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Berry's departure comes after two of the company's top
managers resigned at the end of last year and earlier this year.
One of the managers, the ENO's former chairman, Martyn Rose,
said in a leaked letter that the company had lost 10 million
pounds ($15.52 million) under Berry's tenure.
Berry has refused to comment on the matter and the ENO said it
did not recognize the figure and was expecting a balanced budget
this year.
Shortly afterwards, Arts Council England took the unusual step
of removing the ENO from the list of organizations that receive
regular grants and instead offered "special funding
arrangements" until it got its house in order.
In a statement released by the ENO, Berry said he was proud of
his artistic achievements at the company, noting that recent
productions of "Sweeney Todd" and a "Pirates of Penzance"
directed by filmmaker Mike Leigh had packed the house and
brought in people who had never been to the opera before.
He also won ecstatic reviews for a production of Wagner's "The
Mastersingers of Nuremberg", the German opera in an English
translation, earlier this season.
"After eight seasons leading the company artistically and as the
award winning 14/15 season comes to a close, I am looking
forward to spending the summer deciding on my next role. I look
forward to remaining involved with ENO in the future, as an
audience member and supporter," Berry said.
Darren Henley, Chief Executive, Arts Council England, wished
Berry well for the future and said his "track record for
innovative and challenging work is well established and warmly
welcomed across the global opera fraternity".
"We'll continue to work closely with ENO as they develop their
business model and plans to bring excellent and exciting work to
broader audiences,” Henley said.
Music critic Norman Lebrecht, on his widely read Slipped Disc
website, applauded Berry as a person of vision who had "raised
ENO high above its station" despite funding shortfalls.
He said Berry had tried to give ENO audiences productions on an
artistic level with Milan's La Scala or London's Royal Opera,
but had been hamstrung by state funding "pegged at two-thirds of
Covent Garden’s subsidy" and by a lack of wealthy donors.
"In the end money speaks, talent walks. It’s a sad day for
opera," Lebrecht said.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
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