Universal in Scope and Appeal? The Politics of ‘National’ vs. ‘International’ Opera at Postwar Covent Garden

Prior to World War Two, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden was the home of ‘international’ opera (original-language performances, multinational casts, a cosmopolitan audience), and was an outlier in a country where ‘national’ opera (performances in English, predominantly British casts, ‘opera for the people’) was the norm. The theatre reinvented itself in 1946, launching a new national company that would perform in English and use unknown British singers. Within a short period of time, this modus operandi would fail. Focusing closely upon internal policy documents, this article examines how the company navigated a course between the two models, national and international, between 1946 and 1969. It found itself attempting to satisfy parties with diverging viewpoints: audiences who preferred international opera; the Arts Council, which demanded the company serve the nation; politicians who recognised opera as a tool of cultural diplomacy; competitor institutions overseas; and the public. The company had to strike a fine balance between two apparently contradictory imperatives: the need to consolidate its status as a key national institution, in order to justify public funding, whilst also establishing itself as a ‘transnational’ entity, projecting an image of British cultural confidence to those watching from abroad.