Learning and Skills Council and Jobcentre Plus.

15. The opportunity to refurbish and extend The Palace Theatre strengthens the economic impact of the project in a number of ways. The Theatre is an established, well-loved venue with excellent infrastructure for visitors, ideally placed close to Oxford Rd railway station and multiple bus routes, Metrolink stations and multi-storey car parks. Its proximity to the range of cultural venues in and around Oxford Rd, including the , Green Room and Contact Theatre, as well as hotels and restaurants, means it is ideally positioned to optimise visitor spend in the local economy. It is anticipated that ROHM will generate a significant number of overnight stays and short breaks, increasing local expenditure of visitors. It is for this reason that it is important that the facility is placed in the city centre. The recent feasibility work concludes that “The Oxford St area is one of the few locations outside London Manchester City Council Item 7 Executive 17 December 2008

with the cultural and commercial infrastructure to become the Covent Garden of the North”.

Progress to date

16. The City Council and the Royal Opera House were invited to present the findings of its initial feasibility work to Government in early Autumn. In October a Core Proposition was submitted to DCMS and the Arts Council and a positive meeting was held with the Secretary of State Andy Burnham. As a result of the meeting ACE were asked to commission an independent evaluation. The review will concentrate on the overall potential and viability of the project, particularly in relation to its wider impact on national arts and cultural organisations. The work has been led by an experienced culture sector consultant, Graham Marchant, who will consult widely as part of his work.

17. In the meantime, further consultation will take place with our partners in the region and an Advisory Board will be established to progress the project. The Leader of Salford City Council has agreed to be part of this Board, alongside project partners, to ensure the widest engagement.

Conclusions and Recommendations

18. The outcome of the independent evaluation is due in late January and a further meeting with the Secretary of State is scheduled for February 2009 to discuss the findings of the report. It is anticipated that further work will need to be undertaken to develop the detail of the project, particularly around the Skills and Training agenda, and it is hoped that discussions with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills will be held in parallel.

19. Members are asked to note the considerable progress that has been made on this project to date. Officers are confident that there is a unique opportunity to create a new national centre for excellence for cultural production and training in Manchester that will bring significant economic impact to the city region.

20. In order to progress the project further, Members are asked to note that feasibility funding of approximately £100k over financial years 2008/09 and 2009/10 will be required, subject to agreement with Government on the project’s viability. It is expected that this will be funded from existing resources.

21. It is proposed a further progress report be submitted to the March 2009 Executive Committee Meeting.