Profile - Director of the Royal Opera House

Profile Tony Hall - Chief exeutive of the Royal Opera House
appeared in The Sunday Times
October 2008

Nobody could accuse Tony Hall, the Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House of elitism.

This summer its productions have been busting out all over Britain. Nationwide 160 cinemas, plus others in Europe, screened Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” live from Covent Garden and other audiences watched opera and ballet relayed to giant outdoor screens across London.

Its offerings are promoted online – producing a cluster of first time customers and Hall, who left as BBC director of news and current affairs in 2001, also oversees the production and marketing of DVDs of performances and is involved in education initiatives to help foster interest in ballet and opera.

“We are becoming a total production house – not just on stage but on TV, radio and the web. When you are taking a large grant it’s important you should reach as many people as you can.”

Which means offering popular work alongside challenging pieces like “Minotaur”, by Harrison Birtwistle and the pop opera “Monkey” by Blur’s Damon Albarn, “Monkey was a really exciting moment for us. It was a very different audience - a younger crowd.”

The ROH spends £92 million annually and gets £26 million in grant aid. “But we raise more than twice as much in other ways - £38 million from the box office and over £60 million from sponsors and commercially.”

Hall, 57, took a pay cut when he left the BBC but now earns more than £250,000 a year. His team is smaller – 880 permanent staff but more for big productions.

He says the BBC and Opera House have similarities as creative organisations. “But the big difference here is you have to go out and make money.”

He doesn’t miss the BBC, “But I do get twitchy when a big story happens. I’m nosy and inquisitive about everything going on, like last week watching the financial world shudder. I have spent time thinking through what it means for us. We are not seeing any downturn in income yet, but we’d been foolish if weren’t thinking through the implications.”

It’s not a nine to five job. Hall attends all first nights and many other performances. Otherwise there is entertaining, management meetings and regular discussions with the artistic directors of the Royal Ballet and Opera.

“My job is to enable as many of their dreams to happen as possible. I know if finances go whoopsie, the art will suffer. In the end if we have to make an unpleasant decision it will be mine”

Then there is extracurricular work – chairing an industry skills council, masterminding a national skills academy in Thurrock, reporting on Dance Education and assessing media relations for the MOD.

But Hall’s love of Opera runs deep and helps him cope with any work pressures. “If things get stressful I drop into rehearsals. It reminds me what it is all about.”