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ENO chief boos conductor's final performance
By Kiran Randhawa, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 08.06.05A director of English National Opera who was caught booing at his colleague's farewell performance is facing calls for his dismissal.
Paul Daniel, one of Britain's leading conductors, was invited on stage to receive applause for his last show.
But loud boos from marketing director Ian McKay were heard above the cheers.
Several members of the public complained about Mr McKay's behaviour as they left the London Coliseum after watching Alban Berg's Lulu.
The ENO has been at the centre of a series of rows, resignations and sackings over the past five years.
The night before the latest incident, there was tension at the farewell party for Mr Daniel, who worked as the music director and chief conductor of ENO for eight years.
Sean Doran, the company's artistic director, said it would be " inappropriate" for there to be a single speech to thank the conductor.
He and his chairman, the investment banker Martin Smith, who had both been criticised by Mr Daniel, 46, in a newspaper interview in April, left the party early.
Today, it emerged that Mr McKay was called into a meeting with Mr Doran and Loretta Tomasi, the executive director, to explain his booing at the performance last month. He was ordered to apologise to front house staff but has not been punished.
A company member, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "He has been treated very leniently. It's all right for audiences to boo, but you don't boo your own music director if you are a senior member of the board."
A fellow director of ENO, said: "We have been anxious to keep it out of the press but the staff aren't at all happy about it. People are saying Mr McKay should go. Directors have been to see Sean Doran to talk further about it." In a statement, Mr McKay said: "I would like to apologise to ENO for my conduct on 13 May. The reason for my actions was in response to an interview by outgoing music director Paul Daniel which I believed damaged the company's reputation.
"I now realise that my actions were inappropriate and I express my regret to the audience that night if I distracted them from their enjoyment."
Meanwhile ENO has said it will use surtitles to display translated text above the stage. The controversial move, announced by Mr Doran, will bring opera in a foreign language to the Coliseum for the first time.
Since it was founded in 1931, ENO's chief goal has been to make opera more accessible. Companies that performed works in their original language were seen as elitist. But Mr Daniel said: "Surtitles make audiences passive and castrated."
