Dispatches from the English Culture War, 1945 - 2000.
At the end of the Second World War, the great economist Maynard Keynes issued a warning that Britain was facing "a financial Dunkirk" and entering its darkest hour of debt. In almost the same breath, he called for public money to be poured into an Arts Council and Royal Opera House, under his own chairmanship, to revive our national fortunes and spirit through the English culture and language.
At a time when bread was being rationed and London was a bombsite, money was found to create an opera and ballet company. Half a century later, with Britain at its peak of prosperity, the Royal Opera House was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. Four chief executives came and went in 18 months; the press and Parliament roared at the comic opera. England's cultural renaissance was over.
'Covent Garden: The Untold Story' relates, through the rise and fall of the Royal Opera House, the fruitless struggle to turn England into a cultural nation. Using private archives and access to key players, Lebrecht reveals hidden links between the opera house and the people in power.
It is a story of scandal and celebrities and uncovers fresh aspects of Fonteyn, Callas, Nureyev, Solti, Kiri te Kanawa and Diana, Princess of Wales. Above all, it seeks to discover how over half a century England rose from heroic poverty to heartless wealth.
