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Reaching out: ENO’s Hansel and Gretel at the Regent’s Park open air theatre in London in June 2019.
Reaching out: ENO’s Hansel and Gretel at the Regent’s Park open air theatre in London in June 2019. Photograph: Johan Persson
Reaching out: ENO’s Hansel and Gretel at the Regent’s Park open air theatre in London in June 2019. Photograph: Johan Persson

Letters: beleaguered? Not English National Opera

This article is more than 4 years old
ENO has just made a substantial profit, the biggest in almost a decade, which we have reinvested in more opera and more outreach

Beleaguered? Not this opera company

Dalya Alberge described English National Opera as “beleaguered” (“Encore! Hi-tech brings Pavarotti back to life for new stage musical”, News). It’s important I point out some basic facts.

ENO has just made a substantial profit, the biggest in almost a decade, which we have reinvested in more opera, more outreach, which has funded free tickets to under-18s on Fridays, Saturdays and opening nights. Our finances have been secure and growing for four years now and we have substantial reserves.

Audience attendance is up 11% year on year and the proportion of those from the BAME population has increased from 3% to 10%. The average age was 67 three years ago; now it is 59. First-time opera-goers accounted for 47% of visitors last season – quite right for the national opera house founded to be for everyone – with a fifth of those coming back within the year. Our productions are running around the world, our box office for next season is significantly ahead of where it was this time last year and we have just won an Olivier award and a South Bank Sky Arts award. More than 8,000 schoolkids took part in our outreach programme last year.

ENO is doing brilliantly and is something to be celebrated.
Stuart Murphy, CEO
English National Opera
London WC2

Tactical voting: a warning

The dominance of Brexit as an issue in the next general election does give some support to the idea of alliances and tactical voting (“People’s Vote targets 100 marginals”, News), but I have some concerns. Political parties are not just collections of people who happen to have similar views on major issues. They reflect real divisions in society, resting on two foundations: a set of principles, an ethos, a world view; and a constituency that they represent, the section of society that benefits, directly or indirectly, from the application of those principles. Agreement on a single issue, no matter how important, does not override other considerations. Indeed, even on opposition to Brexit, there are significant differences between Conservative, Green, Lib Dem Remainers and Labour Remainers such as myself.

I can accept individual tactical voting, but I am dubious about the parties colluding behind closed doors and thereby depriving voters of the right to make that choice for themselves.
Frank Jackson
Harlow, Essex

African birth rate isn’t rising

Your editorial on birth rates states that “... apart from Africa, and some parts of Asia, fertility rates are declining across much of the world” (“Falling birth rates should hold no fear if we are open to immigration”, Comment). According to UN and World Development Bank population data, the fertility rate for Africa as a whole, although still high compared with other continents, has been declining steadily since the 1980s.

The decline is particularly apparent in the most southern and northern African regions, where countries such as Botswana, South Africa, Libya and Tunisia have fertility rates below three children per woman.

Statements such as that in your editorial unhelpfully perpetuate stereotyping about the contribution of the African continent to the complexities of world population growth.
Helen Robinson (two births, African)
Mafikeng, North West Province
South Africa

Transparency on technology

John Naughton’s article compellingly talks to the concerns over how innovative technologies can affect our daily lives (“Why we should be very scared by the intrusive menace of facial recognition”, Comment, 28 July). When it comes to facial recognition, we are right to show caution. As Naughton highlights, recent cases have seen high instances of “matches” later labelled as false positives, suggesting the technology does not yet possess enough intelligence to guarantee accurate results or overcome any unconscious bias that may have affected its development.

That’s not to say these issues cannot be ironed out, as the technology is enhanced with enough intelligence to make it a safe and powerful tool. And yes, legislation and regulation have to be prioritised alongside this.

Facial recognition is an emotive issue because the possible benefits (criminal identification to support a stretched police force) and drawbacks (a highly intrusive surveillance system that bypasses citizen consent) are both so clear to comprehend. Unless we all feel updated and informed, concern over the potential drawbacks will dominate. There will be continued scepticism, fear and a lack of trust regarding innovative technologies, all of which will prove detrimental to delivering on the significant potential they carry. Now more than ever, transparency is required.
Joe Baguley
Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey

No more blitz spirit , please

We must change food production to save the planet, says leaked report,” (News). It is not only food production that needs to change; changing the preparation of food in millions of kitchens would save a considerable amount of carbon. Recipes tend to be full of instructions to blitz this and blend that, but never to use a hand whisk. We need food columns full of recipes to create tasty veggie dishes that don’t cost the earth.
Wiebina Heesterman
Birmingham

The ‘trouble’ with Meghan

Catherine Bennett’s piece on the Duchess of Sussex was sad but, on the whole, I wouldn’t say that the media backlash against Meghan has anything to do with her skin colour (“Meghan seems to mix with all the ‘wrong’ people. So unlike the other royals”, Comment). It’s the fact that she’s American.

Meghan didn’t have the image of a pure English rose when she married Harry. She was a woman from a modest background who had found fame and success on her own and, like Harry, had already known love and heartbreak. There has always been a certain amount of anti-American sentiment in this country that probably goes back to the revolutionary war. To traditionalists, Meghan will always be the foreigner who stole Britain’s most eligible bachelor. Being mixed race is hardly an issue in this day and age. The Duchess of Sussex can do no right because she’s not “one of us”.
Emilie Lamplough
Trowbridge, Wiltshire

Waterstone brought to book

Tim Waterstone seems anxious to dispel any notions of guilt at the closure of small, independent bookshops (“Waterstones founder has no guilt over loss of small bookshops”, News). He stresses that he started off in a very small way himself – but doesn’t everybody. Didn’t Amazon? You can’t really offload guilt that way.

Waterstone protests too much; he’s responsible in the same way that Amazon is, albeit on a smaller scale. That’s the way in a competitive, money-driven market. Just enjoy your riches, Tim, however you came by them, and don’t bother the rest of the world with your shaky moral codes.
Ian Craine
London N15

Heads will roll

Please tell reporter Jen Kirby (of Vox, USA) that Boris Johnson is head of government, not head of state (“How the rest of the world sees us”, New Review). The second job is being done very well by the Queen.
Robert Armstrong
Bromley, Kent

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